Mother-Child Conversations about Gender

This monograph provides the first in-depth look at howmothers and young children talk about gender, to discoverthe potential role of language in fostering gender stereotypes.Mothers and their sons/daughters, who were 2-½,4-½, or 6-½ years of age, were videotaped discussing apicture book that focused on gender. A consistent contrastwas found between mothers’ explicit endorsementof gender stereotypes and implicit emphasis on gender.Although mothers rarely expressed gender stereotypesdirectly, they emphasized gender concepts indirectly, byreferring to gender categories, providing gender labels,contrasting males and females, and giving approval totheir children’s stereotyped statements. With increasingage, children were more focused on gender categoriesand stereotypes, but also more gender-egalitarian.Gender-egalitarian items (e.g., a female firefighter) wereassociated with less overt stereotyping, but also with moreimplicit talk about gender. Altogether, mothers’ languageinput conveys a wealth of subtle messages about genderfrom which children may construct their own beliefs.