Gender

Many major themes, which we feel influence children’s choices of role models, arose from our research. We believe gender is a factor when our student participants chose their role models. In our research we found eleven students identified males and twelve students chose females as their role models. When we delved deeper into our findings our interest in whom the students chose was heightened. Nine boys named a “same gender person” (Anderson & Cavallaro, 2002, p. 165), while ten girls chose females. Only one boy chose a female, and three girls identified males. Seven boys named professional male sport figures, athletes or teams, and only two girls chose female athletes. Family members were mentioned prominently: seven girls chose mothers, sisters, or cousins (females), two girls chose their grandfathers. One male entertainer (singer) was chosen by a boy, as well, a girl chose a female singer/actress. Two boys chose superheroes (fantasy), however, one boy chose Spiderman and the other boy chose Wonder Woman. Lastly, one girl chose an occupation (astronaut).

In analyzing our findings, attributes used to describe male and female role models were distinct and gender related. Boys used definitive terms, such as: athletic, strong, fight, leadership, brave, smart, hard worker, and tough to describe their male role models. One example was a Grade Seven boy who described his hockey role model, Trevor Linden, as having “great leadership.” However, Nathan, who chose a female superhero, described her as “…tough … protects the land … and she is strong.”

Our discovery echoes the sentiment in Anderson and Caballero’s (2002) article that boys tend to emulate same sex models, but will choose a female model when she displays male characteristics. In contrast, the girls presented their female role models in descriptors such as being: kind, nice, helping, smart, pretty, having a nice voice, happy, and funny. Praia, a kindergartener, said her “… mum takes care of me. She helps me and family people.” One Grade Seven student, Alyssa, described her mother in this way: “(she) makes me feel better after I have been emotionally hurt.”

In our research, we found the thirteen girl respondents identified both female (77%) and male (30%) role models. Only one boy chose a female role model. These features are consistent to the findings in Anderson and Cavallaro’s (2002), Bromnick and Swallow’s (1999), and Gibson and Cordova’s (1999) articles, where females chose male and female role models, and the male participates rarely chose a female role model. Bromnick and Swallow (1999) clearly state, “it appeared acceptable for the young women to admire a man, but not vice versa” (para. 31).

Most of the literature we have reviewed pertaining to role models indicates it is not very common for boys to choose females. Usually, males tend to choose females when the females are in positions of power (Anderson & Cavallaro, 2002). It could be argued that Wonder Woman is a woman with power. Furthermore, when opposite sex models are chosen, girls tend to choose them more than boys probably because boys are more rigidly sex-typed than girls (Anderson, 2001). This point was articulated vividly when the teacher researcher asked the Grade Three students if they could pick a role model of the opposite sex and most said yes. One girl said, “I couldn’t think of a male role model right now.” One of the boys said, “I would never ever pick a female.” Another boy commented, “I was going to pick a female, but people would laugh at me. All the boys picked boys so they would laugh at me.” The boy who did choose a female placed his hand on his paper to cover up the name of his role model so his peers would not see. These examples illustrate that gender, as well as peer pressure, play a part in who students’ role models are or at least who they tell us their role models are.