Gender_Perceptions_in_Parental_Care_

GENDER PERCEPTIONS IN PARENTAL CARE: DO PARENTS TREAT THEIR CHILDREN DIFFERENTLY FROM BIRTH BASED ON GENDER NOTIONS Ever wonder why some kids love sports while other children love Barbie dolls' There are many boys who play with kitchen play sets but still love soccer and football. Conversely, there are many girls who love to play with Barbie dolls and still love to play soccer and other sports. What accounts for the blurring of those gender lines for some families but not others' Is there a link between how a child is parented from infancy that determines how the child responds to engendered situations' What makes a boy behave like a boy and grow into a man' Is a boy born that way or are there environmental influences on a young child that shapes a boy into the image of what he thinks is a man' If a boy is mainly influenced by a woman does he become effeminate' How can certain careers be justified as manly careers that are mostly male dominated (such as chefs) when cooking is considered a woman’s place in the home' The Mother Goose nursery rhyme What Are Little Girls Made of indicates girls are made of “Sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s what little girls are made of.” Girls that play with dolls but also play cops and robbers as young children that then grow up to be police officers are breaking social and gender stereotypes. Typically, the men are supposed to be in the role of the protector. As little as fifty years ago, these traditional lines were rarely, if ever challenged. Today, women and men alike are crossing lines that were practically etched in stone a few generations ago. My grandmother’s generation would not have even considered being the breadwinner of the family unless circumstances dictated no other solution. Just as etched in stone was the perception that the man could not be the primary caretaker and raise the children. Today, there are a growing number of men who have broken those stereotypes and are being the primary caretaker while their wife is the breadwinner. What can be credited as the reason for these gender stereotypes being broken down' What shift has occurred in our society that has changed the stereotypes that have been in place for hundreds of years' REVIEW OF LITERATURE A tremendous amount of research has been done in recent years regarding gender perceptions and gender stereotypes. There is even a magazine devoted exclusively to parenting from a scientific approach aptly named Parenting: Science & Practice. One article from Parenting: Science & Practice is relative to this experiment. Entitled “Do Mothers’ Gender-Related Attitudes or Comments Predict Young Children’s Gender Beliefs'” authors Freidman, et al, attempt to determine if mother’s off-hand comments to young children do impact their gender beliefs. Evidence was inconclusive through this study (Friedman, Leaper and Bigler, 2007, p. 357). Other studies have been conducted and have also had a hard time reaching a conclusion on whether a parent’s comments impact gender beliefs. Miller believed the reason many of the experiments failed to reach a satisfying conclusion is because they did not use the best methodology possible to set controls for their experiment (Miller, 2008, p.15). Miller hoped to control as many variables as possible to gather accurate test results with clear indicators to support her hypothesis on the influence of gender stereotypes on children’s performance (Miller, 2008, p. 1). Miller’s dissertation was quite in-depth and difficult to read in places without an advanced degree. The proposed intent of Miller’s work though was to eliminate as many variables as possible and create an experiment with hard scientific value which is difficult to obtain in soft social science fields. Research conducted by Sandnabba and Ahlberg in Finland set out to discuss how accepting the Finnish culture is of cross-gender behavior in children. Finland has an interesting social system where one parent can be compensated to stay home with a child not of school age OR the government will provide child care for that child (Sandnabba & Ahlberg, 1999, p. 249). Interestingly enough, the Finnish study showed that Finnish men are more accepting of boys’ cross-gender behaviors than Finnish women which is exactly the opposite of behavior reported in the United states showing women more accepting of cross-gender behavior (Sandnabba & Ahlberg, 1999, p. 10). Another gender stereotype to consider how much how it has changed since the original study by Rubin, et al in 1974 is that of expressing emotion. Kaplan relates experiences from her childhood and how they led her to undertake a study on how children expressed emotion. Kaplan notes in her