How Common is Gender Stereotyping among Rural Adolescents? : A Study from Western Maharashtra

Abstract

The present chapter assessed attitudes toward women, gender stereotyping, and gender biases among rural adolescents. Gender stereotyping plays a vital role in vocational choices. Stereotyping is "An oversimplified perception or conception, especially of persons or social groups”.

We conducted a cross-sectional study on 826 rural adolescents from Sept. 2016 to Aug. 2017. Statistical Analysis used descriptive statistics, the chi-square, and the Mann-Whitney U tests.

The mean age of 826 participants was 13.99 years, with 297 (36%) males. There was a significant correlation between all the scales and gender (p<0.05), with better attitudes among females. The participants were more likely to have a positive view toward women (83.9%) and have a positive view toward crime against women (79.1%). However, the majority of them had masculine bias (58.6%) and gender stereotyping (54.6%).  Even though adolescents had a more positive view of women generally, gender bias is still a serious issue.