Developmental Psychology
Warren O. Eaton

Activity Gender Differences and Stereotypes

Gender differences in activity are believed by some researchers to be an illusion based on sex stereotypes. However, we have shown, using instruments worn by many children over several days, that the differences are real and begin to appear in infancy.

More about Activity Level .

• Many toys are stereotyped for gender roles (e.g., trucks are for boys, dolls for girls).
• Typically, the sex-role valence of a toy is associated with its activity eliciting properties in that "masculine" toys elicit more motor activity than "feminine" toys.
• Does a preschooler choose a toy because of its sex-role value or its activity-eliciting properties?
• We (Eaton, von Bargen, & Keats, 1981) experimentally manipulated descriptions on unseen toys to create a dilemma forcing the choice of one dimension (sex role vs. activity level) over the other (children were between 3- and 6-years of age).
• 78% of children choose on the basis of sex appropriateness.
• The greater the child's understanding of the stability of gender over time, the stronger the importance of sex appropriateness as a toy choice criterion.
  

Attention Task

Activity Differences