The influence of media on gender roles

• The media can also play an important tole in influencing gender development.

  Children are exposed to stereotypically gendered models in the media - through social media and TV
• Media portrays men as ambitious and independent whereas women are portrayed as dependant.

  These models can powerfully influence the Childs understanding of appropriate behaviour for their gender
• Example

  Girl watches a model on the TV and imitates the model

  Like cutting her hair or doing makeup to look like her

  Include meditational factors and vicarious reinforcement
• Many TV programs are aware of stereotyped gender roles and have attempted to use counter stereotypes. Like female scientists

  However gender schema theory claims that such images will be mis-remembered if they are counter to peoples beliefs
• AO3 - McGhee and Frueh

  Found that children who watched TV more than 25 hours a week were more likely to hold stereotypical ideas about gender than those who watched 10 hours or less

  Supports the role of media in gender development
• AO3 - Jessica Good

  Studied 81 high school students and found that the traditional gender gap between science achievement in girls and boys reversed when students were tested based on text containing only female scientist images.

  When male only images were used - boys scored better than girls

  Practical applications for schools
• AO3

  Difficult to know how much of a part exposure to media models can play in gender roles, as most children are exposed to some kind of media and therefore no control group for comparison