Learning Beyond Textbooks: How Mothers’ Education and Job Status Shape Gender Stereotypes
Abstract
The present study, ‘Learning Beyond Textbooks: How Mothers’ Education and Job Status Shape Gender Stereotypes,’ investigates the levels of gender stereotyping among prospective teachers and examines the influence of maternal education and job status, along with the students’ gender and locality, on their gender-role attitudes. A descriptive survey design was employed on a sample of 147 graduate and postgraduate students from teacher education institutions of Bhopal, India. Data were collected using the Gender Stereotypes Scale (Arjun Sekhar PM & J Parameswari, 2020), which demonstrated high reliability (α = 0.85). Findings revealed that 69.4% of respondents held average gender stereotypes, 30.6% displayed low stereotypes, and none exhibited high stereotypes. Four-way ANOVA results indicated that mother’s educational qualification (F = 11.89, p < .001) and Job status (F = 4.22, p < .05) had significant main effects on students’ gender stereotype levels, whereas gender and locality showed no significant influence. Higher maternal education was inversely associated with gender stereotyping, with the lowest stereotypes found among students whose mothers were postgraduates. Working mothers were also linked to lower gender stereotype scores compared to homemakers. Regression analysis confirmed that maternal education, locality, and student gender significantly predicted gender stereotype scores, collectively explaining 33.3% of the variance. The results highlight the pivotal role of maternal factors, especially education, in shaping egalitarian attitudes in future educators. Implications for teacher education and gender sensitization programs are discussed.
Keywords
References
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