How Does the Prevalence of Gender Stereotypes Differ Amongst Age Groups?

Overview

An experiment was conducted to see whether gender bias varied between generational age groups. Stereotypes have long been apparent in society, even at the beginning of human evolution. As a consequence of the male’s higher reproductive rate, a disparity between parental investment emerged (Geary, 2000; Archer 2009), and men developed a higher affinity for risk-taking and aggression due to competition to find a female partner. Women came to be more dependent and risk-avoidant as they did not face this competition (Archer, 2009; Puts, 2010). Their role of having children, and therefore pregnancy, breastfeeding, and childcare put them at a disadvantage when participating in economic activities (Wood and Eagly, 2012). Stereotypes emerged as a response to these roles. However, recent movements for equality and the internet have spread awareness about the harmful effects of this bias. In this study, it was hypothesized that gender stereotyping has changed throughout different generations, and that the significance of stereotyping would be less in a younger age group (14-19) than two older age groups (20-39 and 40-60, respectively) in the categories of occupation, personality traits, and domestic behaviors. An analysis of the results did support the hypothesis. Overall, the youngest group displayed the most occurrences of having the least bias.

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• JSHS 2022 Category not listed

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