Gender and primary school girls

The thesis deals with gender issues. It is divided into two parts, theoretical ? based on literature review and practical ? based on research. The theoretical part deals with the concept of gender as a social construct. It is focused on manifestation of gender stereotypes in various aspects of girl?s and woman?s life. The first chapter defines the most important terms (gender, sex, socialization, identity) and is followed by a chapter dealing with gender stereotypes related to female and male social constructs (of femininity and masculinity). The next part describes manifestation of gender roles, (differences and behaviour) in family. The following chapter shows the picture of woman which is presented in the media (magazines for women, advertisement, publications for children). The last chapter describes manifestation of gender roles in school environment. The practical part presents results of the quantitative and qualitative research. The quantitative research is based on questionnaire investigation. The qualitative research was conducted through controlled interviews. Both types of research were focused on gender problems ? whether the girls participating in the research realize the effects of gender roles and how they perceive them. The result of this research is that girls are aware of pressure based on gender differences. They realize the conflict between their wishes and reality, but they fully respect the traditional gender division of the worl into the male and female world and they lead their lives in accordance with the traditional gender stereotypes