Thesis advisor: Stephen Pfohl / This research project looks at components of gender socialization for cisgender college students. Expanding on pre-existing research, I consider traditional agents of socialization and argue that social media should be newly considered as a primary agent of socialization. To do this, I interviewed 12 cisgender college students (aged 19-23). The traditional routes of socialization and social media were both found to be important gender socialization factors. Interestingly, social media was found to have two contradicting functions. It served to counter traditional ideas of gender through its role providing education and exposure to diverse identities. At the same time, though, participants also reported normative ideas on the types of posts that different genders were expected to publish, feeling pressure to meet these standards. As social media only continues to become more pervasive, this provides an important avenue for research on the role that it has played in a population that has been on these websites for nearly a decade. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Sociology.

The purpose of the essay is to discuss the power narration has over our gender roles. John Fiske and Pierre Bourdieu´s theoretical texts have been used to discuss the connection between power and culture in A.S. Byatt’s novel Possession: A Romance. Possession demonstrates how male academics take part in shaping knowledge about the past and the present from their perspective. Byatt uses allusions to myth and folktales to emphasise both the romance theme of the novel and how the past has formed us and continues to affect us in our relationships and social roles. The novel reveals how women are trapped by cultural myths about women’s roles in society. The female characters’ fates demonstrate the complexity of heterosexual relationships for independent women in a society where women are supposed to be taken care of by men. The roles imposed on women in romance stories in particular can be seen as a reductionist patriarchal view of women. Byatt emphasizes how women who at varying levels do not collaborate with men are punished for their chosen lifestyles and how some, like homosexual women, have been removed or have chosen to remove themselves from society in different ways. Byatt attempts to demythologize social myths concerning women and men by rewriting traditional myths and fairy tales. Still, Possession does not ultimately challenge the importance of the heterosexual relationship or the male and female characters’ gender roles.

Children begin to develop their understanding of gender in preschool, yet there is a dearth of research focused on understanding how preschool teachers affect the gender identity development of young children. Guided by Rokeach's belief systems theory, this qualitative case study explored the pedagogical strategies and perceptions of 4 Sacramento County, California preschool educators related to the gender identity development of young children. Interview data were collected and coded to derive 12 participant-specific themes and 3 common intersecting themes, which showed that teachers' perspectives on gender identity development were influenced by social rules, biases, and a lack of pedagogical knowledge related to more expansive definitions of gender. As a result of the lack of pedagogical knowledge, there was only 1 gender-related instructional strategy concerning gender roles, and this strategy was used by only 1 of the 4 respondents. Although they may have shown confusion relating to aspects of gender, these preschool teachers demonstrated a genuine interest in learning how to create safe spaces for gender exploration in the preschool classroom. These findings have led to the creation of a professional development series designed to educate preschool teachers about gender identity development, provide them with opportunities to develop curricula, and allow them to reflect upon their cisgender-related biases. Educators, administrators, and policymakers may find it useful to apply the results of this study and resultant project when creating educational programs and college-level curricula and policies. The results could also help educators create affirmative educational environments for all children, regardless of their biological sex, gender identity, or gender expression.

One of the goals of college student development professionals is to help undergraduate students develop a meaningful sense of personal identity. Early in the history of the profession, practitioners borrowed freely from related fields such as sociology and psychology to guide their practice, but beginning around the 1960s, scholars began in earnest to develop their own unique body of literature. In this work I examine the development of that scholarly work as it relates to identity development—specifically the evolution of understanding around the issues of sex and gender identity development. Beginning with William Perry, whose work has impacted so many theories that followed his, I review the work of Nancy Chodorow, who was among the first to note that student development theory based on male samples disadvantaged women, Marcia Baxter-Magolda, Carol Gilligan, Ruthellen Josselson, Mary Field Belenkey, Blythe McVicker Clinchy, Nancy Rule Goldberger, and Jill Mattuck Tarule…and…. I discovered that each of these scholars approached sex and gender from a binary, essentialist, deterministic position which served to limit the understanding of sex and gender issues in the field of college student development. During the same period, work in the fields of anthropology, gender studies, psychology, sociology, and women’s studies were greatly expanding their understanding of sex and gender as components of identity. In this work I identify the deficiencies and limitations in the research in the field of college student development related to sex and gender identity development; note the challenges to our work with college students because of those deficiencies and limitations, and make practical recommendations to three groups of professionals who operate in the field of college student development—theorists and scholars, practitioners, and educators and provide a model for efficiently effecting change in the field.