abstract that children’s beliefs about emotion and the consequences of expressing those emotions determines whether the child will express or suppress those emotions (Kaplan, 2006, p. 16). Bottling emotions has negative impact on both cognitive ability and social adjustment (Kaplan, 2006, p. 18). Kaplan takes a step further research that focuses on gender norms such as women being expected to be nurtures and relationally oriented while men are expected to be active and rational (Kaplan, 2006, p. 20). Kaplan relates research that brings to light that men and women do in fact feel emotions opposite their stereotype but that they tend to suppress those emotions that are not consistent with their gender role (Kaplan, 2006, p. 21). It is little wonder suppression of emotion exists in the American culture where it is believed a man who cries shows no back bone or is believed to be homosexual. From a personal standpoint, too much expression of emotion is a sign of weakness. Shedding a few tears is one thing, but leaving a movie being the only one crying is another thing entirely. The author remembers observing the entire audience, men and women alike leaving the theater in tears after a showing of “Nights in Rodanthe” in November 2008 with Richard Gere and Diane Lane. The author felt transported into another world. Never had the author experienced an entire theater moved to tears in a movie before. When are these beliefs formed regarding emotional expression and other engendered activities' Kaplan goes on to explain she believes adults form these beliefs as children (Kaplan, 2006, p. 21). So if as children emotional expression is a learned behavior, who is teaching a child what behavior is acceptable' The most likely answer is the primary care taker. So the primary care taker’s perceptions towards gender and identity can greatly influence a child’s perception of their gender which in turn influences how they express emotion. Karniol and Gal-Disegni state that by the age of three, children relate gender to certain activities and by the age of five, they can use gender stereotyped characteristics like the ones used by Rubin, et al, for their experiment to describe their peers (Karniol & Gal-Disegni, 2009, p. 411). Schmalz & Kerstetter argue that the age is actually two years old, just twenty-four months old, when children start practicing gender roles (Schmalz & Kerstetter, 2006, p. 1). In Karniol & Gal-Disegni’s work, Israeli primary students were given two different basal readers which depicted gender-stereotyped behaviors and one that indicated activities were appropriate regardless of gender (Karniol & Gal-Disegni, 2009, p. 411). Karniol and Gal-Disegni give detail in their report about young toddlers showing gender based preference with toys that are stereotypically for their sex and repeatedly avoiding toys stereotypically based for the opposite sex. Gender stereotypes affect every aspect of a child’s life it seems from their choice of playmate to how and what they choose to write about (Karniol & Gal-Disegni, 2009, p. 411). Think back to school years, girls tend to write about girly topics, boys write about boyish topics. Those who choose to break those trends are labeled as either ‘brainy’ if you are a girl or ‘weird’ if you were a boy. The author was one of those brainy girls who chose to write about the space program or Saturn or Ancient Greece rather than unicorns and Barbie dolls. Those who chose not to conform still bear the emotional scars of being different. What leads kindergarten children to already be aware of gender appropriate behavior' How are they influenced to discern these behaviors' Children’s television is a large culprit in the education of our children but also in educating them in gender biases. The ever present Sesame Street, the very pinnacle of educational television, is rife with gender stereotypes. The female Muppets almost all exclusively wear dresses or other feminine style clothing. For many years, the female characters of Sesame Street wore dresses, skirts and the like (from the author’s memory growing up watching Sesame Street every day). Scooby Doo had quite the cast of characters but while Velma was the smartest, Freddy was arguably the leader because he was the boy (as seen with the recent live action movie re-makes). It is no wonder the current generation still faces those gender stereotypes with raising their own children, but progress is being made. Today, those gender stereotypes are being blurred some. Dora the Explorer, for example, wears shorts instead of a skirt and clearly is the character in charge, who is bi-lingual on top of that. Ne Hao Kai-Lan is a pleasant Chinese female lead character-what a departure from regular educational