Girls More Likely to Move Beyond Gender Roles

[Guest guest]

NEW DELHI, June 2: Why is it that while more and more

women are today taking up "masculine" professions like

entering the army and becoming police officers,

pilots, engineers, managers and film directors, few

men venture into 'feminine' pursuits such as dress

designing and nursing?

 

The reason for this, recent research shows, lies in

the fact that gender-based preferences, be it in the

choice of professions, vocations or hobbies, are

considerably more fixed among boys than they in girls.

 

 

In fact, in this age of globalisation and women’s

liberation, where gender differences are fast becoming

blurred due to an increasing number of women adopting

'masculine' mannerisms and habits, gender-based

choices remain deeply embedded, more so among men, a

recent us-based study has revealed.

 

These gender-based choices seem to be so embedded that

children as young as five exhibit stereotypical

preferences when it comes to, say, choosing which

musical instruments to play.

 

When a group of children were asked during the course

of the study as to what musical instruments they would

like to play, boys invariably picked something like

the trumpet, drums or saxophone while the girls tended

to favour the violin, clarinet or flute.

 

The study, conducted by Betty Repacholi of the

University of Washington, also revealed that these

gender-based preferences were considerably more fixed

among boys than in girls. Even when some of the

children in the study were exposed to an intervention,

boys were far more resistant to change their

gender-based choices.

 

"Girls become more flexible as they get older, but

boys mostly pick masculine instruments. They just

cannot pick a feminine instrument. It is so hard for

them that it just astounds me," the journal 'Sex

Roles' quotes her as saying.

 

Though researchers are unclear as to how these

stereotypes developed, Repacholi feels that the choice

of a particular instrument could be based on the size

or shape of an instrument or the sound it makes. "What

makes a flute a feminine instrument —its high-pitched

sound and delicate look? and is a trumpet masculine

because it sounds deeper and louder?" she wonders.

 

At the same time, the researchers say that making

gender-based choices can restrict what children, and

people, do in life. According to the researchers,

gender-based preferences, especially in choice of

musical instruments, were common among third and

fourth graders in countries like Australia three

decades ago.

 

To explore whether these gender-based stereotypes

still existed, notably among younger children, after

nearly three decades of increasingly equal

opportunities for women in many countries, the

researchers recruited more than 600 kindergarten and

fourth-grade Australian school children to participate

in two studies.

 

Both studies used eight instruments that adults in the

United States, England and Australia had previously

classified by gender —flute, violin, clarinet and

cello as feminine and drums, saxophone, trumpet and

trombone as masculine.

 

In the first study, the researchers made videotapes of

eight male and eight female high school students

playing one of the eight instruments. The elementary

school children were randomly put into three groups

and shown three-minute videos of the high school

instrumentalists playing the same piece of music. In

the stereotype group, the children saw males playing

the masculine instruments and females playing the

feminine ones.

 

Children in a counter-stereotype group saw males

playing the feminine instruments and females playing

the masculine instruments. The third, or control,

group viewed a video of the music but without seeing

the soloists. Instead the instruments were displayed

against a plain background.

 

Repacholi and pickering found that the kindergarteners

and fourth graders in the counter-stereotype groups

were less likely to pick a gender-based instrument

than the children in the other two groups.

 

"The really young children, those in kindergarten, may

have thought that these stereotypes were rules, not

social conventions," said Repacholi. "But they were

willing to change their beliefs when shown counter

examples."

 

The researchers also found that boys were less

influenced by exposure to the counter-stereotype

examples, a not-unexpected finding since boys

experience stronger social pressure to engage in

gender-stereotyped activities than do girls, according

to Repacholi.

 

Girls, meanwhile, were more flexible. About 70 per

cent of the fourth-grade girls in the

counter-stereotype group picked masculine instruments.

"This is consistent with what we know," said

Repacholi. "Girls experience less pressure and are

allowed to be tomboys. They see that males have more

power and status in our society and, with increasing

age, girls start to adopt more masculine attributes."

 

This was illustrated in the control group where only

27 per cent of the kindergarten girls selected a

masculine instrument, but 50 per cent of the girls in

the fourth grade did so. "At the same time, there is

more pressure on boys to be masculine. There can be

extreme pressure, particularly from their peers. A boy

does not want to do anything that appears to be

feminine," she said. In the second study, the

researchers simplified their presentations by

replacing the videotapes with black-and-white

drawings. The drawings depicted the eight instruments

as being played by elementary school-age children.

Before being asked to pick the instrument they would

like to play, there was a discussion about each of the

instruments so the children could distinguish among

them.

 

The findings in the second study were not only

consistent with those in the initial study, but also

demonstrated that even a simple presentation — such as

a drawing that could be found in a children’s picture

book — could be used to change children’s musical

instrument preferences, said repacholi.

 

"These kinds of choices and stereotypes can affect

what you learn and what you do later in life," she

said. "We know these stereotypes affect all kinds of

leisure activities, the sports people play and career

choices. Even at age five children believe doctors are

males and nurses are female. When it comes to music, a

little boy may be the next yo-yo ma but is not

encouraged to play the cello. So he picks the drums,

is terrible and winds up not playing any musical

instrument. Or a girl who wants to play the trombone

is advised not to and that stops her from pursuing a

career playing that instrument.

 

"Our studies show these stereotypes can be modified.

But I would emphasise that the changes we showed are

short-term. Three-minute videos or drawings are not

going to create permanent change. We also wouldn’t

advocate using counter-stereotypes by themselves

because we would simply be creating new stereotypes.

We need to present both males and females playing a

full range of instruments to show that anyone can play

them. Gender should not be relevant," she says. (UNI)

 

Source:

http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/02june03/national.htm#7

 

 

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(From the Devi Bhagavata Purana)

 

 

 

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