Reducing Gender Stereotyping in Kindergartners

Abstract

Children's gender stereotypes can affect their learning and performance of gender‐typed behaviors and possibly their learning in general. Perceived competency also is linked significantly with children's gender roles. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate that gender stereotyping and perceived competency could be influenced by the ‘Words Can Hurt You” anti‐bias curriculum. The participants were 36 kindergarten students from a rural Southern town. The first author implemented the program to a kindergarten class for 8 weeks. Another kindergarten class received an equal amount of experimenter attention, but did not receive the anti‐bias curriculum. Each child had his or her gender stereotyping and perceived competency tested before and after the intervention program. Scores from the Gender‐Stereotyped Attitude Scale for Children (GASC) and the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Social Acceptance for Young Children were the dependent variables. Analysis of variance demonstrated that the anti‐bias curriculum increased androgynous responses in kindergarten students. A dramatic change was shown between the experimental‐contrast groups and the pretest‐posttest measures on the GASC, but perceived competency and social acceptance failed to show significant changes.