Gender Stereotypes

and Gender Roles

in early and middle childhood, and adolescents..
Introduction
On a typical morning in our university,
laboratory preschool, 4-yr old Jenny eagerly
entered the housekeeping corner and put on
a frilly long dress. Karen, setting the table
nearby produced whimpering sound effects
for the baby doll in the crib. Jenny lifted the
doll, sat down in the rocking chair and
whispered, “You’re hungry aren't you?”. A
moment later Jenny announced this baby
won’t eat. I think she is sick. Ask Racheal if
she will be the nurse. Karen ran to find
Racheal who was coloring at the art table.
Meanwhile, Nathan called Tommy “wanna
play traffic” both boys dashed energetically
towards the cars and trucks in the block corner.
Soon David joined them. “ I'll be policeman
first announced Nathon climbing onto a chair.
GREEN LIGHT GO SHOUTED THE
YOUNG POLICE OFFICER. With the signal,
tommy and david scurried on all force around
the chair each pushing a large wooden truck.
“REDLIGHT” exclaimed Nathan and the
trucks screeched to a halt. The three
construction engineers began gathering large
blocks for the task.
At an early age children adopt many gender linked standards of
their culture. Jenny, Karen and Racheal use dresses , dolls and
household props to act out stereotypically feminine scene of
nurturance. In contrast Nathon , Tommy and Davids play is
active, competitive and masculine in theme. Both boys n girls
interact more with agemates of their own sex. Perhaps, more
than any other area of child development the study of gender
typing has responded to societal change. Until the early 1970’s
psychologists regarded the adoption of gender-typed beliefs and
behaviours as essential for healthy adjustment. Since then the
view has changed largely because of progress in women's rights.
Today many people recognise that some gender typed characteristics such as extreme aggressiveness and
competitiveness on the part of males and passivity and conformity on the part of females are serious threats to
mental health. Consistent with this realization the study of gender typing has undergone theoretical revision. Major
current approaches are social learning theory, with its emphasis on modelling and reinforcement and cognitive
developmental theory with its focus on children as active thinkers about their social world. But neither is sufficient
by itself. An information processing view, gender schema theory Gender stereotypes are widely held beliefs about
characteristics deemed appropriate behaviour. Gender roles are the reflection of these stereotypes in everyday
behaviour, Gender identity is the face of gender -perception of self as relatively masculine or feminine in
characteristics.
 GENDER STEREOTYPES AND GENDER
Gender stereotypesROLES
have appeared in religious,philosophical and literary works for centuries.The following excerpts from
ancient times to present:

1. ‘Woman’ is more compassionate than man and has a greater prosperity to tears.But the male is more disposed to give
assistance in danger and is more courageous than female “ (Aristotle,cited in Miles,1935)
2. A man will say what he knows , a woman says what will please”. (Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile 1762/1995).
3. ”Love is a mood-no more-to a man , And love to a woman is life and death “(Ella Wheeler Wilcox Blind 1882).
4. Men do not confront a relationship problem unless absolutely necessary because the risk is that they’ll make things
much worse.Women seek out even small problems to prevent them from becoming more serious”(Lewis, why do not
you understand? A relationship dictionary 2009) .

Although the past four decades have brought a new level of awareness about the wide range of roles possible for each
gender,strong beliefs about sex differences remain. In the 1960 , researchers began asking people what personality
characteristics they consider typical of men and women.
Widespread agreement emerged in many studies.Despite intense political activism
promoting gender equality in the 1970 and 1980 these stereotypes remain essentially
unchanged. Cross-cultural research conducted in 30 nations reveals that the instrumental -
expressive dichotomy is a widely held stereotype around the world. (williams and Best
1990) .

Besides personality traits, other gender stereotypes exist. These include physical
characteristics (tall, strong, and sturdy for men,soft, dainty and graceful for women),
occupations (truck driver , insurance agent, and chemist for women ; elementary school
teacher , secretary and nurse for women ) and activities or behaviors (good at fixing things
and at leading groups for men , good at child care and decorating the home for women )
( Biernat 1991, Powlishta et al,2001) .
Gender Stereotyping in Early
Childhood
Gender Stereotyping in Early Childhood
Between 18 months and 3 years, children label their
own and others’ sex, using such words as boy and girl
and lady and man. As children sort out what these
categories mean in terms of activities and behaviours,
gender stereotypes appear and expand rapidly.

