This document summarizes a student's research project on how preschool affects children's understanding of gender. The student interviewed parents and children about dress, activities, and friends. The results showed that children who attended preschool were more likely to describe themselves and their friends in gendered ways compared to children who did not attend preschool. However, the sample size was small so conclusions could not be generalized. Overall, the research provided some support that preschool reinforces gender norms, but many factors like home and media also influence children's perceptions of gender.

1. Preschool’s affect on Gender By: Chantel Jordan Sociology 235 Professor Dixon 17 August 2010

2. Why this Matters to me…. I have 4 kids that range in age from 9-3 years old. I always thought that gender had more to do with biology. I had come across an article about “hidden curriculum” in preschools that genders children in another class and it piqued my curiosity.

3. Backgroundmichael Kimmel “the gendered society” “Gender is not simply a system of classification, by which biological males and biological females are sorted, separated, and socialized into equivalent sex roles. Gender also expresses the universal inequality between women and men. When we speak about gender we also speak about hierarchy, power, and inequality, not simply difference.” But what causes these inequalities?

4. Karin a. martin “becoming a gendered body: practices of preschools” Martin believes that adult bodies are not naturally gendered, but rather that they are taught to be this way through hidden curriculums in preschool classrooms. She says that hidden curriculums are “covert lessons that schools teach, and they often a means of social control.” Examples of such things would include things like raising your hand to speak, sitting in a circle with your hands folded in your lap, and using your indoor voice.

5. Martin suggests that before preschool children have the same bodily functions and that the hidden curriculum turns them into “boys and girls, children whose bodily functions are different.” Martin also acknowledges that often times these behaviors start with the families at home and that preschool just “further facilitates and encourages the construction of bodily differences between the genders and makes these differences appear and feel natural.” Does anyone agree?

6. Diana m. grace, barbara j. david, and michelle k. ryan“Investigating preschoolers’ categorical thinking about gender through imitation, attention, and the use of self categories” These authors hit on another area that I think is important, the media, saying that “Boys and girls receive different treatment both at home and at school, and this occurs against a backdrop of media portrayals further differentiating between the roles and status of men and women.” Another important aspect of this study is that they found that children themselves play a role in gendering themselves…

7. They said this is apparent because at around three years of age children show an obvious preference for playing with peers of the same sex. The children also showed an equal desire not to play with peers of the opposite sex. Such behaviors “increase when adults are not present and they appear resistant to attempts to change.” More interestingly this study recognized that such behaviors “tend to occur in group settings.” It’s as if they already know that society feels there is a difference between the sexes.

8. So…what have I learned? Preschool’s hidden curriculum that is used as a means of social control also happens to gender children and aid in turning them into boys and girls, or better yet gentlemen and little ladies. Gendering usually starts in the home and is just furthered by preschool. What children have seen or heard about gender through home, preschool, and various forms of media teaches them gender inequality that they begin to display around age three. These actions are present without the influence of adults and increase in group settings.

9. Hypothesis: Children’s dress, which is constituted by the family, affects the child’s gender the most but that it will be furthered amplified if the child attends preschool. In other words, parents whose children attend preschool with gender their child’s dress more than those parents whose children do not attend preschool.

10. How will I show this? I decided that the best way for me to accomplish this was to observe children and then ask their parents a few questions about their child’s dress and then also ask the kids some questions about what they were wearing. I interviewed a total of 12 parents and children. 6 of which attended some sort of preschool or daycare and 6 of which did not.

11. The interview questions… 1.Does your child’s dress today reflect what they would typically wear? 2.Who picks our what clothes your child wears the majority of the time? 3.What criteria do you use when you buy clothes for your child? 4.Can you tell me a little about the clothes you are wearing today? 5.What are your favorite clothes to wear? 6.What is your favorite game to play? 7.Who is your best friend? For the parents For the children

12. And what did I find?

13. Conclusion: It was shown that the children who go to school dress more for gender than those who did not. I interviewed these children when they were not at school and 3/6 parents said that what their child was wearing was not typical of a normal day. Though, there was only a slight difference and I’m sure that I did not interview enough children for this information to be generalized. More parents of school children picked out their child’s clothes for them due to time constraints, not because they want them to look one way or another, that just seems to be a secondary affect.

14. Some of the reasons listed as criteria for buying clothes were the price (if it was a good deal or not), or if it displayed a character that their child liked. Another factor here was that a lot of the children receive hand me downs. However, all of the parents said that they shopped in the appropriate section for their child’s gender. Most of the parents of boys mentioned that they bought clothes for their son that resembled something that their father would wear. Two parents from each category mentioned that they bought their child at least one item because it was girly.

15. And what did the kids have to say? 4 of the school children described what they were wearing to me using the word boy or girl compared with 2 of the non school children All of the children mentioned Halloween type clothes as their favorite outfits. Including popular characters, firefighter, and ballerina. None of their responses had anything to do with what they were wearing at the time or what their parents said they normally wore.Their responses showed a lot of creativity but also a lot of stereotypical gendering.

16. When I asked the school children what their favorite game was all 6 of them described some sort of gendered activity such as dress up, house, army, or trucks. While on the other hand the non school children all said something that appeared not to be gendered like playing on the playground or hide and seek. I think this may have had something to do with where I interviewed them at as they seemed to be picking things that they were doing then. However, I also think these answers reflect things the children do on a regular basis.

17. 4 of the school children identified their best friend as being the same sex where only two of the non school children did. However, this seemed to have something to do with if that child had siblings or not. Over half the children named a sibling as their best friend. And one child said their mom was their best friend.

18. As you can see it is hard to say without further study what influences a child’s gender perception more, home and family life or school and peers. Though I think that it is whatever the child spends more time doing. Overall I would say that the data I collected supports my hypothesis that children who attend preschool are ore typically gendered than those whose do not but I would not say that it overwhelmingly supports it. I would also say that this data supports my claim that children gendered themselves. This showed in their choice of clothes, activities, and friends. However, I think that gendering may be the secondary affect of a lot of actions, or rather that it is unintentional in most cases.

19. References Grace, D., David, B., & Ryan, M. (2008). Investigating preschoolers’ categorical thinking about gender through imitation, attention, and the use of self-categories. Child Development, 79(6), 1928-1941. Doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2008.01234.x. Kimmel, M. (2010). The gendered society (Fourth ed. ). New York: Oxford University Press. Martin, Karin A. "Becoming a gendered body: Practices of preschools. " American Sociological Review 63.4 (1998): 494-511. Platinum Periodicals, ProQuest. Web. 22 Jul. 2010.