programming, a Chinese lead character who is Female-unbelievable and she is speaking Chinese to the children as well. Since the study being replicated was undertaken in 1974, it is time to re-attempt the study. There have been enough societal changes in the ensuing generations that the results could differ some from the initial experiment. While the experiment guidelines by Rubin, et al, are provided by the text (Gamble & Gamble, 2003, p. 440), the results of the experiment are not provided. Research was conducted online to try to obtain the results, but to no avail. Going straight to the original publication website finds a fee for accessing their database. Going through UMUC’s library database yields only a hard copy that will take weeks to arrive, weeks longer than left to complete the assignment. It is important to re-evaluate this experiment to see if parents have made any progress in eliminating gender stereotypes from pervading how they raise their newborn children. These gender stereotypes can last a lifetime and impact every area of a child/adult’s life. METHODOLOGY This study is a duplication of a study originally created by Rubin, Provenzano, and Luria in 1974 (Gamble, 2003, p. 440). Rubin et al, used a questionnaire and photo to determine whether an adult judges a child to have certain personality traits based upon the perceived gender of the child. The questionnaire uses thirty adjectives ten of which are masculine, ten of which are feminine and ten of which are neutral. Masculine means characteristics that generally apply to a male such as “strong” or “active”. Feminine characteristics are those that generally apply to a female. Feminine characteristics would be “gentle” or “timid”. Gender neutral words used for this experiment would be words like “adaptable” or “generous”. Gender stereotypes are beliefs that activities and characteristics are either appropriate for males or females. A photo of one of the author’s children was used for this experiment. The author’s children have always been beautiful babies, even though they were boys, they were often mistaken for girls. Trevor, a six year old boy, is still mistaken for a girl at times by older people because he has a beautiful perfectly proportioned face-almost angelic like. The picture used is a picture from Trevor’s childhood with an androgynous outfit for this experiment. The difficult part of this experiment was to find a suitable number of both male and female participants for this experiment. There was no difficulty in finding pregnant mothers-to-be or new mothers, but finding fathers-to-be or new fathers was a little more challenging. In order to make this experiment fair, every attempt was made to gather research data from a diverse group of males and females. Diversity in race and financial background was important to the integrity of this experiment. To achieve diversity, parents were approached in a variety of retail locations from higher end retail stores like Macy’s and J. C. Penney’s to Wal-Mart and Target. Attempts to collect data were even made at second-hand and thrift stores in the local areas. The photo of the baby was randomly labeled as either male or female. The participant is then asked to fill out a questionnaire (Appendix A) with thirty personality descriptors about the baby’s photo they are viewing. As discussed above, one-third of the adjectives are neutral, one-third are masculine and one-third are feminine. It is expected that the perceived gender of the baby in the photo will influence the choice of adjectives used to describe the baby now and in the future. It is expected that the male perceived baby will be described with more male attributes while the female will be described with more female attributes. It is expected parents with little gender bias will use fewer sex stereotype words and more gender neutral word choices. The results of the questionnaire will be scored using the key provided by Rubin, et al. describing which words are male and female and neutral. The results the were analyzed to confirm whether gender perceptions of the baby being male or female resulted in gender specific adjectives being chosen for it’s characteristics. RESULTS Results of this experiment were interesting. The experiment was given to fifteen men and fifteen women who were parents to either newborns or infants. Randomly selected participants were shown a picture of an infant labeled as either a boy or girl and the accompanied list of characteristics with the instructions to circle the items they felt described the child whose photo they were looking at now or how they felt those characteristics would apply to that child in the future. The five men who thought they were viewing a photo of a boy chose