Gender-linked Stereotypic Content in Youth Magazines

Devon Cadwell-Bazata, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Document Type Thesis

Copyright 2007, Devon Cadwell-Bazata. Used by permission

Abstract

This study evaluates youth magazines aimed at or read by three different target audiences--boys, girls, boys and girls--and examines whether the magazines reinforce gender stereotypes, and whether the intended audience makes a difference in that reinforcement or lack of it.

First, this study established a theoretical framework upon which the selection of the target age group for the sample was based. Piaget and Kohlberg's seminal work, and Gilligan and other feminist theory, is considered in the context of the results. Second, it defined stereotypic, counter-stereotypic, and gender-neutral attributes based on five previous peer-reviewed studies dating from 1957-1975, and confirmed the validity of the attributes in 2006 with an external validity test. Third, the study gathered empirical evidence from the magazines over a six-month publishing period, and evaluated the levels of gender-biased content.

The study found empirical evidence of a relationship between the level of gender-biased content and the intended target audience. The media, in the magazines evaluated for the current study, appear to be reinforcing the male standard as a gender stereotype.

All magazines in the study featured more gender-neutral content than gender-biased content. However, when the levels of gender-biased content were compared, girls' magazines featured significantly more gender-biased text (both stereotypic and counter-stereotypic) than magazines aimed at the other two audiences.

The study found a secondary relationship between gender composition of the editorial staff of the magazines (as listed in the masthead) and the level of gender-biased content.

Advisor: Charlyne Berens