Development of the gFUMIE test for measuring implicit gender stereotypes and a preliminary validation with undergraduate students using doctor and florist

We developed a new paper-and-pencil method, the gender-FUMIE (gFUMIE) test, for assessing gender stereotypes in children by adapting the FUMIE test (Mori, Uchida, & Imada, 2008). The test comprises a series of gender-classification tasks using kinship terms, such as “mother” and “father,” with a target concept randomly interspersed among them. By measuring differences in how quickly the target is classified as male or female, gender stereotypes can be assessed efficiently. Before applying the test to children, a preliminary validation was conducted with 70 undergraduate students (41 males and 29 females) using two typical gender-stereotyped occupations: “doctor = male” and “florist = female.” The results revealed a distinct feminine stereotype for “florist,” whereas no clear gender stereotype was observed for “doctor.” Although further verification using other occupations is necessary, the findings suggest that the assessment principle of the gFUMIE test is effective for detecting gender stereotypes using a child-friendly procedure. We expect that a children’s version of the gFUMIE test will serve as a new method for studying the development of gender stereotypes.