“The parent trap”: gender stereotypes and parenting roles in an Australian parenting website

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective Gender role stereotypes play an important role in all areas of human development, and parents play a vital role in the formation and development of these stereotypes in children. Parents’ attitudes and beliefs about gender roles may be influenced by the parenting information and messages they receive. We aimed to determine the extent to which gender stereotypes and traditional parenting roles were portrayed in an officially endorsed online resource for parents of infants and toddlers. Method A quantitative content analysis of an Australian government supported parenting website was conducted. We explored the ways in which child and adult gender roles are represented. Specifically, we examined the frequency of stereotypical pronoun use, stereotypical content and implicit and explicit presentation. Method The website contains little evidence of child gender stereotypical portrayals, with approximately 6% of content gender-stereotypical and 3% counter-stereotypical. However, traditional parenting roles were more commonly referenced. Conclusions The direct addressal of fathers in specific “for dad” pages and use of neutral parent references (mostly “you”) throughout the website suggests an underlying assumption that mothers were accessing the website and therefore, information was tailored to mothers. By implicitly encouraging traditional parenting roles, traditional gender roles may be reinforced. KEY POINTS What is already known about this topic: (1) Gender role stereotypes are pervasive and influence child development. (2) Parents commonly seek guidance and information about raising children online and the information and messages they find serve as a potential source of influence on parents’ attitudes, beliefs and gender role stereotypes. (3) Little is known about how information about gender is communicated to parents online. What this topic adds: (1) Information presented to parents in a government supported website contains little evidence of child gender stereotypical portrayals. (2) Traditional parenting roles were more commonly referenced on the website. (3) Sections specifically addressed to fathers suggests website information was implicitly targeted to mothers.