The Politics of Race and Gender: Children's Perceptions of Discrimination and the U.S. Presidency

Abstract

In the year prior to Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's bids to become the Democratic nominee for the U.S. presidency, we explored children's views about the role of race and gender in the U.S. presidency, with a specific focus on perceptions of discrimination. Specifically, we examined children's (aged 5 to 10) knowledge of and attributions for the lack of female (Study 1, N = 76), African American (Study 2, N = 64), and Latino (Study 3, N = 65) presidents. Results indicated that children are knowledgeable about the gender, race, and ethnicity of past presidents, and that many children attribute the lack of female, African American, and Latino presidents to gender and racial discrimination. Theoretical and policy implications of the work are discussed.An expanding body of work documents the ways in which race and gender influence the development of youth, particularly with respect to experiences with discrimination. Based on evidence that experience with discrimination negatively affects adults (see Albee

Witnesses to History: Children's Views of Race and the 2008 United States Presidential Election

“…For example, in a study conducted several years prior to the 2008 election, Bigler, Arthur, Hughes, and Patterson (2008) found that 69% of 5-to 10-yearold children were aware of the absence of African Americans from the U.S. presidency. Thus, we expected the majority of our participants to be aware that Obama, if elected, would be the first African American U.S. president.…”

Developmental Implications of Discrimination

“…It has also been documented that older children and adolescents are more likely than younger children to cite discrimination as the reason for the differential treatment of others (Bigler, Arthur, Hughes, & Patterson, 2008).…”

“…In their study of children's reasoning about the lack of diversity in past and present U.S. presidents, Bigler et al (2008) demonstrated that 9-to 10-year-olds were almost 3 times more likely to attribute the lack of African American presidents to institutional and personal discrimination than both 5-to 6-year-olds and 7-to 8-year-olds. As would be expected, compared with racial majority children, ethnic/racial minority children were also more likely to attribute discrimination in both ambiguous and nonambiguous situations in which there may have been differential treatment of European American children and children of their race (Brown, 2006).…”

The Role of Athletics in the Self-Esteem of Tomboys

“…As children transition from early to middle childhood, they become increasingly aware of status differences between men and women (see [7]). Studies on children's changing gender stereotypes and their understanding of gender discrimination (e.g., [27][28][29][30][31]) suggest that children in middle elementary school develop a sense of gender public regard. Gender public regard has been defined as the awareness that other people may evaluate one's gender group and hold it in high or low esteem [32,33].…”