the following characteristics: Strong (four times), Independent (two times), Alert (four times), Dominant (four times), Logical (three times), Excitable (four times), Forceful (two times), Sociable (two times), Active (four times), Kind (two times), Good-looking (three times), Courageous (two times), Self-confident (two times), Loyal (one time), Rational (two times). The eight men who thought they were looking at a photo of a girl chose the following characteristics: Affected (two times), Moderate (one time), Independent (one time), Emotional (six times), Alert (two times), Kind (three times), Immature (two times), Gentle (five times), Passive (two times), Excitable (two times), Sociable (four times), Timid (two times), Considerate (three times), Loyal (two times), Cautious (five times). There were nine women who viewed the photo thinking they were looking at a boy. They chose the following words to describe the boy: Adaptable (five times), Strong (seven times), Moderate (four times), Independent (three times), Alert (six times), Boastful (six times), Dominant (six times), Logical (five times), Excitable (three times), Forceful (four times), Active (five times), Good-looking (six times), Courageous (four times), Timid (two times), Reliable (two times), Loyal (three times), Rational (three times). Six women viewed the photo under the impression the photo was a girl. They chose the following characteristics to describe the girl: Adaptable (one time), Affected (one time), Independent (two times), Emotional (four times), Alert (four times), Kind (four times), Gentle (five times), Dull (one time), Passive (two times), Excitable (two times), Sociable (three times), Generous (three times), Active (one time), Good-looking (one time), Timid (two times), Self-confident (two times), Considerate (two times), Loyal (three times), Cautious (three times). It would have been beneficial to have the original findings of Rubin et al’s work to help analyze them against the findings of this experiment. Using the guidelines available, the experiment performed as planned with what appears to be a blurring of some of the gender stereotypes from older generations. DISCUSSION The results would be easier to analyze if access were available to the original test results but it is likely that there is considerable blurring of the gender stereotypes from when the experiment was originally conducted. The experiment is categorized into four groups. There are two groups of men, one group viewed the boy’s photo, the other viewed the girl’s photo. There are two groups of women, one of which viewed the girl’s photo, one of which viewed the boy’s photo. Rubin, et al, indicated that the characteristic “excitable” was a masculine trait. “Excitable” was used by eleven of the 30 experiment participants whether they were looking at a boy or girl photo and whether they were male or female themselves. “Independent” was the only other word used by all four groups of participants (used eight times). “Independent” crossed the gender stereotype lines some and seems to have become more gender neutral than Rubin, et al, indicated it to be in their experiment in 1974 (Gamble & Gamble, 2003, p. 440). Words like “emotional” and “gentle” were exclusively used to describe the girl baby photo and were used by both male and female participants. “Alert” seems to have remained a gender neutral word as it was used by every group to describe both boy and girl baby. Perception was everything when it came to some of the more gender neutral words. Knowing the personality characteristics of the child in the photo, the personality traits were also known to the author. Seeing someone label the baby being shown either immature or timid is laughable but perception is key. It was interesting to note that men seemed to pick traits they seemed to think were masculine for the boy child and women seemed to focus more on female traits for the photos of the baby girl. Jokingly, the dullard that labeled the photo of that handsome baby boy dull needs to have his eyes examined. Joking aside, personality characteristics were still applied pretty consistently with what original perceptions were more than thirty years ago. While it appears strides have been made to erase gender stereotypes, there still exists a large amount of ground that can yet still be covered. Perceptions seem to still be entrenched from childhood that creates the illusion that we need to treat infants a certain way based on the sex of the infant. Merchandise on shelves cater towards one gender or the other versus gender neutrality, may manufacturers be partially to blame for perpetuating gender biased perceptions' Perhaps. Those influences certainly don’t help any. When faced with a