In their article Jett-Simpson and Masland analyzed children's stories for attitudes and opinions that signaled gender stereotypes. Their study consisted of an equal number of elementary school boys and girls, totaling 66, who told stories about a set of pictures. The pictures were of a baseball game and the main character was a girl. The pictures were designed to elicit a story problem and a resolution to the problem.
The study found that the story problems the boys and girls created were similar in content. The common story problem portrayed the main character being denied the right to play baseball because she was a girl. Rejection was also attributed to the main character's assumed lack of ability to play.
In response to the problem boy storytellers said the girl left the scene after she was rejected from playing. Boys also said the girl offered something to the boys in return for letting her play. Girl storytellers said the girl was aggressive and demonstrated her ability to play, despite derogatory comments from the boys.
If the girl played in the end of their stories, the boys said she played because of her own initiative. The girls said the girl played only because the boys allowed her to participate. Half of the girl storytellers and a quarter of the boy storytellers said the main character experienced success when she played.
Jett-Simpson and Masland suggested three places where a language arts teacher should pay particular attention to gender issues. First was when the students worked in small groups. The second place was when the teacher formed questions for discussion. Finally, literature provided by the teacher should not contain gender stereotypes.
The authors concluded that with gender inequality being a prevalent
part of our society, teachers must help their students identify
where it exists in the classroom and school environment.
Jett-Simpson and Masland focused their study on elementary school students. I think the elementary level is an ideal place to enforce gender equality. What children learn when they are young sticks with them throughout their lives. Children should be taught when they are young about gender equality.
In their article Jett-Simpson and Masland chose pictures of baseball game content for their study. They said they chose baseball because it is an elementary activity typically dominated by males but one many females are also interested in playing. I think the study would have been more beneficial if pictures of a generally female dominated activity would have been used also. By using a variety of pictures I think they would have gotten more accurate and unbiased data. The authors of the article did not analyze the results of their study in the article itself. They left the data unanalyzed for the reader to interpret. I think the study would have been more useful if the results of the study would have been explained. The study would have also been more helpful if the pictures would have been included in the article.
As a reader I interpreted some gender stereotypes in the stories that the children told for the study. Some reasons that were given for why the girl was not allowed to play involved gender stereotyping. The reasons given for the denial included "girls are not suppose to play" and "they don't like her because she is a girl." Another place where gender inequality was displayed was when the boy storytellers said the girl left the scene after she was denied the right to play. I interpreted this to mean that the boys were feeling dominant and powerful by not allowing the girl play. One thing that is not considered in the study is that in elementary school there is often a "boy germs" and "girl germs" syndrome that goes around. Boys do not like girls and girls do not like boys. This may be why the boys did not want the girl to play.
The authors discussed in their article some components of language arts programs that could be used to obtain a gender fair classroom. When children are working in small groups a teacher needs to watch for individuals trying to dominate the conversation. The teachers should aim for each child in the group to share their ideas equally. Discussion questions and literature can be completely male or female focused. Teachers need to involve both sexes equally. The choice of questions and literature should equally present both sexes who do not have a limited range of behavior because of their gender.
The study by Jett-Simpson and Masland showed that gender stereotypes
existed in the stories that the children told. The article did
not make it clear how the study provided teachers with information
on how to confront gender stereotypes in the classroom. Nonetheless,
the language arts classroom has become an important place to provide
both teachers and students with opportunities to identify and
explore the impact of gender discrimination.
©Kari Nystrom, Winona (MN) State University, 30 January 1997. This document may be freely distributed for educational use as long as this notice of its authorship accompanies its distribution.
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