Gender roles as developmental pathways

Male and female gender roles are discussed as developmental pathways in terms of four related descriptive dimensions: the first three, rigidity, complexity and consistency, are all concerned with processes operating at particular stages of development; the fourth, continuity, is concerned with the overall developmental pathway. The limited evidence available indicates the following: there is a more rigid male role in childhood, but the evidence for adults is less clear; there is some evidence of greater complexity and inconsistency in the male role during childhood; developmentally, the female role becomes less flexible at adolescence whereas the male role becomes more flexible and varied; the female role shows more change across the adult life-span, particularly at the birth of the first child. The wider societal and historical implications of these conclusions, and their relation to role-related difficulties, are discussed.