Learning Gender from Peers: The Role of Peer Groups in the Cultural Transmission of Gender

Finding that previous research has led to conflicting conclusions about the significance of peer groups in cultural transmission, we investigated the presentation of gender-related information in the fifth and sixth grades of one elementary school. The findings suggest that in some respects student peer groups complement the efforts of adults to socialize children to a set of gender-related norms and values. In other respects the peer groups oppose adult efforts. When viewed from inside the school, the peer groups inculcated students to values and norms contrary to those promoted by school adults; when viewed from outside the school, the peer group's elaborations of gender were compatible with positions and roles assigned to males versus females in the larger society. Thus it appears that peer groups play a distinct and major role in reproducing certain features of the structure of society in successive generations.