Sex role stereotyping among adolescents

This study assesses the effects of gender on children's perceptions and evaluations of pictorial materials. The purpose is to examine whether, like adults, adolescents hold less positive stereotyped views toward the work of females than males. Subjects in seventh and eighth grades are shown one of two paintings and informed that the artist is male or female. They then rated the paintings and artists on several matrices of quality. When presented with identical works by men and women, it is hypothesized that the product identified as having a male creator would receive the higher evaluation. Such results would support the contention that the paintings are differentially perceived and evaluated according to the sex of the artist. Adolescents' cognitive orientation toward a judgmental task that examines the salience of gender is discussed in terms of sensitivity to and interpretation of information provided about the sex of the target.