Doctor/Nurse,Teacher/Caretaker: Children's Gendered Choice of Adult Occupation in Interviews and Role Plays

Abstract

A social constructionist analysis is used here to examine London primary school children's job choices in interview discussions and role play groups. Children's selections are compared according to gender, and according to the different interactive environments in which they made them. By analysing their responses this paper investigates which gendered constructions appeared to prevail, and the ways in which children explain their ideas. Previous studies of children's occupational choices have found their responses to be gender‐stereotypical. This paper shows that in their interviews the children in this study chose a diverse selection of jobs, which were less gender‐stereotypical than found in previous studies. However, a clear dichotomy remained between the attributes of the jobs chosen by the different genders, and few children chose jobs traditionally performed by the opposite sex. Moreover, in their role play groups children's constructions of gender and adult occupation often appeared different, and sometimes more gender‐stereotypical, than those in the interviews.