Gender schema

define gender schema

A specific schema (mental framework for organising knowledge) is an organised set of beliefs and expectations related to gender that are derived from experience. As they are derived from experience they can be bias and based on stereotypes. Such schema guide a person’s understanding of their own gender and gender appropriate behaviour in general.

Ingroup

Knowledge about the child’s own gender group e.g. a boy thinking “boys play football”. 

out group

Knowledge about the opposite gender e.g. a girl thinking “boys like sports”. 

define selective attention 

Paying more attention to information that fits your gender schema e.g. a boy ignoring girls playing “house” but paying attention to boys playing football. 

define conformity in this context 

Following behaviours expected for one’s gender e.g. boys joining in a football game because other boys are playing. 

define gender appropriate behaviour

Actions that match cultural expectations for one’s gender e.g. girls playing with dolls, boys playing with cars.

stereotyping

Applying generalised beliefs about what each gender does e.g. believing boys are better at sports and girls are better at cooking. 

gender identity

A child’s recognition of their own gender e.g. “I am a girl”. 

encoding 

Storing new information in memory using existing schemas e.g. seeing a girl cooking and remembering it as “girls cook.” 

memory bias

Remembering information that fits your schema better than information that doesn’t e.g. recalling boys playing with cars more easily than boys playing with dolls. 

Distortion

Misremembering information to make it fit your schema e.g. thinking a girl playing with toy cars was actually a boy because of schema expectations. 

One strength is that it explains why children under 4 show gendered behaviour 

One strength of gender schema theory is that it can explain why children under the age of 4 show gendered behaviour before the age of gender constancy.

For example, Martin and Little tested 3–5-year-olds on gender identity, stability and constancy, as well as on clothing and toy stereotypes, toy preferences and peer preferences. They found that children require only gender identity for their preferences and knowledge to be influenced.

This supports Martin and Halverson’s view that children start forming gender schemas as soon as they develop gender identity (around age 2-3), rather than waiting until gender constancy is achieved, as Kohlberg suggested.

Therefore, the theory provides a more accurate account of the early emergence of gendered thinking and behaviour in young children.

One limitation is that it doesn’t explain tomboys

Nevertheless, a limitation is that gender schema theory cannot explain why different children with much of the same environmental influences respond differently to gender appropriate behaviour.

For example, this theory cannot explain why some girls may prefer action figures and some boys may prefer Barbie dolls.

This suggests that factors such as personality, family dynamics, or biological influences interact with cognitive processes in shaping gender development, something the theory overlooks.

Therefore, Gender Schema Theory may be too simplistic, ignoring the individual differences that contribute to gendered behaviour.

One strength is empirical evidence in support of key principles its based on

Nevertheless, a further strength of gender schema theory is that empirical evidence has found that children pay greater attention to information consistent with gender schemas and remember this information better.

For example, Martin and Halverson found that children aged 5-6 years would show higher recall for gender consistent images and would actually distort gender inconsistent images e.g. remembering a male nurse as a doctor.

This demonstrates memory bias and selective attention, which are key mechanisms proposed by the theory, suggesting that children actively process and store information that aligns with their existing gender schemas.

Such findings therefore provide strong support for the cognitive basis of gender development proposed by Gender Schema Theory.