Running Head: Gender Roles and Stereotyped

Gender Roles and Stereotypes

Madison M. Harvey
The University of Memphis

Gender Roles Stereotypes

From the moment you are born, colors and toys are thrown at you that are gender
specific. When you are very young you have no choice in the matter and are forced to be
wrapped in a pink blanket if you are a girl and blue blanket if you are a boy. As children begin to
grown older they select toys that are gender appropriate based the toys they received before they
had a choice in the matter. The book defines gender roles as those roles in each of our cultures
that define what we can and cannot do or what we may or may not be expected to do or not to do
based on whether we are male or female (Windsor et al., 101) These stereotypes have been the
same for such a long time that when a child chooses to break them it is viewed as strange and not
right by many people. A toy or color cant determine a child's masculinity or femininity and
people shouldnt be under the impression that it does. This issue goes way past the color of a
shirt a child is wearing or what toy they are using, gender stereotypes and issues continue
throughout everyone's lives especially in the work place.
The book sheds light on gender roles in schools and the stereotype that certain genders
are better at different subjects. A common stereotype is that girls are better in reading and writing
(language skills) but it was shown that boys have the potential to be just as good as girls are
(Windsor et al., 102). Its all just a matter of making sure that the teachers are extremely gender
neutral so that they are providing both sexes with equal opportunity to master the skills. If the
teacher walks into the classroom expecting the girls to be better at reading and writing, then she
is going to treat them differently than the boys in that same class, almost like the boys were set
up to fail for the begging. The same idea applies to how boys are better in math, science, and
STEM programs. Its not that boys are born with a brain that is better at these subjects, its just
that from a young age they were stimulated in these areas while girls werent. This use of

Gender Roles Stereotypes

stereotyping can impact a teachers perception of a childs abilities, and it impacts the childs
self- perception and expectancy for success in these areas (Windsor et al., 103).
When it comes to gender roles, something as simple as colors like blue and pink are very
important. Pink is associated with girls and blue is associated with boys from before children are
even born. In one study that was conducted, the role of the toy type and color in childrens'
interests and stereotypes were studied. The experiment was conducted by presenting children
with eight toys, two masculine toys with masculine colors, two masculine toys with feminine
colors, two feminine toys with masculine colors, and two feminine toys with feminine colors
(Weisgram et al., 2014).They were able to play with the toys for thirty seconds and then the toys
were placed in front of them and they were asked to rate their interests in the toys, judgement of
the toy, and their stereotype endorsement (Weisgram et al., 2014). The data collected was very
interesting and a little bit different then what may have been expected. Girls were recorded as
being more likely to choose a feminine toy in a masculine color than they did a feminine toy in a
feminine color. This finding is opposite than what is anticipated but the difference was so little
that it wasnt a huge deal. It was also found that girls are just as likely to choose the toy that is
masculine and presented in a feminine color and a feminine toy in a feminine color. With boys
the difference in choice was a lot more dramatic, masculine toys were picked more often. Boys
choose a masculine toy in a feminine color a lot more than the feminine toy in a masculine color
which show it is not all about color. Boys are likelier to choose a bright pink monster truck than a
blue doll. This study showed that children dont always live up to the stereotypes given even if
by the smallest percent. Girls didnt really care what color the toy was or what gender it was as
long as it wasnt both a boy color and boy toy. While boys on the other hand didnt want the girl
aimed toys despite what color they were. So as you can see color and the overall masculinity of

Gender Roles Stereotypes

femininity of the toy were key factors in the decision of which toy to pick based off the
childrens preconceived notations.
Another area where gender roles and gender stereotyping is huge is advertising. It was
estimated that children account for more than $30 billion in direct purchases and indirectly
influence more than $600 billion of U.S. household spending (Bakir et al., 2008) so as you can
see, children are a very large population that advertising is focused on. When marketing towards
children, marketers have a lot of options and must keep a lot of things in mind. Often when
marketing towards children, it may seem easier and better to make one gender neutral ad so that
all children will be interested it, but its not as simple as that. When marketing is done like that
its never going to reach the whole target
market and audience, some children will
always find something with the ad that is
offsetting to them. It's much more affective to
market to more specific and smaller target
markets, they will respond better to the ad because it was tailored specifically to what they were
taught their whole life was acceptable.
Like stated before gender roles dont just stop after youre a child, they continue on your
whole entire life. Something simple as how teen girls should be obsessed with Justin Bieber and
teen boys should play sports and first person shooting games. Why cant guy enjoy listening to
Justin Bieber, or be view as good a sports and be able to play first person shooter games? Its
these gender roles that you deal with your whole life, no matter what age you are there will
always be something you should/shouldnt do or like simply because of your gender. In the work
place women are view as not being as skilled in computer and business fields while men are, and

Gender Roles Stereotypes

men are view as not having the right skills to be a teacher or a nurse. None of that has anything
to do with their natural ability or learned skills just that fact of if they are a male or female.
Children shouldnt grow up being told which toy is okay for them to play with or what
color shirt they can wear based off of their gender. That does nothing but hold them back and
hinder their freedom to be who they desire to be. It is extremely difficult to raise a child in a
gender neutral environment, no matter where you go gender roles will follow.

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6
References

Bakir, A., Blodgett, J. G., & Rose, G. M. (2008). Children's Responses to Gender-Role Stereotyped
Advertisements. Journal Of Advertising Research, 48(2), 255-266.
Weisgram, E. S., Fulcher, M., & Dinella, L. M. (2014). Pink gives girls permission: Exploring the roles
of explicit gender labels and gender-typed colors on preschool children's toy preferences. Journal
Of Applied Develoment.
Windsor, D.L., Murrell, V.S. & Magun-Jackson, S. (2015). Lifespan development: An educational
psychological perspective. Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions.

Gender Roles Stereotypes