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Gender-Role Stereotyping: Testing Theory with a Longitudinal Sample

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Abstract

Gender-role stereotyping by children has aresearch literature which dates back 25 years. Thisarticle reviewed studies which examined children'soccupational choice or gender assignmentto a listofoccupations called a fixed-response format. Also reviewedwere studies in which children were given a free-choiceresponse capability in which they were asked to identifytheir occupational aspirations. Trends and changes in children's occupational stereotypingover the years were identified. Unlike 20 years ago,recent studies found that girls identify a greaternumber of different occupational aspirations than do boys. New data, which was collected from alongitudinal sample of over 200 elementary schoolchildren examined in the second, fourth, and sixthgrades, is also presented. Eighty-six percent of thesample was white and the majority of the non-whitesample was Hispanic. Hypotheses from Gottfredson'stheory of circumscription and compromise and sociallearning theory were tested with support found foreach.

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  1. Andrew A. Helwig
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Helwig, A.A. Gender-Role Stereotyping: Testing Theory with a Longitudinal Sample. Sex Roles 38, 403–423 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018757821850

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