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The Wvarnock Reportand Single Wonien: What About the Children? Journal ofmedical ethics, 1986, 12, 182-186 J Med Ethics: first published as 10.1136/jme.12.4.182 on 1 December 1986. Downloaded from Th anc eotadsnl oe:wa The WVarnock Report and single wonien: what about the children? Susan Golombok and John Rust London University Institute ofPsychiatry and Institute ofEducation, respectively Authors' abstract and lack of support which follows, which are to blame, and not simply the fact that the children are being The Warnock Committee decided not to sanction artificial raised in a fatherless family. insemination by donor (AID) and in vitrofertilisation (IVF) for single heterosexual women orfor lesbian women on thegrounds that itis betterfor children to be born into a PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT two-parent heterosexualfamily. From an examination of Psychosexual development is generally considered in the effects on children ofgrowing up infatherless terms ofgender identity, sex-role behaviour and sexual heterosexual and lesbianfamilies, thispaper questions that orientation. We shall describe a little ofwhat is known assumption. about the role ofparents in this process before going on to discuss the psychosexual development ofchildren in Following the publication of the Warnock Report (1), fatherless families. the influence of parents on the social, emotional and Gender identity is a person's concept of him or her copyright. psychosexual development of their children has self as male or female, ie whether one thinks ofone's self become a topic of renewed interest. The Warnock as a man or a woman. Children generally know if they Committee decided not to sanction AID and IVF for are a boy or a girl by three years old and soon realise single heterosexual women, or for lesbian women. that their gender is an important and unchanging Implicit in this decision was their concern about the aspect of their identity. Whether an individual harmful effects on children of growing up in a develops a male or female gender identity is generally fatherless family. But how much do we really know considered to be psychologically rather than about children who are raised in such households? biologically determined. It is the child's sex of assignment and rearing which is seen to be important. http://jme.bmj.com/ Children in fatherless families A male infant is believed to develop a male identity because he is brought up to be a boy, and not because SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT of biological influences from his chromosomes or The studies ofthe social and emotional development of hormones. children in fatherless families have been plagued by Evidence for this view comes from the work ofJohn methodological problems, and it is difficult to evaluate Money with hermaphrodites at Johns Hopkins University (4). He studied girls born with the them as a whole because they are all so different. on October 1, 2021 by guest. Protected However, it is clear that children in these families are adrenogenital syndrome. These girls are genetically more likely to have emotional and behavioural female but, because of an overdose of androgens problems. But this is not, as is often assumed, because during fetal development, they are born with male of the absence of a father - it is a direct consequence of genitals. He found that if these girls are raised as boys the poverty and isolation that these families have to they grow up to think ofthemselves as male, but ifthey endure (2). Also, children whose mothers had are treated as girls they develop a female identity. A previously been married to, or cohabited with, their further syndrome which suggests that gender identity father would probably have experienced a period of depends on the sex to which the child is assigned is the turmoil at home while the parents were separating, a androgen insensitivity syndrome. Here the tissues of a situation which is also well known to cause emotional genetic male are insensitive to androgen and female problems in children (3). So it is the family discord genitals develop in genetically male babies. If these which precedes separation, and the economic hardship boys are assigned and raised as girls they develop a female gender identity. The study of individuals with ambiguous genitalia are particularly relevant here. Key words John Money found that matched pairs of Warnock Report; artificial insemination by donor; in vitro hermaphrodites with ambiguous genitalia who were fertilisation; fatherless children; lesbians. born with the same physical condition but were The Wamnock Report and single women: what about the children? 183 J Med Ethics: first published as 10.1136/jme.12.4.182 on 1 December 1986. Downloaded from assigned to different sexes, were generally found to between cognitive development and sex-role develop a gender identity which was in line with their behaviour. They argue that once children understand sex of rearing. In a similar study, Lev-Ran (5) found that their gender is permanent, they categorise objects, this to be the case even when the appearance of the behaviour and attitudes as appropriate for one sex or genitals was markedly incongruent with the assigned the other, and value those associated with their own sex. sex. This theory places much greater emphasis than the The view that gender identity is psychologically others on the child actively seeking out information rather than biologically determined has engendered about what behaviour is appropriate, and parents are many opponents. It does seem, however, that parents not considered to be particularly influential in this have some influence on the gender identity of their process. children and do so by assigning them as male or female The third aspect of psychosexual development, and treating them accordingly. By three years, once sexual orientation, becomes apparent much later than gender identity has been established, it generally gender identity and sex-role behaviour. This is our remains unchanged. preference for opposite-sex or same-sex sexual Sex-role behaviour includes everything that a person partners, ie whether we are heterosexual or says and does which is associated with being male or homosexual. There has been a great deal ofcontroversy female in a particular culture. We are all familiar with about the extent to which parents influence the sexual boys playing cowboys and indians while girls play at orientation of their children. Again the three theories houses and tea-parties. Not all children fit these of psychosexual development hold different views, stereotypes but on the whole the sexes do differ in their with the psychoanalysts arguing most strongly that preferred games and activities. There is some evidence sexual orientation is largely determined by our early that hormones play a part in influencing sex-role relationships with our parents. The studies which exist behaviour (6). Studies of girls who were exposed to an of the childhood relationships of homosexuals with overdose ofmale hormones prenatally, either girls with their parents are all retrospective and uncontrolled, the adrenogenital syndrome or girls whose mothers and therefore open to bias. What is clear, however, is had been given hormones during pregnancy to prevent that if these early relationships are important, what miscarriage, found these girls to be more tomboyish matters is the quality of the relationships and not the than matched control groups. There is also some sexual orientation of the parents. It is important tocopyright. evidence that boys who have been prenatally exposed remember that most homosexuals grow up in to female hormones are less masculine in their heterosexual families. behaviour. What can our knowledge about the role ofparents in Although hormones may predispose us to male or psychosexual development tell us about children in female behaviour, there is no doubt that sex-role fatherless families? Ever since the emergence of behaviour is greatly influenced by our environment. Freud's theories, and probably throughout history, The debate here is not so much about whether our arguments have raged about whether or not children parents influence our sex-role development, but is suffer from not having a father around the home, either http://jme.bmj.com/ more to do with the extent to which and in what way as a provider, a model of manhood, or simply to they are influential. There are three major administer discipline. Implicit in the view that psychological theories which attempt to answer these children need fathers for healthy psychological questions. These are psychoanalytic theory (7,8), development is the notion that the two-parent social learning theory (9,10) and cognitive heterosexual family is the norm, and that any deviation developmental theory (11,12). Each offers a rather from this ideal family structure is bound to cause different explanation, and places a varying degree of problems for the child. But how normal is it? Around importance on the influence of parents. one in eight families with children in Britain are one- on October 1, 2021 by guest. Protected Central to psychoanalytic theory is the concept of parent families. The large majority of these are headed identification - which is the adoption of personality by a woman and a growing percentage are unmarried attributes of a significant parental figure. Both parents (13). Is it really sensible to suppose that the one and a are considered to be important in this process for boys half million or so children who are growing up in and girls. Britain today without fathers will be damaged by this According to social learning theorists, children learn experience? sex-role behaviour because they are rewarded for The vast number of empirical studies of the role of behaviour which is seen as being appropriate for their fathers in the psychosexual development of their sex, and discouraged from behaving in ways which are children are contradictory and inconclusive in their not. The observation and imitation ofsame-sex models findings.
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