Organizing Participation in Cross-Sex Jump Rope: Situating Gender Differences Within Longitudinal Studies of Activities

Abstract

This study investigates how children use directives and forms of exclusion to organize play activity. Elementary school children of mixed ethnicity were observed playing the game of jump rope over the span of 1 month. Girls' dominance in the game was observed to change over time. In mixed-sex groups where boys were learning how to jump, girls frequently set the agenda regarding how the game was to be played. However, as boys gained proficiency in the game, they became equal partners in calling plays and making decisions. Rather than finding differences in directive forms related to gender, I find that the ability to use actions that tell others what to do in a very direct fashion in cross-sex interaction changes over time, as children become more skilled in the activity. Ethnographically based studies are essential to examine how the social orchestration of an activity can change over time.