Achievements of male and female storybook characters as determinants of achievement behavior by boys and girls.

Abstract

The effects of achievement behavior by male and female storybook models on children's own achievement behavior was assessed. Preschoolers heard either a stereotype story depicting achievement behavior by a male, but not by a female, a reversal story depicting achievement behavior by a female, but not by a male, or a control story depicting no achievement behavior by any character. As predicted, a significant Sex X Storybook interaction effect was obtained: Boys persisted longer on a task after hearing a story depicting achievement behavior by a male character than after a story depicting the same behavior by a female, while a nonsignificant trend in the opposite direction was observed for girls. Some additional findings were: Boys were less likely than girls to recall the female character's behavior; and both sexes manifested chauvinistic tendencies in preferences for a same-sex character. These findings are discussed in the context of research demonstrating that most children's books parallel the stereotype story in their portrayal of the sexes. Recent years have witnessed a growing concern over the underrepresentation of women in achieving roles in our society; for example, only 3.6% of the country's lawyers, 9.3% of the doctors, and 16.3% of managers and administrators are women (U.S. Bureau of Census, 1972). The question remains of what can be done to expand women's role. One crucial line of attack is, of course, at the societal level, and we thus find that efforts are being directed toward changing women's legal rights and employment and edu