}

Sex Stereotyping in Children

Males in American society enter the world as the preferred sex, and their privileges continue throughout life. American parents want boys: mothers have a 2-1 preference, and for fathers it is even higher. A subtle process of conditioning begins practically from the moment of birth, and distinctions made between the sexes set in motion a pattern of treatment which continues through childhood and often through life.

In September 1980, PBS (Channel 25) first broadcast a NOVA program entitled "The Pinks and the `Blues" which investigated these patterns of conditioning and suggested that our stereotypes and assumptions are so deeply ingrained that sexism flourishes even when we are unaware of it. The program interviewed parents and teachers, and with the help of psychologists and sociologists showed that parents and teachers tend to regard children in a stereotypical manner.

Dr. Stella Luria of the Psychology Department, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts, conducted a series of interviews with parents who had just had their first child. She found that:

"Both of them believed the baby was better coordinated if it was a boy than a girl. That it was more alert if it was a boy than a girl. That it was stronger if it was a boy than a girl. That it was bigger.

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"Together they agreed that little girls were softer, that little girls were finer featured, littler and more inattentive... When you compared the mothers to the fathers, the fathers were more likely to be more ex-treme in their stereotyping, that is, they agreed on a lot of things but, when they stereotyped, they were

more extreme.

"One of the most interesting things to me in this study is the fact that stereotypes can run smack in the face of reality: There is greater vulnerability in the male sex than there is in the female sex. There are more conceptions that are male. There are more accidents for young boys than for girls. There are more diseases that kill off boys than girls. Nonetheless, the stereotyping-related to the male role is that boys-are less-vulnerable and girls are morë-vulnerable. This flies in the face of biological reality; nonetheless, the stereotype holds."

wrestling around with their sons but very seldom seem to do that with daughters or seem quite happy to pull out a baby buggy or what have you and play in that way or with a tea set with their daughters.

"It's beginning to look to us in our work as though fathers are much more responsible for sex differen-

tiation in children than mothers are, and we are not the first ones to have found this. So it's beginning to look like a solid fact.”

Teachers also play a significant, if unconscious,

role in shaping sex differences, according to Dr. Jane Marantz Connor and Dr. Lisa Serbin of the State University of New York, Binghamton Campus. As Dr. Serbin says,

"Teachers play a large role, I think, in influencing. children's interest in specific activities in the classroom. It's true, the children do come in with experience with different kinds of playthings and interests that are developed before they ever arrive at nursery school; but the way that teachers interact with the kids, the way they introduce new materials and what they do themselves, what they model for the children, has a powerful influence as well."

Connor and Serbin found that when a girl acts aggressively, she is either completely ignored or else. quietly cautioned, but when a boy is acting up, he is three times more likely to be reprimanded, and the scolding will be very loud and obvious. Dr. Serbin explained that "It's not that the teachers are deliberately trying to encourage boys to be aggressive. I don't think they're doing that. In fact, they really complain about this type of behavior, but they seem very unaware that they're kind of oversensitive to it, that their tendency to jump in in fact makes it a very effective behavior for the boys. Since they don't respond to the girls as effectively, the boys continue to do it and the girls drop it out."

Girls, however, are conditioned to be dependent, quiet and complaisant, according to Dr. Serbin:

"For girls, being dependent, staying near the teacher, being a good kid-this is almost the definition of what a good, compliant child is in elementary · school: quiet, listens to the teacher, does what they (continued on page 10)

Solidarity Day: Mixed Feelings

By Laura Lavelle

What's it like, being at the union-organized Solidarity Day Tally in Washington,~D.C. with 500,000 people on September 19? Sort of like a Fourth of July celebration. It's waving to other their^....buses/cars/vans displaying signs on the road down. It's coincidentally meeting Cleveland friends on the...... It's coincidentally meeting Cleveland friends on the D.C: subway. It's being amazed at all the paraphernalia balloons; baseball caps, t-shirts, jackets, blimps, signs with large photographs-all imprinted. with various union nazres and emblems. It's listening: to songs that range from country western to gospel to folk. It's chuckling at signs: “Ronnie the Ripper,' Mandate, My Ass," "Ronnic, Leave Us A-Loan," "Cut Reagan'. It's cheering a west coast group who car pooled to Canada, flew to Toronto, and bused to D.C. to boycott the U.S. airlines in support of the air traffic controllers strike.

Parents also tend to play differently with children, based on sex. Psychologists Carol Jacklin and Eleanor. Maccoby of Stanford University studied how parents influence the way their children play and what this does to personality development. When the.... children in their long term study were 3 years and 9-months, they sent a researcher to visit their homes and set up an experimental play session with a collec・・ tion of masculine and feminine: toys. According to Dr. Jacklin,”

"We were specifically trying to find out if the parents were putting pressure on the children to play with some kinds of sex-typed toys or if the children: are in some sense the ones who are putting the: pressure on their parents, if the children are initiating the play with the sex-typed toys.

"Well, it does seem that fathers and boys are engaging in more body contact with each other and. also through toys, with boys... Mothers sometimes do engage in this play with their children, but much tess frequently than fathers. It does seem to be a father-child activity, particularly father-boy."

Dr. Maccoby added:

"Mothers seem not to make very much distinction in the way that they play with a son.or with a daughter. They don't seem to be particularly upset if a boy wants to play with the curlers that we provide or some other quite feminine type of toy. The mothers tend to play with things that have a sort of female interest with both sexes of children. Fathers seem to make much more distinction. They do a lot of sort of

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JJ

Comparisons to the May 3rd El Salvador/antimilitarism rally in Washington keep.coming to mind. There was..so much more money available for the trappings of the rally in September even the subway system was rented for the day, and some unions paid for buses and gave members spending money. There were more people and more older people in.. September.. I collected less literature from the groups that usually pass out literature at rallies.

The issues represented in September were those. with broad appeal stated positively (for equality rather than against racism and sexism). There were very few uniformed police officers visible: The May 3rd rally attracted those who often work on social issues. On September 19 this was expanded to the real moral majority, according to a couple of speakers. Sometimes it felt as if I were marching next to my mother and father.

Some of the broad issues represented in September

were peace, equality, jobs, mass transit, OSHA, social security, fair taxes, health care. There was little mention of specific action to accomplish these. Equality was there but not the ERA (at least not from the speakers; ERA signs were passed out by one group and there were occasional chants); health care was there but not the right to choose abortion, lesbian/gay rights were not mentioned except on a large banner carried by marchers.

There was an acknowledgement of differences both by the speakers, the type of entertainment, and the-courtesy of most marchers. For example, regrets were expressed that the rally was held on the Jewish holy day Marchers stood respectfully by during types of songs and chants. that were:-not their favorites. Many speakers, such as Jesse Jackson, urged these diverse people.to work together.

As I glanced around the crowd I tried to imagine working with them. It was difficult when I realized there had been only one speaker who was a woman; and she spoke near the end. Ellie Smeal, President of NOW, said that "women's goals are labor's goals" and that the right-to-work and the non-ratified states are the same. She pledged that the women's movement would. remember its-allies and opposition and was committed to working with any others to keep the rights won in the last 50 years.

How can I work with unions when they did not have even one woman. representing them on the speakers' platform? What do I do with the anger when I am humiliated by lewd remarks at a union meeting or hear a union member say, "Hands off El Salvador, hands on you"? Linda Lavin (Allce on TV) handled it musically by adding a new verse to the song, "Union Maid": "If you call me brother, I'll call you mother-my name is sister".

October, 1981/What She Wants/Page 5