Over half of primary school children are convinced that in life men and women have distinct social roles: the former of power and command, the latter of care and nurturing (medium-high adherence to the stereotyped male role, 58.6%; female, 52.9%). Among Italian adolescents, and therefore with increasing age and exposure to extrafamilial secondary socialization environments, the sexist ideas instilled by gender stereotypes only weaken, particularly among girls (medium-high adherence to the stereotyped male role, 28.3%; female, 30.8%). These are the data collected by the Social Change, Evaluation and Methods (MUSA) group of the Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies of the National Research Council (CNR-IRPPS), which has produced a Guide: ‘Gender Stereotypes’ to teach young people, parents and teachers how to deconstruct them.
Simple questions, such as: ‘What is a stereotype?’ ‘What are gender roles?’, ‘How do we assume them?’, ‘What do they feed on?’, ‘What are the effects?’, ‘When should they be dismantled?’, are met with brief and clear answers, developed by experts.
The Guide, explains Antonio Tintori, CNR-IRPPS researcher and coordinator of the MUSA team, was created to meet the requests received from numerous schools of all levels throughout Italy: to have an additional tool to raise awareness and educate new generations in overcoming stereotypes that, even in subtle ways, can influence the life choices of children and adolescents.
“Very many Italian adolescents explicitly approve of violence and discrimination: 2 out of 10 openly declare themselves homophobic and 1 out of 10 are racist and sexist,” explains Antonio Tintori. “Moreover, about 3 out of 10 are unable to recognize acts such as insults, coercion, and threats as violent, just as they fail to recognize a gender stereotype, which is the primary form of social conditioning that we ‘contract’ in the very first years of life, predominantly within the family. This is, in fact, the primary site of reproduction of social inequalities, although adults are usually not even aware that they are the first agents of transmission of this extremely powerful social conditioning, which is at the origin of the many asymmetries between men and women in the private, family, work, and economic spheres, as well as a cause of violence.”
Focusing on the youngest, with the positive complicity of parents and teachers, is the path to follow if we truly want to raise tomorrow’s adults with critical thinking and free capacity for analysis and judgment. Indeed, “Gender stereotypes are reproduced through ‘binary socialization,’ through distinct educational models for males and females; they feed on widespread social symbolisms, which are apparently innocuous elements but in reality determine the early entrenchment of the corresponding roles: colors (pink and blue), toys (weapons and dolls), false myths (the prince charming and the princess to be saved), distinct sports (soccer and dance). These symbols are scattered everywhere, from language (overextended masculine) to cartoons, from media content to school textbooks, to games, to narratives,” concludes Tintori.
In addition to the Guide, the MUSA project has produced the video spot “Gender Differences at the Roots of Social Roles”, created in collaboration with CNR Web TV.
The Information Sheet
Who: Social Change, Evaluation and Methods (MUSA) research group of the Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies of the National Research Council (CNR-IRPPS)
What: Guide to the deconstruction of gender stereotypes “Gender Stereotypes. Recognizing Them to Dismantle Them” and video spot “Gender Differences at the Roots of Social Roles.”
For information: Antonio Tintori, CNR-IRPPS, tel. 06.492724296, mobile 338.3628178, e-mail: antonio.tintori@cnr.it
– Tintori A., Cerbara L, Ciancimino G. (2023). The State of Adolescence 2023. National Survey on Attitudes and Behaviors of Female and Male Students in Public Upper Secondary Schools. CNR-IRPPS Working papers, no. 135;
– Cerbara L., Ciancimino G., Tintori A. (2022). Are We Still a Sexist Society? Primary Socialisation and Adherence to Gender Roles in Childhood. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health; 19(6), 3408; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063408.
For information:
Antonio Tintori
CNR – Institute for Research on Population and Social Policies
antonio.tintori@cnr.it
Press Office:
Sandra Fiore
CNR – Press Unit
sandra.fiore@cnr.it
Head of Press Office Unit:
Emanuele Guerrini
emanuele.guerrini@cnr.it
ufficiostampa@cnr.it
06 4993 3383
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