Gendered Journeys: Children's Writing and the Construction of Gender

Abstract

This study examines samples of primary-school-aged children's writing to identify and describe the various ways in which boys and girls use language to construct meaning, and to discuss the gendered ways of knowing and being which are thus revealed and constructed. Findings indicate that girls generally write longer, more complex texts, using a wider range of both verbs and adjectives and developing their texts with more focus on description and elaboration. Boys' writing tends to be more 'event oriented' and is much more egocentric: they are more likely than girls to use the first person singular pronoun, and are less likely than girls to remove themselves from the centre of the action. The results of this analysis reveal significant differences in the ways in which boys and girls use written language to construct meaning. The patterns of use of pronouns, adjectives and verbs found in the texts reveal a world where children are actively constructing themselves as gendered individuals, particularly in terms of how they construct agency. These results indicate that the subtle and complex linguistic choices made by children, and the very act of writing, not only reveal but actively construct deeply embedded gendered characteristics and behaviours.