Study of gender development and ideas of sexual and gendered identity has been largely overlooked by psychologists until recently. Until the rise of second-wave feminism in the later half of the twentieth century, psychology was largely silent about issues concerning gender. Psychologists tended to assume that men and women differed physically, not psychologically and that they had evolved to fit into distinct social roles. In recent decades, however, research has shown how deeply ingrained stereotypes are in our culture, and that these may be perpetuated during childhood through the processes of socialization, which came to be known as a social learning theory.
In line with social learning theory, many psychologists argue that gender identity develops through observation of adults of one’s own sex. Adults of both sexes may reinforce stereotypes about masculine and feminine behaviors, encouraging boys and girls to adopt these characteristics. However, the idea that gender identity is formed through imitation of others was challenged by the influential work of John Money in the 1960s. He argued that gender identity did not depend on learning about one’s own biological sex, but rather on observing the gender roles of adult members of the opposite sex.
