Poster #72 - Gender Differences in Young Children’s Explanations of the Benefits of Jobs

• In Event: 3-003 - Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Section - Education, Schooling

Integrative Statement

To increase female involvement and representation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities and disciplines, it is important to understand why females are under-represented. One recent suggestion is that females choose to avoid experiences and careers that primarily involve working with things rather than people (Su & Rounds, 2015). We suggest that a related gender difference in interests may also contribute to the under-representation of females in STEM disciplines: From early in development, females and males may differ in their interests in activities that benefit or help others. Indeed one study found that among sixth grade students, girls judged “helping other people” as more important a characteristic for future jobs than did boys (Jones, Howe, & Rua, 2000; also see Baker & Leary, 1995).

However, it remains unknown whether these gender differences (i.e., in interests in helping and benefitting others) are present in very young children, which could suggest an early role of preferences in shaping the STEM experiences children seek in childhood. To assess this, we examined 5-year-old children’s open-ended explanations about the benefits of familiar careers. Of chief interest is whether any gender differences emerge in the aspects of the careers children view as most rewarding.

Across two trials, 45 5-year-olds were shown a gender-matched picture of a cartoon police officer and farmer. In each trial, they were asked an initial question about the benefits of the job (e.g., “What is the best thing about being a farmer?”), and a similar follow-up question (e.g., “What’s another good thing…”). Transcriptions of children’s explanations were blind-coded by two research assistants on a scale ranging from 1 (description does not involve helping at all) to 4 (description is heavily focused on helping others), and their ratings were averaged.

We entered the averaged ratings into an unstructured generalized estimating equations (GEE) model for ordinal logistic data, with the between-subjects factor gender (female, male) and within-subjects factors question trial (initial, follow-up) and job (farmer, police officer). It revealed an interaction between gender and job, Wald χ2(1) = 5.64, p = .018, and a main effect of question trial, Wald χ2(1) = 4.79, p = .029. The main effect of trial resulted because children were more likely to give helping explanations in the initial question than the follow-up question (see Figure 1). The gender x job interaction resulted because females had higher helping ratings than males for the farmer, Wald χ2(1) = 4.49, p = .034, while no gender difference was observed for the police officer, p = .357. This item effect may have resulted from children’s responses aligning with more traditionally masculine views of police officers.

Overall, our findings provide preliminary evidence that females acquire a propensity for viewing helping jobs as more rewarding by age 5, as reflected in their judgments of the benefits of jobs that were framed as gender neutral. These preferences may influence females’ decisions about whether to pursue STEM experiences in childhood and STEM careers in adulthood.

Authors

• Emma Tran, University of Waterloo
  Presenting Author

• Stephanie Denison, University of Waterloo
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ori Friedman, University of Waterloo
  Non-Presenting Author