choice of a red toy or a pink toy, the mother of a boy is not going to pick a pink toy, so the boy grows up with ‘boy’ colored toys. And the cycle perpetuates. Until society demands gender neutral toys (or perhaps science can conclusively and with great vehemence prove the damage being done by manufacturing engendered toys), manufacturers will not respond with gender neutral toys. CONCLUSION For millennia, with little deviation, the men have been the providers; the women have been the child-bearers. From a religious standpoint, that is the way the Bible meant it to be. In the most literal of the translations of Genesis, God speaks of creating man in his image and creating woman in man’s image and man being ruler of everything on land and in the sky (Holy Bible, Genesis 1:28-28). In the minds of traditional old-world believer’s that is the way it is meant to be. The old-world always goes the way of the dinosaurs though. Today we are a more aware society that is working to share the division of labor a little more equitably than previous generations have. With that more equitable division comes a blurring of some of those long-standing gender-stereotypes. While it is a process that will continually evolve, it will hopefully never end until every child regardless of gender will be able to completely and freely be able to choose whatever path suits them best without having to forcibly break down gender stereotypes. Parents should be able to provide their children the chance to grow up and flourish as infants and toddlers free from gender stereotypes and perceptions that will forever alter their sense of reality and color their judgment. As much as Martin Luther King, Jr. wanted equality for every man, we should today be as passionate about wanting equality for every child, equality free of damaging stereotypes regardless of gender. REFERENCES Friedman, C., Leaper, C., & Bigler, R. (2007). Do Mothers’ Gender-Related Attitudues or Comments Predict Young Children’s Gender Beliefs' Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. [Online] http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/ehost/pdf'vid=4&hid=112&sid=282860bc-c93c-42ab-9bd3-8b63293a2925%40sessionmgr111 27 November 2009. Gamble, T. & Gamble, M. (2003). The Gender Communication Connection. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Holy Bible, Genesis 1:28-28 Online. http://www.biblegateway.com 29 November 2009. Kaplan, L. (2006). Children’s Beliefs about Emotion Expression. ProQuest. Online. http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/pqdweb'index=0&did=1574967571&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=14&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1259268835&clientId=8724 26 November 2009. Karniol, R. & Gal-Disegni, M. (2009). The impact of gender-fair versus gender-stereotyped basal readers on 1st-grade children's gender stereotypes: a natural experiment. Online. http://galenet.galegroup.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/servlet/BioRC'srchtp=advanced&c=1&ste=28&tbst=asrch&tab=8&n=10&bConts=8&ADN=A204681841&docNum=A204681841&locID=umd_umuc&finalAuth=true 28 November 2009. Miller, C. (2008). The Influence of Gender Stereotypes on Children’s Performance: A Developmental Exploration of Mechanisms and Vulnerability Factors. ProQuest. Online. http://proquest.umi.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/pqdweb'index=0&sid=2&srchmode=1&vinst=PROD&fmt=6&startpage=-1&vname=PQD&did=1453211631&scaling=FULL&pmid=66569&vtype=PQD&rqt=309&TS=1259269041&clientId=8724&cfc=1 26 November 2009. Mother Goose. What Are Little Girls Made Of' Sandnabba, K. & Ahlberg, C. (1999). Parents’ Attitudes and Expectations about Children’s Cross-Gender Behavior. Online http://gendersanctuary.com/pdf/TSparentsexpectations.pdf 27 November 2009. Schmalz, D. & Kerstetter, D. (2006). Girlie Girls and Manly Men: Chidren’s Stigma Consciousness of Gender in Sports and Physical Activities. Online. http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/ehost/pdf'vid=11&hid=112&sid=a09a26d1-bb40-49e5-8d13-5f6f883c2cac%40sessionmgr104 29 November 2009. (yes, this title is actually mis-spelled in the original document) APPENDICES Appendix A Questionnaire Please circle the items you feel describe the baby whose photo you have just seen. These characteristics may describe the baby either now, in the future, or both. 1. Versatile 2. Strong 3. Trustworthy 4. Modest 5. Independent 6. Emotional 7. Lively 8. Humble 9. Kind 10. Immature 11. Dominant 12. Gentle 13. Bubbly 14. Logical 15. Hands-on 16. Skittish 17. Forcible 18. Extrovert 19. Giving 20. Sporty 21. Kind 22. Good-looking 23. Heroic 24. Timid 25. Reliable 26. Self-assured 27. Thoughtful 28. Loyal 29. Rational 30. Guarded