Chodorow and Butler's perspectives on sex and gender

¶ … theories which attest to the nature of gender differences. Both Nancy Chodorow and Judith Butler present their own theories. These theories can then be used to strategically create a defined relationship between the social worker and client.

Nancy Chodorow, through her research and philosophies, understands differences between the genders as a result from the complications of Freud's Oedipus complex. Every one of us is born into the world bisexual, not yet determined of a specific sex to be attracted to. Through the intense bond between mother and child, each new infant then feels sexually attracted to the mother, and the mother becomes the first sexual object and representation of sensual desire for another human being. Thus, the development of the child's subconscious is a direct response to that intense relationship with the mother. Male children tend to break away early on from this repressive relationship, and then strive to have possessive feelings towards other females during his life as a direct response to the repression first felt as an infant by the mother figure. The female child is more confused, for she feels strongly with the mother, but is tempted by the father figure as a new sexual object.

Judith Butler takes a different approach. Butler believes that gender differences stem from the cultural practice of emulating gender biased acts over a long period of time. Thus, the male may act possessive over the female because that what has been reproduced within his own culture time and time again. This is then a more culturally-based philosophy, with less reliance on the psychology of the isolated individual.