Children's perceptions of relative competence in sex-typed occupations

Children ranging in age from 5 1/2 to 9 years old selected either a male or a female doll in response to questions about who would be “better” at an occupation. The occupations were selected so that half were female and half were male sex-typed occupations. The responses indicated that children have clear sex-typed expectations concerning occupational competence. While the differences between the “female” and “male” occupations were significant at each age level, the interaction revealed an increasing adherence to the stereotypes with increasing age. A sex of child main effect was produced by the tendency of female children to select the female doll more often than did male children. The results are interpreted as demonstrating that children's perceptions of these occupations reflect an evaluative bias and not simply a recognition of adult stereotypes or actual rates of employment in the positions.     

Children's attitudes toward sex-role division in adult occupational roles

Kindergarten, fifth-grade, and eleventh-grade participants from a working-class community were presented with a questionnaire of 44 adult occupations and activities. They indicated for each occupation who they thought should do the job: male, female, or either one. They also stated their own future occupational goals. Liberality, defined as the number of either responses, increased with age. There was a significant sex difference in the kindergarten, with the females more liberal than the males, but not in the other grade levels. Females named as many different potential adult occupations for themselves as did males. Males and females tended to name occupations traditionally considered appropriate for their own sex, with some tendency for females to also name traditional male occupations.     

Ethnic and sex differences in occupational stereotyping by elementary school children

As part of the formative evaluation of an educational television and print package, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade public school Black, Hispanic, and Anglo children were surveyed regarding career choice and perceptions of the appropriateness of selected occupations for male and female adults and children. Responses were analyzed by ethnic membership and sex. Results indicated that in general Hispanic and Anglo girls chose more non traditional, higher-status occupations than Black girls. For boys, however, there was no clear interaction between sex and ethnic group in career choice. Girls and boys in all three ethnic groups indicated preference for careers stereotyped for their own sex, although girls—particularly Anglo girls—showed a greater tendency to cross sex-stereotyped lines. In addition, while both girls and boys in all three groups stereotyped as appropriate only for females those occupations regarded as traditionally female, traditionally male occupations were stereotyped more frequently by boys than by girls, who tended to consider them appropriate for both sexes. No differences appeared between ethnic groups in boys' responses to male and female adult occupations. In general Black girls tended to hold the most stereotypic views of job appropriateness, while Hispanic girls did not show a clear trend. Black boys tended to stereotype more than the other two groups with reference to child jobs on a boy-stereotype scale. Some differences also appeared in both boys' and girls' responses on the basis of a median split between high and low stereotypers on boy and girl child-job stereotype scales. In general, subjects who stereotyped child jobs tended also to stereotype adult occupations, suggesting a link between the child's current experience and the more remote world of adults. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

The effects of television on children's stereotyping of women's work roles

Sixty-seven elementary school students, ages 5 through 10 years, from three ethnic groups were systematically exposed, over a 1-month period, to specially produced television commercials. One treatment group viewed prevideotaped cartoons interspersed with commercials of women in “traditional” roles, while a second group viewed the same cartoons but with commercials which portrayed women in traditionally male or “reversed” roles. Children were measured on pre-and post-tests on (1) their occupational knowledge, (2) the extent to which they stereotyped occupations, and (3) their own preferences for traditionally male and female jobs. Results indicate that children do learn about occupations from television content, that they also learn to stereotype or nonstereotype various occupations based on the sex of the TV model, and, finally, that girls will change their preferences for various occupations based on the particular roles they view women portrayed in.     

Marital Status and Sex: Impact on Career Self-Efficacy

Bandura's (1977, 1986) self-efficacy theory served as the theoretical framework for examining the preferences of 214 individuals for either traditionally male or traditionally female occupations. An interaction between sex and marital status was found with regard to efficacy for traditionally female occupations. Married women scored higher than did married men, and unmarried women scored higher than did unmarried men for the traditionally female occupations. No difference between married and unmarried men or between married and unmarried women was indicated for the traditionally female occupations. A significannt main effect of sex, with men scoring higher than women, was found for both the traditionally male and traditionallyfemale occupations. Implications for further research as well as for career counseling and development are discussed.     

Occupational Prestige as a Function of Occupant's Gender

To examine sex bias in occupational prestige, 250 male and 250 female undergraduate and graduate students in Bombay were asked to rate the respectability of 16 occupations, each with male and female occupants (e.g., a male scientist, a female scientists, etc.). Thus, the study had a 2 (subject's sex) × 2 (occupant's gender) × 16 (occupations) mixed design, with occupant's gender and occupations as within-subjects factors. All of the main and interaction ANOVA effects were significant. The findings clearly supported the primary hypothesis that both male and female subjects would show a sex bias in favor of the male occupant in cases of high prestige occupations.     

Attitudes in four age groups toward sex role division in adult occupations and activities

Kindergarten, eighth grade, college, and adult subjects were presented with a list of 43 adult occupations. They indicated for each whether it should be performed by a male, female, or either. Liberality, defined in terms of the number of “either” responses, increased markedly from kindergarten to eighth grade through college and then showed a moderate decrease in the adult sample. In each age group except kindergarten there was a significant sex difference with females being more liberal. Analysis of individual roles showed that both sexes were willing to let women into prestige occupations but females were more willing than males to have household and child-caring tasks performed by both sexes.     

