Over the last few weeks, I, along with my colleague Widya Kumarasinghe, have been working on finalising the final report based on research we conducted on children’s media and gender roles in Sri Lanka. Over a few columns, I will endeavour to provide a snapshot of what we looked at and why, ahead of the publication of the final report before the end of the year. It is generally accepted that early gender socialisation is one of the most pertinent issues in early childhood, affecting both male and female children. The foundations for stereotypes in gender roles are laid through early gender socialisation and are a process of learning cultural roles according to one’s sex. This is influenced in a variety of ways including by parental and societal expectations from children, their selection of gender-specific toys, and/or giving gender-based assignments. All these actions seem to define a differentiating socialisation process that has been termed as “gender socialisation” (UNICEF, 2007). There is evidence to show that the gender roles that have been encountered in childhood have a significant role to play in shaping an individual’s self-concept and influence the way he or she forms relationships later on in life and thus has a significant long-term impact (Beal, 1994). In early childhood, gender roles become apparent in patterns of play and until 1983, these differences were ignored in studies of the differences between boys and girls. However, recent research has shed light on these sex differences. According to research, by the age of three, children can differentiate toys typically used by boys or girls and begin to play with children of their own gender in activities identified with that gender, and by the age of four, they have a stable sense of gender identity and learn gender role behaviour (Rafferty, 2018). By the age of 10, these roles are set rigidly – the Global Early Adolescent Study found that girls approaching adolescence are considered vulnerable and protected, while boys are set free to roam and explore, and that has consequences for their behaviour and expectations throughout their life. The authors say interventions to change gender stereotyping need to happen at a much earlier age. By the age of 10, it can be too late. “Adolescent health risks are shaped by behaviours rooted in gender roles that can be well established in kids by the time they are 10 or 11 years old” (Chandra-Mouli, et al., 2017). The first major exposure to gender roles typically comes from a child’s parents. Children are often dressed in gender-specific clothing and given gender-specific toys from birth. Parents may encourage children to participate in sex-typed play, such as girls playing with dolls and boys playing with trucks. Parents may also model gender normative behaviour, both unintentionally and intentionally. Parental disapproval for failing to comply with gender norms and parental approval for successful compliance with these norms can serve to solidify children’s understanding of gender roles (Witt, 1997). Young children aged around four to five years old have also been shown to possess very strong gender stereotypes. In addition to parents’ and teachers’ intentional efforts to shape gender roles, children also learn through mass media which they are exposed to every day (Banerjee and Lintern, 2000). Researchers also argue that as a child explores those things in life that they may enjoy, the acceptance or criticism of their peers is crucial in whether they will continue to perform an activity. Self-socialisation drives the interaction between children throughout their young lives and encourages the gap between males and females and helps to reinforce gender roles as the child continues to grow (Parke, 2009). The role of media Media consumption undeniably has a substantial sociological impact on children, and this includes the books they read, images they encounter in the media, the toys they play with, and the programmes they watch. A research entitled “The 30-Second Effect: An Experiment Revealing the Impact of Television Commercials on Food Preferences of Preschoolers” on children’s commercials argued that the emphasis on food and appearance for girls was a possible influence in the appearance of eating disorders being higher in girls than in boys. The study also found that even brief exposures to televised food commercials can influence preschool children’s food preferences and said: “Nutritionists and health educators should advise parents to limit their preschooler’s exposure to television advertisements” (Borzekowski & Robinson, 2001). In a 2004 study, Jordan was able to trace the relationship between children’s media exposures and their ecological contexts being able to show the impact of television on children’s development and the need for more research in the field of children and media (Jordan, 2004). Extensive work has been done on looking at gender stereotyping with children’s media – from Disney films (Hoerrner, 1996) to how stereotypes that are embedded in television programmes affect girls’ and boys’ performance, motivational dispositions, or attitudes (Eike, et al., 2018). Researchers have found that between the ages of four and five, within a set of gender-specific social and behavioural norms embedded in family structure, natural play patterns, close friendships, and school life play a large part in shaping an individual’s self-concept and influence the way he or she forms relationships later in life (Beal, 1994). Parents have a key role to play here, as they choose activities that they believe their children will enjoy and value. By choosing their children’s activities through traditional gendered lenses, parents are directly influencing their gender role views and preferences onto their children and shaping expectations (Witt, 1997). Young children aged around four to five years old have been shown to possess very strong gender stereotypes and in addition to parents’ and teachers’ intentional efforts to shape gender roles, children also learn through mass media (television, books, radio, magazines, and newspapers), to which children are exposed to every day (Banerjee & Lintern, 2000). In early childhood education, an important source of such information is the picture books written specifically for the child’s age group, which are often read and reread to them in their impressionable years. In one study, it was found that in picture books for the preschool audience, the male characters played the more active and explorative role and the female characters played the more passive and social role, influencing children’s sense of how their genders are expected to behave (Oskamp, et al., 1996). Television also plays a key role – in a study that analysed the children’s programmes Teletubbies and Barney & Friends, it was found that neither programme showed men and women in non-stereotypical occupational roles, indicating that at an early age, children are exposed to gender-specific occupational expectations. In play roles when it was either time for story time or play time the females played the more passive roles such as setting up a picnic, while the males played the more active roles such as fox chasing (Powell & Abels, 2002). Another study looked at children’s favourite television programmes and found that male characters were still more likely than female characters to answer questions, boss, or order others, show ingenuity, achieve a goal, and eat (Aubrey & Harrison, 2004). This evidence has been emerging for decades – in 1974, a study found that sex-stereotyping was commonplace in children’s television programmes. Males were more often portrayed as aggressive and constructive (building and planning) than females, while females were more likely to be shown as deferent (Sternglanz, 1974). Studies have also been done on other media that children consume. Dietz in 1998 authored a study entitled “An Examination of Violence and Gender Role Portrayals in Video Games: Implications for Gender Socialisation and Aggressive Behaviour” which examined the portrayal of women and the use of violent themes in a sample of 33 popular Nintendo and Sega Genesis videogames. This analysis reveals that traditional gender roles and violence are central to many games in the sample. There were no female characters in 41% of the games with characters. In 28% of these, women were portrayed as sex objects, and while 27% of the games contained socially acceptable aggression 21% of this was directed at women (Dietz, 1998). As mentioned before, Alice Eagly affirms the idea that gender roles are a direct result of one’s social interactions. She calls social behaviour “gender-stereotypic” and says that most of the expectations of gender roles come from the stereotypes associated with them, such as a woman to be kind and compassionate and a man to be in control and independent. “This theory implicates conformity to gender role expectations as a major source of the sexes’ differing behaviour.” As a child explores those things in life that they may enjoy, the acceptance or criticism or their peers is crucial in whether they will continue to perform an activity. Because of these influences, children fall into these patterns and they are instinctually drawn to members of the same sex and begin to adopt behaviour that is considered gender appropriate. This phenomenon is known as self-socialisation and drives the interaction between children throughout their young lives. This instinctive segregation encourages the gap between males and females and helps to reinforce gender roles as the child continues to grow (Parke, 2009). Image Credit Renee Klahr/NPR