Gender Stereotypes Summative Project

To whom it may concern:

A study was recently conducted by researchers: Fredrich Yeager, Jordyn Kneise
and Hayden Lewis on the gender stereotypes affecting Westerville North High
School and Westerville City High Schools in general. This study sought to identify
whether gender stereotypes exist at these select schools, which students they affect
and how exactly they affect the students.
108 students in total, ranging in ages from Freshmen to Seniors, took the study.
The participants came from all three of the high schools in the Westerville City
School district, Westerville North High School, Westerville South High School
and Westerville Central High School. The survey was distributed via social media
outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, text and email. All students elected to take the
survey of their own free will and their answers remained anonymous throughout
the entire survey.
The study was divided into four separate questions for clarity purposes, each
covering various topics of gender stereotyping within Westerville City High
Schools. The first question asked was the gender of those participating in the
survey. The purpose of this question was to identify the demographic of
participants and to determine if gender was a factor in whether or not they
believed gender stereotypes exist in Westerville City High Schools and which

gender stereotypes they believed existed. Of these participants, 67% or 72 students

said they were female, 27% or 29 students said they were male, and 6 students or
6% failed to provide a gender or selected other.
The second question the study asked was whether or not the participants believed
gender stereotypes exist at Westerville City High Schools. 87%, or 94 students
said that they believed gender stereotypes did exist at Westerville City High
Schools, and 12% or 13 students said that they did not think that gender
stereotypes existed at Westerville City High Schools. 5%, or four of the female
students surveyed believed that gender stereotypes did not exist, whereas 31%, or
nine of the male students surveyed believed that gender stereotypes existed at
Westerville City Schools. This is a difference of 26%, and clearly shows that male
students have a higher prevalence of thinking that gender stereotypes did not exist
at Westerville City Schools
The third question asked during the study asked participants to select which
gender stereotypes they believed were applied to female students. They were
allowed to select as many or as few as they thought applicable of the categories:
Pink (color), Beauty/Vanity, Fragility, Arts/English, Tidy/Clean/Organized, Petite
and Emotional. Of the students surveyed, 32%, or 35 students, thought that female
students were expected to be associated with pink. 62% of these students were
female, which is lower than would be expected for standard gender distribution
amongst male and female students and 30% of the female students said females

were expected to be associated with pink. On the contrary, 44% of male students
said females were expected to be associated with pink. As these are smaller
percentages of the students, it is possible to conclude that this is a less prevalent
stereotype at Westerville City Schools.
Of the students surveyed, 71%, or 77 students, said females were expected to be
vain or obsessed with beauty. Of these students, 24% were male and 76% were
female, which shows a higher percentage of females than one would expect for
standard gender distribution. In total, 65% of male students said that females were
associated with vanity and beauty, and 80% of female students said that females
were associated with vanity and beauty.
Additionally, 41 students, or 38% said that women were expected to be fragile. Of
these students, 19.5% were male and 79.5% were female, showing that a higher
percentage of female students thought that women are expected to be fragile at
Westerville City High Schools. However, only 45% percent of females said that
women are expected to be fragile and 27.5% of males said that women are
expected to be fragile, leading the study to conclude that this is one of the less
prevalent stereotypes in Westerville City High Schools.
Another category that students were allowed to select was Arts/English. In total,
only 15% of students surveyed, or 19 students, said that they thought women were
expected to be good at Arts/English at Westerville City High Schools. Of these
students, 36.8% were male and 64.2% were female. 24% of male students said that

women were expected to be good at Arts/English and 16.66% of female students

said that women were expected to be good at Arts/English.
Participants were also allowed to select if they thought women were expected to
be tidy or organized. 39%, or 42 students, agreed with this sentiment. 48% of
students surveyed thought that women at Westerville City High Schools were
expected to be petite and 71% of the participants thought that women at
Westerville City High Schools are expected to be emotional.
The last question asked in the survey was formatted in the same manner as the
third question except targeted towards males. The options participants had to
choose from were: Blue (color), Sports, Dirty Jobs (construction, etc.), Leadership
Positions, Math/Science, Mechanics/Cars and Aggressive Behavior. These options
lined up in some cases with options to choose from in the previous question. For
example, 21%, or 23 individuals, thought that men are commonly associated with
the color blue at Westerville City High Schools. This corresponds with females
being associated with the color pink, however 32% of individuals surveyed
thought that females are associated with the color pink. This shows that gender
stereotypes over colors affect females more prevalently than males.
Of the students surveyed, 82% said that male students are expected to like sports.
The percentage of participants that answered this in the affirmative exceeds any
one of the options on the question about female stereotypes. This shows that this
stereotype affects males extraordinarily strongly and is something that Westerville

City Schools should work on to decrease the amount of gender stereotyping

occurring within the academic environment.
31% of the participants said that men are expected to have dirty jobs in fields such
as construction or mechanics. The low turnout rate for this question is to be
expected as the participants all came from a high school background where
relatively few students would have that sort of job, regardless of their gender.
Additionally, recent studies indicate that STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering and Medicine) field jobs are where a large amount of gender
inequality exists as it pertains to the gender demographics of the work place
nowadays and where a large amount of effort has been made to even out this
uneven distribution, even though the largest gender distribution inequality still
exists within construction jobs, and it is possible that people now associate men
more with STEM field jobs than construction jobs.
Of the participants, 35%, or 38 students, said that men are expected to fulfill
leadership positions. Additionally, 35%, or 38 students, said that men are expected
to enjoy mechanics/cars and 59%, or 64 students, said that men are associated with
aggressive behavior.
The last category that participants were allowed to choose from was whether male
students are expected to be good at Math/Science. 19% answered in the
affirmative. This question corresponds directly the question asked in the female
stereotypes question about whether females are expected to be good at

Arts/English. During this question, 15% of the participants answered in the

affirmative. As a difference of 4% lies within the margin of error, it is possible to
conclude that these stereotypes are equally prevalent as suspected.
The general results that can be concluded from this study are that the highest
prevalence of gender stereotypes exists within the expectation of men to like
sports, the expectation of women to be emotional and the expectation of women to
be vain and obsessed with beauty. What can largely be concluded from this study
is that although Westerville City High Schools has come a long way in terms of
abolishing gender stereotypes, it still has a long way to go for both male and
female students before complete gender equality is achieved.
Sincerely,
Jordyn Kneise
Hayden Lewis
Fredrich Yeager