Gender Stereotyping Among School-Going Female and Male Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study in the Rural Area of Western Maharashtra, India

Abstract

Introduction: Gender stereotyping is the generalized and ambiguous impression of an individual's roles in society based on one's gender, remarkably difficult to abandon. These biases play an important role in vocational choices. The aim of the current research was to study attitudes towards women, gender stereotyping, and gender biases among adolescent boys and girls from a rural area.

Methods: It was a cross-sectional study conducted from Sept. 2016 to Aug. 2017 among rural school-going adolescents. A total of 826 samples were included in the study with convenience multi-stage sampling. Statistical analysis was done using descriptive statistics, chi-square test, and Mann-Whitney U test. The data entry and analysis were performed using MS Excel and SPSS-22 with 5 % significant level.

Results: The mean age of 826 participants was 13.99 years with 297 (36%) being males. A higher percentage of the participants had a positive attitude towards females (83.9%) as well as a positive attitude towards crime against women (79.1%). However, gender stereotyping (54.6%) and male bias (58.6%)were present in the majority among them. There was a significant  correlation between all the scales and gender (p<0.05); with better attitudes among females.

Conclusion: Although the overall attitude towards females was better in adolescents, gender bias remains an important problem.