What Does the Research Suggest?

While researching on the internet, I found many different articles based upon many point of views. When searching for the education facet of the problem of gender stereotypes, I came across many websites run by teachers giving advice to other educators about how to avoid promoting the stereotypes. One of the journals that I read from a professional regarding how gender stereotypes negatively affect teaching was titled, "Stereotypes stop you doing stuff," which gives a clear of the stance of the authors, the National Union of Teachers. The contents of this piece reflect my point of view on the topic, that gender stereotypes only cause problems and limit students' creativity and individuality. It states, "So many of the influences acting on children seem to imply that there are ‘typical’ ways of being a boy or girl, thereby seeking to minimize awareness of the wide variety of gender expression which exists within as well as between the-sexes.” Lack of gender expression is known to create negative effects as well as expanding widespread bigotry about gender roles.

As I said before, I looked to find different points of view from all sides of the spectrum that gender roles in society could possibly affect. I decided to look at how children perceive gender and the specific “identifications” that society gives to each gender. In a YouTube video by AdvertEnticement called “Gender Roles-Interviews With Kids,” the interviewer told each child to point to the doll in which the action applied. (male or female dolls) One of the questions asked, “Which doll likes to clean the house?” All of the children that were interviewed pointed to the female doll. Another question asked, “Which doll goes to work?” All of the children pointed to the male doll. This video was published in 2011. These ideas of gender roles and stereotypes have all been a result of the child’s environment and educational experience. If an important leader or close individual of a child enforces gender stereotypes such as these, our future generations will have warped ways of thinking towards specific genders.

For the next site I visited, I decided to look for a more unbiased and informational approach to the topic that would inform rather than give the opinion of certain people. The site I visited came from a Harvard journal by Bari Walsh, called “Confronting Gender Bias at School” It sounds like it would be advocating for ways that teachers shouldn’t incorporate gender stereotypes into their teaching process, and while it does that, it also gives factual information about the effects that the stereotypes have on students. An example of a fact that it uses to back the argument of the article is, “In a survey of nearly 20,000 students, the report found that 23 percent of girls and 40 percent of boys preferred male political leaders to female. Only 8 percent of girls and 4 percent of boys preferred female political leaders.” Like the last source, this shows the opinions of students, but unlike the last source, this article explains how we can eliminate ideas like these. It gives ways in which students can try to eliminate the imaginary gender barriers that society has put among people.

"STEREO TYPES STOP YOU DOING S TUFF - NUT." National Union of Teachers. The Strategy and Communications Department of The National Union of Teachers, n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.

Walsh, Bari. "Confronting Gender Bias at School | Harvard Graduate ..." Usable Knowledge. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 8 Sept. 2015. Web. 23 Oct. 2016.