Gender Interview

Interview Protocol

What chores did you have as a child?
What chores did others in your family have?
How did you parents divide household chores?
What responsibilities did you have as a child?
What games did kids play?
What games did you play?
Were there games that only boys or girls played?
What toys did you have or what presents did you receive as a child?
Was there a time when someone told you you had to do something because you were a girl?

Summary

I interviewed Allison (not her real name) for approximately one hour. Allison is 46, white, and married. Her experiences of gender as a child delineated clear differences in behavior for girls and boys, even though she herself sometimes did not follow the established “rules.”

Chores & Responsibilities. Allison’s chores and responsibilities were hard to differentiate as radically different than her younger brother’s. Some chores might have been a result of being the oldest child or because her brother had a learning disability. Her chores included some that were stereotypically feminine (dishes, babysitting her younger brother, helping with cooking), she also had chores that were less obviously feminine (helped with gardening and yard work). Allison’s brother is four years younger than she is, and she began babysitting him when she was eight. Additionally, as an eight-year-old, Allison would start cooking the evening meal because both parents were working in the field. Much of her cooking involved preparation work, such as peeling potatoes. Later responsibilities included getting her driver’s license at 14 so that she could take her brother to the doctor for allergy shots.

Play. As a child Allison played games and had toys that were a mixture of masculine and feminine. “Chasing the boys,” tetherball, baseball, swinging, red rover, and pretend were school games. Toys included Spirograph, Barbie, a weaving toy, a hula hoop, and a toy with which a person melted plastic in molds. While Allison wanted an Easy-Bake oven and never received it, she also wanted trucks. She noted that she didn’t want the trucks as much as she wanted the Easy-Bake oven, but at the time she did not understand why she did not receive trucks as toys. One game that was usually exclusive to boys was called “Smear.” In it, one person carries a football and everyone else chases them and tries to tackle them. Then another person gets the ball and is chased. Allison was one of the few girls that would play “Smear.”

Socialization. Socialization in Allison’s life came from both home and school. Allison’s father did not do any housework, with the occasional exception of making “Jiffy-Pop” popcorn. “He made popcorn once in a while, but he didn’t share. Mom took care of all house work, Dad didn’t do anything.” Other socialization by her parents were extensions of the “men’s work is outside the house,” theme. “Even though Mom helped Dad in the field, the farm was his, not ‘ours’.” While Allison was rarely told “You have to do _____ because you are a girl,” she was told “You can’t to that.” Even disapproval often was not direct, however. Her mother’s comment on her competitiveness was: “I don’t know where she gets it!” Commenting she was the only girl in high school who rode a “big” motorcycle to school, and was “cool.” A boyfriend in high school had a muscle car, and Allison enjoyed racing others from stoplights with it. Some socialization was more overt. She notes that “boys in school would say ‘You’re a girl, you can’ t do that’.”