Article
The Patterns of Children’s and Caregivers’ Gender-Typed Exhibit Choices in a Pop-Up Children’s Museum
Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research
(2022)
Abstract
A children’s museum is a place to explore and play. It
allows children and caregivers to choose among a variety of exhibits.
We were interested in visitors’ choices to play in exhibits that
included activities typed for their gender. We observed 71 family
groups for 15 minutes each and noted the extent to which children
and caregivers chose exhibits typed for their gender. We found that,
for the majority of the time during our observation, women, men,
and boys chose exhibits that included activities not typed for their
gender, whereas girls spent the majority of the time during our
observation at exhibits that included activities typed for their
gender. These findings suggest that museums may allow for a kind
of freedom from certain expectations for children’s play
Keywords
- children’s museums,
- gender,
- gender stereotypes,
- exhibit choice
Disciplines
Publication Date
Winter December 5, 2022
DOI
https://doi.org/10.24839/2325-7342.JN27.4.286
Citation Information
Brandon Garcia, Natassia Aleman-Teweles and Jennifer Dyer-Seymour. "The Patterns of Children’s and Caregivers’ Gender-Typed Exhibit Choices in a Pop-Up Children’s Museum" Psi Chi Journal of Psychological Research Vol. 27 Iss. 4 (2022) p. 286 - 296 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jennifer-dyer-seymour/14/