Before age 2, children have begun to acquire subtle

associations with gender that most of us hold - men as
rough and sharp, women as soft and round.

Preschoolers associate toys, articles of clothing, tools,

household items, games, occupations, colours and
behaviours with one sex or the other.
During early childhood, gender-stereotyped beliefs strengthen so much so that many
children apply them as blanket rules rather than flexible guidelines. Striking evidence that
young children view their world in strongly gender-stereotyped terms also comes from
studies in which researchers labeled a target child as a boy or a girl and then provided
either gender-typical or gender-atypical information about the target’s characteristics.
Then they asked children to rate the target in additional gender-stereotypic attributes.
Preschoolers usually relied only on the gender label in making judgements, ignoring the
specific information.
The rigidity of preschoolers’ gender stereotypes helps us understand some commonly
observed everyday behaviours. Shown a picture of a scottish bagpiper wearing a kilt, 4-
year olds are likely to insist, “Men don’t wear skirts!”. During free play, they exclaim that
girls can’t be police officers and boys can’t take care of babies. These one-sided
judgements are a joint product of gender stereotyping in the environment and young
children’s cognitive limitations - in particular, their difficulty coordinating conflicting
sources of information. Most preschoolers do not yet realize that characteristics associated
with being male or female-activities, toys, occupations, hairstyles and clothing do not
determine a person’s sex. They have trouble understanding that males and females can be
different in terms of their bodies but similar in many other ways.
Gender Stereotypes in Middle
Childhood and Adolescence
Gender Stereotypes in middle childhood and
adolescence
By age 5, gender stereotyping of activities and occupations is well-established. During
middle childhood and adolescence, knowledge of stereotypes increases in the less obvious
areas of personality traits and achievement. At the same time, because older children
realize that gender-stereotypic attributes are associated-but not defining-features of
gender, their beliefs about possible male and female characteristics and capabilities
become more flexible.

Personality Traits: To assess stereotyping of personality traits, researchers ask children to

assign “masculine” adjectives (“tough”, “rational”, “cruel”) and “feminine” adjectives
(“gentle”, “affectionate”, “dependent”) to either a male or a female stimulus figure.
Research in many countries reveals that stereotyping of personality traits increases
steadily in middle childhood, becoming adultlike around age 11. According to canadian
study it was found that the stereotypes acquired first reflected in-group favoritism. Though
both boys and girls view each gender as having more positive than negative traits, this
effect is stronger for the in-group-evidence that in-group favouritism persists. Girls
express greater in-group favoritism and out-group negativity than boys.

Achievement Areas: After entering the elementary school, children figure out which
academic subjects and skill areas are “masculine” and which are “feminine”. They often
regard reading, spelling art, and music as more for girls and mathematics, athletics, and
mechanical skills as more for boys. These stereotypes influence children’s preferences for
and sense of competence at certain subjects.
Gender Flexibility:

Although school-age children are knowledgeable about a wide variety of gender

stereotypes, they also develop a more open-minded view of what males and females can
do, a trend that continues into adolescence. Researchers usually ask children whether or
not both genders can display a personality trait or activity- a response that measures
gender-stereotype flexibility, or overlap in the characteristics of males and females. As
they develop the capacity to integrate conflicting social cues, children realize that a
person’s sex is not a certain predictor of his or her personality traits, activities, and
behaviour. Similarly, by the end of the school years, most children no longer view gender-
typed behaviour as inborn and fixed. Rather, they see it as socially influenced-affected by
home rearing environments.
But acknowledging that boys and girls can across gender lines does not mean that children
always approve of doing so. School-age children seem well aware of the power of such
male in-group favoritism to limit girls access to high-status opportunities.

