Maternal Employment and the Development of Sex-Role Stereotyping in Five- to Eleven-Year-Old Girls

Abstract

MARANTZ, SONIA A., and MANSFIELD, ANNICK F. Maternal Employment and the Development of Sex-Role Stereotyping in Fiveto Eleven-Year-Old Girls. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 668673. The aim of the study was to investigate the impact of maternal work status on children's sexrole stereotypes. 2 primary hypotheses were confirmed: (1) daughters of working mothers had fewer sex-role stereotypes than daughters of nonworking mothers, and (2) the stereotyping of both groups relaxed with increasing age. According to multiple-regression analyses, maternal work status and child's age were equal predictors of the girls' sex typing of activities, work status was the stronger predictor of stereotypes about masculine and feminine personality traits, and age was the stronger predictor of sex appropriateness of career aspirations. Stereotyping was maximally influenced by maternal work status at ages 7-8; 5-6-year-olds showed rigid stereotyping and 9-11-year-olds little stereotyping, regardless of the life-style modeled by their mothers. Fathers' participation in household chores, while associated with maternal employment, had no independent effect on daughters' sex-role stereotyping. The more satisfied the daughter, the less her stereotyping.