Pink and blue collar jobs: children's judgments of job status and job aspirations in relation to sex of worker

Past work shows that even young children know that occupations are differentially linked to men and women in our society. In our research, we studied whether 6- and 11-year-old children's (a) beliefs about job status and (b) job interests would be affected by the gendered nature of jobs. When asked about familiar occupations, children gave higher status ratings to masculine jobs and expressed greater interest in jobs culturally associated with their own sex. To circumvent the extant confounds between job gender and job status in our culture, we also developed a new methodology in which novel jobs were portrayed with either male or female workers. Older children rated novel jobs portrayed with male workers as having higher status than the identical jobs portrayed with female workers. Portrayal sex had no effect on children's own interests in these novel jobs at either age. Methodological, theoretical, and educational issues are discussed in relation to sex-role development and vocational aspirations.     

Sex stereotype impacts on competence ratings by children

Female and male children, 67 and 114 months of age, provided ratings of perceived relative competence of male and female stimulus persons who were depicted as engaging in sex-stereotyped professions. Ratings for each of eight occupations were made by allocating 10 plastic chips between the two stimulus persons. After the last trial, children also were asked to recall the occupation last paired with a particular stimulus person. Children at each of three age levels rated as more competent the individual whose sex was consistent with the stereotype for the occupational group presented; the degree of differentiation increased with age. Recall was influenced by the consistency of the stimulus person/occupation pairing with the sex stereotype, but was not related to ratings of competence.A research grant from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte Foundation provided partial support for this research. The authors would like to thank Dr. R. Bruce Irons, principal, and the many teachers at Irwin Open Elementary School who cooperated on this project; William G. Graziano for bringing the chip allocation task to our attention; and Helene A. Hilger for helpful comments.     

Sex differences in the estimated intelligence of school children

This study investigated sex differences in estimated general and multiple intelligence in school children, their parents, and their teachers. There were three groups of participants: 285 (149 female, 136 male) pupils of a mixed government‐run comprehensive school, between the ages of 13 and 16 years; 93 mothers and 58 fathers of the pupils; and five female and eight male teachers. Children estimated their own and their parents' IQ, whilst the parents estimated their own and their children's IQ; the teachers estimated only the children's intelligence. The aims of this study were firstly to assess whether perceptions of male intellectual superiority were observable in school age children and school teachers, and to make direct comparisons between the children's self‐estimations and those of the parents and the teachers. Secondly, this study aimed to replicate previous literature on adult self‐estimations of overall and multiple intelligences, and to compare these to estimations by children of these adults (their parents). Fewer sex differences were observed than expected. Teachers' estimations did not follow conceptions of male superiority. The patterns of sex differences in mother and teacher estimations of children were similar to each other, as were those of fathers and children. Verbal and numerical abilities were found to be most closely related to estimations of overall IQ in all three groups. Most striking was the lack of correlation between father and daughter estimations of each other. Reasons why this study failed to replicate findings on adult samples are discussed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sex-role stereotyping in English usage

This study identified children's perception of sex differences in the areas of language usage and occupational roles. The survey instrument used consisted of 28 items. Each item was a pair of statements identical except for one word or phrase. One statement was definitely male or female according to the literature. The other statement was either neutral or one that would be said by the other sex. Subjects were asked to identify statements that would be said by a man on one section of the instrument. They were asked to identify statements that would be said by a woman on the other section. Subjects consisted of 121 children from an inner city school in a low socio-economic area in north central Florida. The children composed five classrooms in grades one through five. One classroom was randomly selected from each grade level. The results indicate that children perceive differences both between the language usage of men and women, and between the conception of occupational roles traditionally assigned to each sex.     

Effects of occupational choice and sex-role preferences on the attractiveness of competent men and women1

The present experiment assessed the impact of a person's sex role and occupational preferences on his/her social attractiveness, attractiveness as a coworker, and attractiveness to a prospective employer. Male and female subjects were provided information describing a competent male or a competent female stimulus person. Stimulus persons (SPs) were portrayed as favoring either traditionally masculine or traditionally feminine occupations, and as masculine or feminine in their sex-role preferences. As expected, both male and female SPs were seen as most socially attractive when their sex-role preferences were “gender consistent.” In contrast, subjects favored SPs who expressed masculine sex-role preferences when assessing the individual's attractiveness as a prospective employee. These findings were compared and contrasted with the results of earlier research, and the implications of sex-role deviance for males and for females were discussed.     

Peers' Perceptions of Negro and White Occupational Preferences

The hypothesis that elementary school children would cast their peers in occupational roles in a class play that would be congruent with the peers' previously expressed vocational preferences was supported for boys (N = 106), but not for girls (N = 97). Boys expressing a preference for either professional or masculine, aggressively oriented occupations were nominated for similar occupational roles in a class play by a significant number of their male and female peers. However, girls who expressed a preference for nursing or teaching were not cast in these roles by a significant number of either their male or female peers. Negro boys expressing a preference for professional occupations were cast in these roles by their peers with significantly greater frequency than were white boys. There were no significant race differences in the other occupational categories of the class play.     