Furthermore, many school-age children take a harsh view of certain violations, such as
boys playing with dolls and wearing girls clothing and girls acting noisily or roughly.
They are especially intolerant when boys engage in these “cross-gender” acts, which
children regard as nearly as bad as moral transgressions. When asked for open-ended
descriptions of boys and girls, children most often mention girl’s appearance and boy’s
activities and personality traits. The salience of these stereotypes helps explain why, when
children of the other sex display the behaviours just mentioned, they are likely to
experience severe peer disapproval.
Individual and Group
Differences in Gender
Stereotyping
Individual and Group Differences in Gender
Stereotyping
● By middle childhood, almost all children have acquired
extensive knowledge of gender stereotypes. But, they
vary widely in the make-up of their understanding.
● The various components of gender stereotyping -
○ Activities
○ Behaviours
○ Occupations, and
○ Personality Traits, do not correlate highly.
● A child maybe highly knowledgeable in one area without
being knowledgeable in the others.
● This suggests that gender typing is like “an intricate
puzzle that the child pieces together in a rather
idiosyncratic way”.
● To build a coherent notion of gender, children must
assemble many elements.
● The precise pattern in which they acquire the pieces,
the rate at which they do so, and the flexibility of their
beliefs vary greatly from child to child.
Group differences in gender stereotype also exist. The strongest of these is sex-related. Boys tend to hold
more gender stereotyped views than girls throughout childhood and adolescence. But as we have seen,
stereotyping of math as masculine seems to have declined, even among boys. And in one study, adolescents
of both sexes, responding to vignettes about hypothetical high-achieving peers, expressed greater liking for
high-achieving girls (Quantman, Sokolik, & Smith, 2000). A heartening possibility is that boys are
beginning to view gender roles as encompassing more varied possibilities..
Every society, ethnic group, and culture has gender role expectations, but they can be very
different from group to group. They can also change in the same society over time. For
example, pink used to be considered a masculine color in the U.S. while blue was
considered feminine.
Gender Stereotyping and Gender-Role Adoption
Does gender-stereotyped thinking influence children’s gender-role adoption, thereby restricting their experiences
and potential?

The evidence is mixed. Gender-typed preferences and behaviours increase sharply over the preschool years - the
same period in which children rapidly acquire stereotypes. And boys - the more stereotyped of the two sexes - show
greater conformity to their gender role.
But these parallel patterns do not tell us whether gender stereotyping shapes children’s behaviour. In some cases, a
reverse direction of influence may operate because certain gender-role preferences are acquired long before children
know much about stereotypes.

For example, by the middle of the second year, boys and girls favour different toys. When researchers showed 18-
month-olds paired photos of vehicles and dolls, boys looked longer than girls at vehicles, whereas girls looked
longer than boys at the dolls.
Furthermore children who are well-versed in gender-related expectations are sometimes highly gender-typed, and
sometimes not, in their everyday activities.

Why might this be so?

First, we have seen that children master components of gender-stereotyped knowledge in diverse ways, each of which
may have different implications for their behaviour.

Second, by middle childhood, virtually all children know a great deal about gender stereotypes - knowledge so universal
that it cannot predict variations in their behaviour. https://youtu.be/qv8VZVP5csA
Rather than stereotype knowledge, stereotype flexibility is a good predictor of children’s gender role adoption in
middle childhood.

Children who believe that many stereotyped characteristics are appropriate for both sexes
(for example, that it is OK for girls to play with trucks) are more likely to cross gender
lines in choosing activities, playmates, and occupational roles.

https://youtu.be/nWu44AqF0iI

This suggests that gender stereotypes affect behaviour only when children incorporate those beliefs into their
gender identities - self-perceptions of what they can and should do at play, in school, and as future participants in
society.

https://youtu.be/nrZ21nD9I-0
These are some ways in which we can raise our children without gender stereotypes.
https://youtu.be/8FyG5y4nXUU
Thank You
Presented by -
Amitha 160702
Rajeshwari 160727
Naithika 160729
Akshitha 160733
Akhila 160734
BA-III B (PPP)