Gender Style as Form and Content: An Examination of Gender Stereotypes in the Subject Preference of Children's Drawing

Colouring in the Blanks: Memory Drawings of the 1990 Kuwait Invasion

“…Even though boys were also under the maternal umbrella, their gender status may have made it possible for them to be out of doors and thus they were more aware of military presence as social models. Truman's (1999) research supported her hypothesis in which girls favoured realism and domesticity, and boys favoured fantasy and aggression. She also noted that 'Boys tended to have more human figures in their drawings than girls which is counter to the findings in the literature' (Truman 1999, 46).…”

“…Boys tended to use more rectilinear lines than girls who preferred more curvilinear lines (Truman 1999, 47). Truman's (1999) hypothesis shows the females' drawings, in particular the symbolic ones, to be rich in blended colour and curved lines ( Figure 10), as opposed to the males' drawings in which colours are segmented and drawn sharply (Figures 11 and 15). However, the blends and intensity in the females' drawings could have been influenced by the medium (oil pastels) not being included in the art kits used by the males.…”

The Structure of Artistic and Aesthetic Abilities in School Children

“…In a later literature review, Colbert (2000) concluded that girls were more likely to idealize beauty in art, drawing pictures with flowers and rainbows and pretty dresses, while boys preferred to draw action scenes or scenes with violence. Tuman (1999) compared children in first through fifth grades, and found that boys' art contained more elements of fantasy, violence, and action; girls' art was more realistic, tranquil, and humanistic or socially oriented. Girls also used more color than boys.…”

Gender-Differentiated Behaviour Traits of Elementary School Pupils in Identical Visual Arts Learning Situations

“…Since the beginning of the twentieth century, scores of research projects have compared the artistic output of boys and girls of all ages. This has resulted in a considerable amount of data, the analyses of which point to significant, recurring gender-determined differences in the drawings done, regardless of culture (Kellog, 1967;Feinburg, 1977;McNiff, 1982;Flannery & Watson, 1995;Rogers, 1995;Speck, 1995;Chen & Kantner, 1996;Salkind & Salkind, 1997;Duncum, 1997;Tuman, 1999Tuman, , 2000Golomb, 2004). Comparative analyses of freehand drawings by boys and girls reveal similarities to the masculine/feminine traits found in the previously mentioned studies.…”