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by Dr. Hemamal Jayawardena

LLM (Harvard), Coordinator, National Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences University Grants Commission

Gender or the social construction that is given to sex varies from country to country and from society to society. In most parts of the world, especially South Asia the societal construction of the female sex is mostly negative.

In a well researched article titled 'Sexuality and Women's Rights in Armed Conflict in Sri Lanka' published this year by Yasmin Tambiah in Reproductive Health Matters Journal (2004; 12 (23):78-87).

Dr. Tambiah argues that in Sri Lanka construction of female respectability is made in terms of pre-marital virginity, marriage, motherhood and sexual chastity and that we rarely treat sexuality in an affirmative manner or accord it positive values.

In this feature, I propose to discuss the nature versus nurture controversy relate to gender. My aim is to help people identify the societal or environment factors that make up a man manly or a woman womanly.

Understanding this and raring girls and boys exposing them to equal opportunities and conditioning both sexes in a positive manner would help bring up children of both sexes who would end up being happy and productive equally.

The nature verses nurture controversy in psychology is perhaps as old as this social scientific discipline itself. From time to time, different authorities have pointed out the roles, which genetic and environmental factors play on patterns of sexual construction, behaviour and sexuality.

At one extreme there are schools of the view that every aspect of human behaviour is pre-determined. There are others who believe that a child is born like a plain blank sheet and everything is defined by the environment that writes on it.

However, the currently available scientific evidence suggests that both components integrate to form the final outcome.

What is sex of a person?

What exactly is a sex of a person? In other words, how do we identify whether a person is a male or a female?

Usually this involves a comparison of data, which society and science have attributed to a particular sex and compare it with data of the subject in question.

(a) Presumptive evidence of sex (PES): - PES refers to the outward appearance and demeanour of the person. Often one can make a correct diagnosis of sex from PES alone. Example of PES include, the facial appearance, the length of hair, voice, clothes that are worn, the way one walks, body contours and specific gender based habits.

For instance, in most societies, a person who has long hair, broad hips and is wearing a frock would be considered as a female. Social attributions are stressed much more than biological attributes in PES.

(b) Highly probable evidence of sex (HPES): HPES refers to the development of breasts, external genitalia, body hair distribution, musculature, physical appearance of bones, stretch marks suggestive of pregnancy and the appearance of Barr bodies in cells.

The contribution of social factors is very much less in HPES. However there can be a slight influence; for example a female manual labourer or a female weight lifter can have reasonably well developed musculature as one would see in a male.

(c) Certain evidence of sex (CES): The presence of ovaries in the female and testis in the male is conclusive evidence of sex.

This is more or less totally decided by the genetics. A person who has XY sex chromosomes will have testes and a person who has XX sex chromosomes will have ovaries. No environmental factor can cause a XY person to have ovaries or vice versa.

However, there can variations in these patterns in certain genetic inter-sex states, sex hormone therapy, and hormone secreting tumours etc, which are beyond the scope of this paper.

Conception and the determination of sex

Sex of a person is said to be determined at the moment of conception. If the ova containing the X chromosome fertilisers with a sperm containing an X chromosome, the zygote that develops would have a sex chromosomal constituency of XX. This would result in a female child.

If the ova containing the X chromosome fertilizes with a sperm containing a Y chromosome, the zygote that develops would have a sex chromosomal constituency of XY and this would result in a male child. This usually occurs at random.

At a superficial level, it seems that the sex of the foetus is decided by genetics and nothing else. However, research in embryology has shown that this is not exactly the case. The environment in the mothers womb can affect the sex of the baby at the HPES level.

A genetic constituency of XY causes the primordial gonads of the embryo to develop into testes. Functional tests have to be present for the development of male type of genital system (masculisation) as testosterone hormones are required for this purpose.

The testis also produces a substance, which prevents the development of a female genital system (de-feminisation). Therefore if some intra uterine environmental factor cause a non-functional tests, a female type of external genitalia will develop even in a genetically XY embryo.

In the same way a genetically XX embryo can get feminised if the intra-uterine environment (eg. through medications taken by mother) that contains excessive testosterone.

In the well known medical entity known as testicular feminising syndrome, the cells of XY person fails to respond to testosterone thus developing a female genital system.

Hormone influence to brain before birth

There is evidence that prenatal exposure to male hormones (androgenisation) cause certain structural changes of the brain that affect subsequent behaviour.

Irrespective of their genetic sex, rats androgenised during early developmental phases show male type of copulative behaviour (pelvic thrusts) as adults and castrated male rats show female type of behaviour (arching back and moving tail to expose vagina). The effects are not confined to sexual behaviour.

Androgenised female beagle dogs urinated lifting the leg instead of the usual squatting. In humans, as a strict dimorphism related to sexual behaviour does not occur (eg. pelvic movements could be made by either partner), gender specific variations in sexual behaviour cannot be demonstrated.

From sex to gender

Although a male and female child looks almost identical at birth, except for the fleshy part that juts out from its perineum (external genitalia), they are treated differently from the moment of birth. The boys is dressed in blue and the girl in pink.

As there is differential treatment in very subtle ways from the outset it is very different to decide whether a particular form of subsequent gender based behaviour is a biological effect or whether it is a product of environmental conditioning.

In Sri Lanka, there are behaviours parents stress based on the sex of their children. Girls are encouraged more than boys not to have much to do with the opposite sex. Boys are encouraged more than girls to study hard. The controls in the types of friends one associated are more on boys than girls.

The stress on external appearance of boys is mainly on what they wear (e.g. shoes) while it is the personal appearance (hair, finger nails, feet) that is stressed in girls.

How a person presents socially appears to be more specific and stressed in the conditioning of girls (e.g. sitting appropriately, being soft spoken, restrictions on laughing too much). It is more general and less stressed in the case of boys (e.g. be well mannered).

Although the mental development can be dually conditioned socio-culturally, the physical development of the girl child and boy child is almost the same. The gain in weight, height and acquisition of development tasks show no significant variation.

Therefore it seems that is time for Sri Lanka to reconsider the rationale for such differential mental conditioning.

Puberty occurs approximately between 12-14 years of age in the female and about 14-16 years in the male. There are many physical and psychological changes that occur with puberty. The physical changes include the growth spurt and the development of secondary sexual characteristics.

Except for environmental contributions that could lead to malnourishment and illness that could delay puberty, these changes are almost totally biologically determined.

The timing of puberty can have social consequences. People who attain puberty early have a general advantage in competitive peer activities. Boys who attain puberty early perform better in athletic activities as they have anabolic androgens.

Females who attain menarche early attract the opposite sex prior to their same aged classmates. Although this would have been an advantage a couple of centuries ago, where women's primary role was within the family, its advantage now is questionable, as it can affect the level of education of a woman.

Though fast changing, the world, as it is today is a male dominant one. This has led to certain injustices which can only be undone if society genuinely considers men and women to be of equal status.

The fact that women acquire adulthood early, in my opinion is a characteristic that can be exploited to uplift the status of women. More research on how this can be done is required. It is also an opportunity for medical and social scientists to get together.

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