Poster #97 - “Men, Women, or Both?”: Perceptions of Gender Power Differentials in Young Children

• In Event: Poster Session 18

Abstract

Men hold disproportionately more power than women in politics, business, science, and other influential areas in society. This may explain why, from a young age, girls are less likely to report interest in male-dominated fields like STEM (Bian et al., 2017). Though awareness of gender categories emerges at an early age (Martin & Ruble, 2004), less is known about whether young children are aware of gender power differentials among adults and the extent to which this awareness shapes their aspirations to succeed in male- versus female-dominated fields. Here, we test when children’s awareness of gender-based power differentials appears and how it relates to their career aspirations. We hypothesize that awareness of gender-based power differentials of 5-6 year olds is low due to in-group gender bias; and that since this bias decreases at around age 7 (Ruble & Martin, 1998), older girls and boys will show awareness of males’ higher social status. We then expect increased awareness to predict how much children aspire to be in a gender-matching field. More specifically, we predict that, compared to girls with low awareness, girls who show high awareness will be less likely to aspire to work in male-dominated fields.

We are currently collecting data from ~400 children aged 5-9 in NYC public schools. This age range expands past literature (e.g., Neff et al., 2007) to include children as young as 5 and 6, since past work has demonstrated children’s awareness as young as 7. To test our hypotheses, we are measuring children’s (1) awareness of gender power differentials, (2) in-group gender bias, and (3) future work aspirations in male- versus female-dominated fields. To assess children’s awareness of power differentials, children will report whether they think men or women (or both) have more power and status (e.g., who gets to make more decisions). To assess in-group bias, children will rate who is more fun (boys, girls, or both), who they would like to play with, and how they feel about boys/girls. Finally, to assess aspirations, children will report their interest in careers stereotyped as masculine or feminine (e.g., doctors versus nurses). Considering these measures, we hypothesize that younger children will report more in-group bias, which will cause them to be blind to gender-based power differentials and say that their gender holds more power. Older children, however, will stop having this bias cloud their understanding of social dynamics which will allow them to be aware of these power differentials. Data collection is ongoing and will be completed mid-November 2022.

Overall, these results would help pinpoint further individual factors (e.g., in-group bias) and societal cues (e.g., power differentials) that affect the development of gender-related aspirations in early childhood. These findings might also inform interventions aimed at promoting gender equality in historically male-dominated fields.

Authors

• Daniela Galvez-Cepeda, Williams College
  Presenting Author

• Adam Stanaland, New York University

• Andrei Cimpian, New York University