Children’s Job Goals

Interviews with 141 Southern California kindergarten students age 4 to 6 reveal that boys will be boys and girls will be girls. The key question was, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Most children favored occupations traditional to their gender.

The research was conducted for her senior thesis by Scripps College psychology student Cynthia Allison. “My findings confirm some other recent studies showing that today’s young children are extremely traditional, with evidence of stereotypical behavior ranging from occupational choice to preference for toys. And this behavior seems to prevail without regard to sex, income or parental absence or presence,” Allison said.

The interview sampling was drawn randomly at three elementary schools in Claremont. The purpose was to discover children’s perceptions of their gender as well as preference of occupation. Children were also asked how they knew they were a boy or a girl. Both boys and girls related this question to appearance rather than interests or personality, citing such factors as their clothing and the length of their hair, Allison said.

Statistical Analysis

After interviewing, Allison did a statistical analysis and used the 1980 Census figures on gender concentrations in various professions to determine whether an occupation was primarily male or female. The largest numbers of boys wanted to be policemen. The largest numbers of girls wanted to be nurses and teachers. There was, however, a great spread of occupations mentioned and these were, after all, kindergartners. One boy wanted to grow up to be Darth Vader. Allison said she picked children of this age because they are old enough to have a stable gender identity, yet have not been in school long enough to be influenced by social expectations as much as older children.

Very few boys chose female-dominated occupations, according to Allison, but a somewhat higher number of girls chose traditionally male fields. “This may reflect the fact that children of both sexes are aware of the relative power and prestige levels of male-dominated occupations,” Allison said. An equal number of girls and boys said they wanted to be doctors. Three girls picked dentistry and several wanted to be veterinarians.

If she pursued this research, she would include factors left out of this study, she said, such as the occupations of the children’s parents.