Gender in Context, Content, and Approach

Comparing Gender Messages in Girl Scout and Boy Scout Handbooks

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2367370
AutoresKathleen E Denny (University of Maryland, College Park), Kathleen Denny (University of Maryland, College Park, autor de correspondencia)
Año2011
Volumen25
Número1
Páginas27-47
Fecha de publicación2011-02-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGender & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0891-2432 • E-ISSN: 1552-3977
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0891243210390517
OpenAlexW2001124489
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas21
Referencias citadas43

I explore gender messages in Boy Scout and Girl Scout handbooks through an analysis of how gender is infused in the context and content of Scout activities as well as in instructions about how the Scouts are to approach these activities. I find that girls are offered more activities intended to be performed in group contexts than are boys. Boys are offered proportionately more activities with scientific content and proportionately fewer artistic activities than are girls. The girls' handbook conveys messages about approaching activities with autonomous and critical thinking, whereas the boys' handbook facilitates intellectual passivity through a reliance on organizational scripts. Taken together, girls' messages promote an 'up-to-date traditional woman' consistent with the Girl Scouts' organizational roots; boys' messages promote an assertive heteronormative masculinity that is offset by facilitating boys' intellectual passivity

Assertiveness · Content analysis · Developmental psychology · Girl · Masculinity · Psychoanalysis · Scripting language · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Psychology · Social Psychology · Sports, Gender, and Society