Projects outline

children perspective about gender and gender neutral animation characters.

My driven goal is to learn What is the role of the media

in implementing Gender
Stereotypes?

&

How can we
mobilize the media
in favor of gender
equality?

in order to do so, im planning to design a qualitative study that

will examine childrens perspective about gender and gender neutral
animation characters

Research tool Clinical interview

4 questions will
underlying my study

1. What is the media role in learning first gender stereotypes at young ages?
Nature vs nurture?
How the media affect the formation of gender
schema in young age?
Finding and conclusion of previous studies.

2. What is already done, and what can be done better?

Who are the most popular characters today (2016)?
What are the gendered variables that characterize them?
Are there gender neutral characters that consider to be
popular?

3. Children perspective about gender and gender neutral TV characters.

(I want to learn what is missing in the
gender neutral characters that are
already exist, and what should be done in
order to create gender neutral characters
that children will be able to identify with)

What children like/ dont like about gender neutral character?

Do children ascribe gender features or attribute gender
stereotypes to gender neutral characters?
Can children identify with gender neutral characters? My assumption is that even
though the characters was
designed as gender neutral,
children still categorize it on a
gender basis.

4. Gender Neutral Guideline

Creating a list of to do and not to do when designing
gender neutral program.

Chapters list

Temporary - chapters titles are expected to change on

the fly

A. Intro
B. Theoretical Context

gender schema theory

social cognitive theory

cognition and emotion

conceptual change

Education entertainment

Generative learning theory

C. Literature review

Gender perception at young ages.

TV influence on gender perception.

Popular animation characters

Popular Gender neutral characters

D. Childrens perception about gender
and gender neutral animation characters.

Clinical interviews*

E. Data analysis
F. Results
G. Conclusions
H. Recommendations

A list of to do and not to do when

designing gender neutral program
I. References

*The Interview
Procedure (in progress)
Participants
N=?
Age 3-4

*According to Bem, S. L.(1981)

children around that age start
building gender based schema.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

7.

Documentation and observation

The whole procedure will be recorded by a video camera,

Notes will be taken during and after the interview.

Introduction and icebreakers.

Presenting the characters
Choosing a character
Play time (the child and the character)
Questions about the character
Role play (the child will encouraged to
answer questions from the characters
point of view)
Debriefing (Thank you time)

Milestones
January 2016

Research & research & research

Theoretical framework
Literature review

1.
2.

Gender perception at young ages.

TV influence on gender perception

February 2016

Revising the research question and the intro

according with the insights from the
literature review and the committees
feedback.
Literature review

1.
2.

Popular animation characters

Gender neutral characters

Design of Study

Interview protocol.

Reaching out for participants

Milestones
April 2016

Mars 2016

Revising the Design of study

Data collection interviews

Data Analysis
Interpretation of Findings
Conclusions and recommendations

May 2016

Revising and Editing

Presentation