Gender Stereotyping Among School-Going Female and Male Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Study in the Rural Area of Western Maharashtra, India

Abstract Introduction: Gender stereotyping is the generalized and ambiguous impression of an individualchr( 39 )s roles in society based on onechr( 39 )s gender, remarkably difficult to abandon. These biases play an important role in vocational choices. The aim of the current research was to study attitudes towards women, gender stereotyping, and gender biases among adolescent boys and girls from a rural area. Methods: It was a crosssectional study conducted from Sept. 2016 to Aug. 2017 among rural schoolgoing adolescents. A total of 826 samples were included in the study with convenience multistage sampling. Statistical analysis was done using descriptive statistics, chisquare test, and MannWhitney U test. The data entry and analysis were performed using MS Excel and SPSS22 with 5 % significant level. Results: The mean age of 826 participants was 13.99 years with 297 (36%) being males. A higher percentage of the participants had a positive attitude towards females (83.9%) as well as a positive attitude towards crime against women (79.1%). However, gender stereotyping (54.6%) and male bias (58.6%)were present in the majority among them. There was a significant correlation between all the scales and gender (p 0.05); with better attitudes among females. Conclusion: Although the overall attitude towards females was better in adolescents, gender bias remains an important problem.