Girls’ Expression of Their Own Perspectives in the Presence of Varying Numbers of Boys

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the hypothesis that girls’ expression of their own perspectives would decrease as the ratio of girls to boys decreased. In each of 12 classes, two target girls were observed in three contexts: with four other girls (all-girls group), with two other girls and two boys (girls-in-majority group), and with four boys (girls-in-minority group). The number and duration of episodes in which the target girls clearly took a differing perspective from another child were analysed across the three contexts. Results showed a significant decrease in duration of episodes of firmly taking a different perspective from the all-girls to the girls-in-majority contexts. However, there was no difference in duration of episodes of firmly taking a different perspective between the all-girls and the girls-in-minority contexts. In contrast to previous literature, findings strongly suggest that girls’ expression of their own perspectives is influenced by several mechanisms and not simply the ratio of girls to boys.

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