Assessing the Dynamics of Gender in Couples and Families: The Gendergram

Abstract

As the field of family therapy has grappled with the issue of gender (e.g., Ault-Riche, 1986; Avis, 1986; Goldner, 1985a, 1985b, 1988; Knudson-Martin, 1994; Layton, 1984; Libow, Raskin, & Caust, 1982; Luepnitz, 1988; Sheinberg & Penn, 1991; Taffel & Masters, 1989; Taggert, 1985), the message that has emerged is clear: family therapists must be more sensitive to the ways in which gender organizes the lives of clients and therapists alike and, thus, influences the practice of marriage and family therapy. This sensitivity is crucial, given the degree to which gender crosses bounds of race, class, and place Brown, 1990, p. 13) and is interwoven with our identity as individuals (Goldner, 1985b). During recent years, family therapists have also been encouraged to pay more attention to the role of assessment in clinical practice (Bagarozzi, 1989; Filsinger, 1983; Floyd, Weinand, & Cimmarusti, 1989; Grotevant & Carlson, 1989). Although gender issues have become more integrated into clinical practice, attention to gender issues in the assessment process has been insufficient (Brown, 1990). Thus, when assessing couples and families, therapists must inquire about the role of gender in the relationship process and in the presenting problem posed by the couple or family (Goodrich, Rampage, Ellman, & Halstead, 1988). A few years ago, Hoffman (1990) indicated that gender was one of the three lenses that organized her present model of family therapy. The importance of the of gender, according to Hoffman, is that it exposes established assumptions and mores in psychological theory that have come to be taken for granted, and which are detrimental not only to women but also to men (p. 7). Hoffman advocates a position, a central tenet of which is an avoidance of making the therapist's interpretation of gender issues more valid than those of the family, while maintaining a position advocating justice for all members of the family. At the same time, a keen sensitivity to the injustices of the larger system relative to gender should motivate the therapist to include the lens of gender in all aspects of assessment and therapy (cf. Brown, 1990; Goldner, 1985b; McGoldrick, Anderson, & Walsh, 1989). It is a gender-sensitive position that has informed the development of the gendergram, a procedure for assessing and addressing issues of gender with couples and families. The gendergram targets and separates out the influence of same. and other-sex relationships on the gender role development of system members across generations and over the critical developmental transitions that highlight the characteristics of relationships over time. The focus of work with the gendergram is to make overt the assumptions about gender roles that pervade, but are typically unidentified in, family systems (Boss & Weiner, 1988). CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK It is our contention that the best service therapists can provide to couples and in the arena of gender is to illuminate the beliefs that influence systemic interaction. Support for this view can be drawn from the work of the Women's Project in Family Therapy: Gender themes are not merely content, which may or may not be problematic in a given family. Rather, gender is seen as an essential wellspring of all behavior, and one of the chief connecting links between a culture and its members. (Walters, Carter, Papp, & Silverstein, 1988, p. 26) Just as work with a genogram in therapy illuminates previously shadowed interactional consequences of multigenerational beliefs, traditions, and loyalties, so, too, does work with the gendergram highlight assumptions that profoundly influence relationships. Once clarified, gender influences move from being invisible forces in systemic interaction to structures that can be influenced by individual and family decision making. These distinctive core elements of family interaction, the particulars of families (Minuchin, 1988, p. …