Questions to debate about gender

1. How does gender influence in emotions development and regulation?

The relationship between the female sex and emotional competences are closely linked since childhood due to a socialization that is in closer touch with feelings and their nuances (people tend to think that woman easily feels emotions and expresses her feelings). It has been affirmed that women tend to be more emotionally expressive than men, they can understand emotions better and they have a greater ability as regards certain interpersonal skills. Women, for instance, recognize other people's emotions better, are more perceptive and have greater empathy. In addition, some evidences exists that certain areas of the brain dedicated to processing emotions could be larger in women than in men, and that there is a difference in cerebra activity based on sex. 

To understand these differences, we must go back to childhood, when those competences are shaped. One example to justify it is that, during childhood, when a book is read to a girl adults tens to use more emotionally charged than with boys. Also, parents usually use an emotional discourse with girls. 

Another fact to prove that childhood is the key to understand the differences is that normal girls develop verbal skills earlier than boys, so they are more skilled when articulating their feelings and have more experience in the use of words. Girls also have more information about the emotional word so they can speak about those aspects. Thus, girls become more skilled in identifying emotional indicators, and expressing and communicating feelings. On the contrary, boys are educated since children to avoid expressing their emotions. Nevertheless, young boys express sadness and anger more often than older boys. 

Although boys and girls are capable of accepting expressions of affliction, girls are more likely to show feelings of sadness and affliction. Boys become less facial expressive throughout primary school. 

Even though men manifest emotions, these are different from the ones expressed by women. Women express more intimate details about their feelings and express emotions. 

When it is time to regulate emotions, it has been proved that girls smile more than boys in front of a disappointing or negative situation and are more sensitive to the social context as they tend to smile within this context and not to smile in a non-social context.

2. How does gender influence on the self-identity construction? 

Nowadays, our society gives more importance to the image of the men and the role they have. 

This difference among women and men is seen inside the house since the children are extremely young, so kids live aware of this situation. This provokes a decrease of self-esteem in women and favours the gender differences among sex, putting in a bad position the role of the women.