Henry the Nurse is a Doctor Too: Implicitly Examining Children’s Gender Stereotypes for Male and Female Occupational Roles

Abstract

Eagly's social role theory (Eagly and Steffen 1984) was tested examining children's gender role stereotypes via implicit information processing and memory measures. We explored whether children's occupational stereotypes were less restrictive for females who engaged in counterstereotypic occupations (Mary-Doctor) compared to males who engaged in counterstereotypic occupations (Henry-Nurse). Fifty-seven American eight-and nine-year-olds from a southwestern city were orally presented with stereotypic male and female names paired with masculine and feminine occupations and asked to create sentences using the name-occupation pairs. We conducted analyses of the created sentences as well as tested children's memories for the various pairings. Consistent with social role theory, the findings revealed that children's gender role stereotypes were more restrictive for males, than for females.

Gender stereotyping within career and technical education : exploring relationships among gender, coursetaking, and outcomes of high school CTE students.

“…The original occupational equality movement focused on balancing the labor force by encouraging women to pursue male-typed jobs as a means to achieve greater monetary and psychological rewards (Hayes, 1986). Wilbourn & Kee (2010) hypothesized that efforts to encourage girls to aspire to high status, traditionally male occupations have resulted in sending the unintended message that traditionally female occupations are lower status and therefore less desirable to all. This has possibly sent an unintended message to boys that traditionally female careers are a downgrade, further reducing their appeal and making it less acceptable for males to pursue such fields.…”

“…There is some evidence to suggest that the bias toward male-typed careers that Wilbourn & Kee (2010) mentioned is real, especially in terms of anticipated economic returns. Male-typed jobs have the perception of offering greater economic benefits than female-typed jobs (Hogue et al, 2010).…”

“…It is much more socially acceptable for a female to pursue a nontraditional career than a male (Lease, 2003;Wilbourn & Kee, 2010). Men who pursue gender nontraditional careers often contend with questions about their masculinity, abilities, and even their sexuality (Hayes, 1986;Chusmir, 1990).…”

“…In addition to expanded availabilities, nontraditional careers offer men the opportunity for self-fulfillment, a greater chance of upward mobility, and the ability to regularly interact with members of the opposite sex (Hayes, 1986). Nontraditional careers offer women the opportunity for higher status and prestige (Teig & Susskind, 2008;Wilbourn & Kee, 2010) and greater pay (Hogue et al, 2010).…”

“…When this tipping point occurs, more careers would be considered gender neutral rather than nontraditional. Individuals might then be free to focus on what they want to be rather than be constrained by society's determination of appropriateness (Wilbourn & Kee, 2010). In order to facilitate such a shift in occupational gender paradigms, earlier career preparedness programs that expose students to a variety of occupational options might be the answer (Blackhurst & Auger, 2008).…”