Children and aging: attitudes, differentiation ability, and quantity and quality of contact

The attitudes and age differentiation ability of forty-seven 3- to 5-year-old children toward pictures of older and younger people were assessed. In addition, cognitive performance on a seriation task as well as the quantity and quality of each child's contact with adults over 60 years of age were measured. Chi squares were performed by sex and age of stimulus photograph on the attitudinal questions. One of the chi squares reached significance on the age comparison and two on the sex comparison. In addition, sign tests were used to assess the direction of the trends on the questions, and both age and sex trends were significant at the .05 level with children being more likely to choose pictures of younger rather than older models and female rather than male models. Ability to correctly order pictures by age was significantly related (r = .53, p less than .001) to the seriation ordering task. Four of the 18 correlations between contact and attitudinal variables were significant and negative.     

Parent sex education beliefs in a rural South African setting

This study explored beliefs held by African community parents which are important in their children’s sexual health education. The informant parents (n = 30) were predominantly rural dwelling (female = 70%; black = 95%; rural = 80%; age range = 30 to 65 years old) from the Free State, South Africa. They reported on their child sex education beliefs; addressing appropriateness, resources, and content issues. Thematic analysis revealed that parents were more comfortable engaging in sex education with their older or young adult children rather than the younger children. Moreover, the parents considered sex education topics on sexual intercourse and instruments taboo subjects. Resourcing parents regarding sex education would require working around cultural barriers about the age appropriateness of sex education, as well as permissible content.     

Age and sex differences in the development of children's occupational reasoning

The purpose of this study was an investigation of age and sex differences in the thinking processes that underlie children's occupational choices and their perception of adult roles. Subjects were 48 nursery school children (24 3-year-olds and 24 4-year-olds) and 48 third graders, all middle class, evenly divided by sex. Subjects were interviewed, using a modified form of Van Den Daele's Ego Ideal interview, on what they wanted to be when they grew up, their reasons for their choices, and their knowledge of means and ends regarding their choices. They were also asked what they would want to be if they were of the opposite sex. Tape-recorded responses were evaluated according to Van Den Daele's Ego Ideal levels. Analyses of variance indicated significant (p < .0001) changes of level with age. Sex differences were less pronounced and inconsistent. The range of occupations tended to increase with age, and both boys and girls expressed a broader range of choices for themselves than they did for the opposite sex. The study demonstrates that the process of vocational development is related to cognitive development; children's choices and reasoning reflect their changing modes of understanding the world.     

Sex Role Expectations in Children's Vocational Aspirations and Perceptions of Occupations

To study sex role expectations, 120 boys and girls from three age groups—preschool, second grade, and fifth grade—in two socioeconomic levels were asked to name their vocational aspirations and to choose whether a man, woman, or both could do the work in 30 occupations depicted in a slide-tape series. Results indicated that sex typing was present in the way their aspirations conformed to traditional sex roles, with a significant relationship (p <.001) between sex typing of aspirations and sex of the respondents. Significant differences in responses to the occupational slides were found on the variables of sex (p <.01), grade level (p <.001), and socioeconomic level (p <.05), with greater sex typing indicated by boys than girls, by preschool children than by older children, and by lower to lower-middle class children than by middle to upper-middle class children. The study revealed a disparity between many children's perceptions of occupations as ones in which both sexes could work and their own personalized, sex-typed aspirations.     

Smiling in photographs: childhood similarities between sexes become differences constant in adulthood

Contemporary published photographs of 1639 children, 200 older teenagers, and 304 adults in North America were analyzed for the smiling pattern (full, partial, or none) exhibited by individuals by sex. For each of the three age groups and for both sexes, most individuals posed with a full smile. No statistically significant differences in smiling pattern were present between the sexes for photographs of children at preschool and grade-school age. By teenage years, and even more for the adults, there were statistically significant differences between the sexes with regard to a smiling facial expression. In those cases, more female than male subjects smiled fully, whereas more male than female subjects did not smile. Examination of photographs of well-known persons longitudinally through adulthood showed that individuals tended to be consistent in smiling pattern. There was no significant sex difference for this relative constancy of facial expression in posed photographs.     

The influence of gender on occupational aspirations of kindergarten children

By updating and extending previous research on the effect of gender role socialization on occupational choices of children, this research found very sexstereotypical occupational preferences in a sample of 540 kindergarten children. The girls in the study selected occupations that averaged 87% female and the boys selected occupations averaging 84% male. The boys perceived a significantly wider range of vocational options than the girls. In a reversal condition, children were asked to pretend to be of the opposite sex. Most of the children selected occupations with sex ratios favoring their pretended sex; girls were slightly more stereotypic than boys. An unanticipated finding was the extremeness of reactions of the boys to the suggestion that they pretend to be girls. It is argued that current sex-role socialization fails to recognize the realities of the expanding participation of women in the paid labor force.