The underpinnings of gendered parenting: The role of social dominance orientation, gender essentialism, and gender ideology

Gendered parenting refers to parents’ tendency to promote gender-stereotypic behaviors of their young children. We claim that a central source of gendered parenting is parents’ support for social hierarchy (as captured by their social dominance orientation [SDO]). This is expected because parents high on SDO are more likely to think of gender as a biological dichotomy (gender essentialism), and to believe that men and boys belong in different domains than women and girls (a non-egalitarian gender ideology). Israeli parents to preschool children were surveyed (N = 400 in Study 1; N = 401 in Study 2). Across studies, parents were asked to choose a gift for their child as a behavioral measure of gendered parenting. Results supported the predictions, such that parents’ SDO predicted gendered parenting through two sequential mediators: higher levels of gender essentialism and a non-egalitarian gender ideology. We discuss the relevance of these findings for understanding the roots of gendered parenting.