The Patterns of Children’s and Caregivers’ Gender-Typed Exhibit Choices in a Pop-Up Children’s Museum

A children’s museum is a place to explore and play. It

allows children and caregivers to choose among a variety of exhibits.

We were interested in visitors’ choices to play in exhibits that

included activities typed for their gender. We observed 71 family

groups for 15 minutes each and noted the extent to which children

and caregivers chose exhibits typed for their gender. We found that,

for the majority of the time during our observation, women, men,

and boys chose exhibits that included activities not typed for their

gender, whereas girls spent the majority of the time during our

observation at exhibits that included activities typed for their

gender. These findings suggest that museums may allow for a kind

of freedom from certain expectations for children’s play