Sesame Street programs are perpetuating the subjugated role of females by presenting a picture of male-dominated society while portraying females in roles of following, cleaning, mothering and imitating, and as being of limited intelligence, subservient and passive. Analysis of a randomly chosen Sesame Street program (#189) shows how the series…

This report describes a follow-up study of the persistence of the effects of the FREESTYLE experiment, which had indicated that this television series was capable of bringing about large changes in the sex role orientation of 9-to-12-year-olds. Designed to determine whether the effects associated with a 4 month media intervention could be found to…

Television's combination of wide appeal and potential for distortion is giving advocates of equality for the sexes concern about its influence in perpetuating sexist notions. (Editor)

Describes a study that examined the portrayals of female characters on four educational science television series for children and discusses those portrayals in the light of other research on television and socialization. Topics include children's perceptions of occupational sex roles; theories of sex-role development; and implications for future…

Study of secondary school pupils' reactions to viewing careers education materials in which people were shown in occupations traditionally associated with the opposite sex found that young adolescents viewing counter-stereotyped programs were no less stereotyped in career beliefs. Results are discussed in terms of resilience of sex role in…

Reviews effects of television on various aspects of children's behavior, including learning through passive viewing, lowered attention span, school achievement and reading, aggression, sex role stereotyping, and prosocial behaviors. Concluding sections focus on effects of television on family life and point out ways parents and teachers can better…

Television teaches children gender-specific behaviors, attitudes, characteristics, and personality traits. Research indicates that by observing male and female characters on television, children learn to label certain characteristics and behaviors as masculine or feminine and to assign traditional sex-role stereotypes to careers. Content studies…

Television programming has long been recognized as an effective method of educating children. This paper investigated the degree of exposure an educational children's program, Sesame Street, gave to female and male characters and the extent to which these characters were stereotypically portrayed. Children's Television Workshop produces 110…

In this collection of papers, 10 social researchers and mental health specialists review and assess the state of the art in relevant areas of their expertise to provide an up-to-date and comprehensive account of the role of television as a teacher. An overview of issues, findings, and recommendations by Elizabeth J. Roberts is followed by nine…

Project "Freestyle" involved the development of prototypical television materials and a comic book intended to combat sex-role stereotyping in the career-related attitudes of nine to twelve-year-old children. This paper reports the results of four types of research conducted during the early development of the television series to…

This study is the main element of the summative evaluation of "Freestyle," a television series on sex-role stereotyping and career awareness. The series was developed for fourth to sixth graders viewing it at home or at school and contains 13 half-hour episodes. In seven test sites across the country, 268 teachers used…

This case study is one element of the summative evaluation of "Freestyle," a television series on sex-role stereotyping and career awareness. The series was developed for fourth to sixth graders viewing it at home or at school. The goal of this study was to organize the history of the project so as to present transferable lessons to the…