Overall, the majority of children attribute notions of power and money to the male figure, according to a study. However, this trend is more significant among young boys.
Children would associate the notion of power with the male figure from an early age. At least that’s what researchers say. from the Marc Jeannerod Institute of Cognitive Sciences and the universities of Oslo (Norway), Lausanne and Neuchâtel (Switzerland), which conducted a study on more than 900 children aged 3 to 6, from France, Norway and Lebanon. Their results were published in the journal Sex Roles.
First experience
The scientists showed the children a picture, representing two non-gendered characters, one of which had a dominant posture and the other of subordination. The children were asked to determine which character dominated the other and finally, to assign a gender to each of them.
“The results reveal that from the age of four, a large majority of children consider that the dominant character is a boy”, specifies the CNRS in a communicated. This association has been observed in young boys and girls in Lebanon, France and Norway. However, it would seem that this representation is less significant at the age of 3 years.
Second experience
Secondly, children aged 4 to 5, all educated in France, had to imagine that they were one of the two characters represented in the image in question. The vast majority of them identified with the power figure when they had to imagine themselves in front of a child of the same sex. But when they had to represent themselves in front of a child of the opposite sex, most of the boys chose the figure of domination, when the girls did not identify more with one than with the other.
Third experience
Finally, children aged 4 to 5 from France and Lebanon attended two puppet shows, and had to guess which was a woman and which was a man. The researchers arranged for one of the puppets to impose their choices on the other, and then, during the second performance, they had money to buy ice cream. The majority of the children identified the puppet who imposed his choices and the one who had the money as the male figure.
“These results show an early sensitivity of children to a hierarchy between the sexes, although girls, in certain situations, do not associate power and masculinity”, concludes the CNRS.
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