A Lab of Her Own?

Television teaches children gender-specific behaviors, attitudes, and characteristics. By observing male and female characters on television, children learn to label certain characteristics and behaviors as masculine or feminine and to assign traditional gender-role stereotypes to careers. This study examines the portrayals of female characters on four popular television series for children and discusses those portrayals in the light of other research on television and socialization. The study found that over twice as many male characters as female characters and twice as many male scientists as female scientists were shown on these series. Females were most often seen as pupils or apprentices, laboratory assistants, or science reporters, and less often as expert scientists. Of the 86 females appearing in these programs, 68 were portrayed in secondary roles as students or laboratory assistants.