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Journal of Moral Education

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Children's Moral Orientation: does

the gender of dilemma character
make a difference?
a b b
Carole R. Beal , Andrew Garrod , Kate Ruben , Terri L.
b c
Stewart & Dawn J. Dekle
a
University of Massachusetts , USA
b
Dartmouth College , USA
c
James Madison University , USA
Published online: 07 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Carole R. Beal , Andrew Garrod , Kate Ruben , Terri L. Stewart & Dawn
J. Dekle (1997) Children's Moral Orientation: does the gender of dilemma character make a
difference?, Journal of Moral Education, 26:1, 45-58, DOI: 10.1080/0305724970260103

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 Journal of Moral Education, Vol. 26, No. 1, 1997 45

Children's Moral Orientation: does

the gender of dilemma character
make a difference?
CAROLE R. BEAL
University of Massachusetts, USA
Downloaded by [Universitaetsbibliothek Giessen] at 02:26 01 November 2014

ANDREW GARROD, KATE RUBEN &

TERRI L. STEWART
Dartmouth College, USA
DAWN J. DEKLE
James Madison University, USA

ABSTRACT Previous work has found few gender differences in moral orientation among
children. Two experiments were conducted with third grade children (8-year-olds) to learn if
children's moral orientation would be affected by the gender of dilemma characters: all male, all
female, or mixed gender. Children responded to stories in which animal characters faced a
conflict. Children's suggestions as to how the characters should solve their problems were coded
as expressing a concern for others (care orientation) or a focus on issues of rights and justice
(rights orientation). Both boys and girls showed a small but consistent preference for the care
orientation, and their reasoning was not influenced by the gender of the characters. Children
tended to misremember female animal story characters as male (Experiment 1), unless an
illustration depicting the characters' gender accompanied the text (Experiment 2). Overall, the
results point to the role of children's literature in creating stereotyped expectations about male
and female story characters, and emphasise the initial similarity of boys' and girls' moral
orientation in childhood.

Traditionally, research on moral development has relied on Kohlberg's theoretical

framework, in which moral reasoning is evaluated in terms of the participant's ability
to consider issues of fairness and justice, and to balance the needs of the self and the
larger society. In this framework, moral reasoning has generally been assessed
through responses to standard hypothetical problems such as the Heinz dilemma, in
which a druggist refuses to lower the price of an expensive drug to a man whose wife
is dying of cancer. Responses are evaluated in terms of the participant's ability to
refer to abstract principles of fairness, issues of rights and justice, and the role of
rules and laws in maintaining social order (Colby et al., 1987).
Within the last decade or so, an alternative framework has been presented by

0305-7240/97/010045-14 © 1997 The Norham Foundation

 46 C. R. Beat et al.

Gilligan and her colleagues that raises challenges to Kohlberg's view of moral
orientation as based on principles of rights and justice (Gilligan, 1982; Lyons, 1983;
Gilligan & Attanucci, 1988; Gilligan et al, 1988, 1990). In this view, issues of care,
concern and compassion for others and an interest in preserving interpersonal
relationships reflect another, equally valid orientation. Gilligan and her colleagues
have suggested that hypothetical problems such as the Heinz dilemma tend to elicit
rights-orientated reasoning, and that the care orientation is best observed in
responses to the Real life Moral Dilemma. In this task, the individual is asked to
describe a time when he or she was not sure of the right thing to do. Because each
person identifies a moral problem for him or herself, the real-life dilemma task
allows for the expression of reasoning that reflects the moral orientation of concern
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for others as well as the self, and the goal of preserving important relationships.
A growing concern for researchers has been whether the two moral orientations
proposed by Kohlberg and Gilligan might be linked with gender. The results of
several studies with adult and adolescent participants show mixed findings. In some
cases, women appear generally more likely to express the care orientation than men.
For example, Lyons (1983) found that women were more likely to talk about issues
of care and concern for others when discussing their real-life dilemmas, whereas
men were more likely to include comments about issues of fairness and individual
rights. Similar findings were reported by Gilligan and Attanucci (1988) for adoles-
cents as well as adults. Johnston et al. (1990) and Skoe and Gooden (1993a) also
found that female adolescents described concerns about relationships more often
than males when asked to talk about real-life moral conflicts. However, other studies
reported few consistent gender differences in moral orientation (Walker et al, 1987;
Walker, 1989). In other cases, gender differences appeared to reflect the different
types of real-life problems that were likely to be experienced by men and women
(Rothbart et al, 1986; Pratt et al, 1988).
Although the evidence for gender differences in moral orientation among
adolescents and adults appears somewhat mixed, a related question is whether
gender differences might be apparent earlier in development. Gilligan has suggested
that differences in the early patterns of attachment between mothers and their infant
daughters versus sons might lead to gender differences in moral orientation (Gilligan
& Wiggins, 1987, 1988). In particular, the observation that mothers encourage
warm, close and emotionally responsive relationships with daughters, but foster
independence, detachment and exploration in sons, leads to the prediction that
gender differences in moral orientation might well be established early in childhood.
Thus far, one difficulty with adequately evaluating this prediction has been the lack
of an appropriate task for children; the Kohlberg dilemmas involve content that is far
from children's experience and concerns, and not all children are easily able to think
of or discuss a significant real life moral problem (Garrod et al, 1990).
An important alternative for assessing moral orientation in children is the
"fables task" developed by Johnston (1985, 1988). In this task, children hear stories
about animal characters who face a conflict. For example, in one fable, a family of
Moles kindly agrees to take a homeless Porcupine into their cave for the winter
(Table I). The Porcupine's sharp quills eventually make them so uncomfortable that
 Children's Moral Orientation 47

TABLE I. Example of fable

The Porcupine and the Moles

It was growing cold, and a porcupine was looking for a home. He found a most desirable cave, but saw that it was
already occupied by a family of moles.
"Would you mind if I shared your home for the winter?" the porcupine asked the moles.
The generous moles consented, and the porcupine moved in. But the cave was small, and every time the moles
moved around they were scratched by the porcupine's sharp quills. The moles stood the discomfort as long as they
could. Then at last they gathered up their courage and approached their visitor. "Please leave", they said, "and let
us have our cave to ourselves once again."
"Oh, no", said the porcupine. 'This place suits me very well."

Fable from Johnston (1988).

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they ask him to leave, but he refuses, saying that the cave suits him very well. After
the problem has been posed, the child is asked what the animals should do to solve
their problem. The child's response is coded as expressing a focus on individual
rights and issues of fairness, or an orientation towards care and concern for
maintaining relationships. For example, a child might argue that it is the Moles'
home, they were there first, and they have the right to determine who will remain in
their home. Or, the child might frame the solution in terms of the need to express
care and concern for others and for preserving the relationships among the charac-
ters: it is winter, the Porcupine has nowhere to go, and they could work together to
enlarge the cave so that they would all be comfortable.
The fables task has several advantages for addressing developmental questions
about gender differences. First, although the fables are similar to the Kohlberg
dilemmas in that they are hypothetical, the stories and characters are more engaging
and accessible to elementary school children. Secondly, the content of the fables is
standardised so that all children respond to the same problem; thus, gender
differences can be attributed to differences in boys' and girls' reasoning rather than
to the content of the particular real-life problems being discussed. Thirdly, the fable
dilemmas are structured so that solutions from either moral orientation can be
offered. In the task, after one solution has been expressed by the child, the
experimenter asks the child to consider a solution that reflects the alternative moral
orientation. For example, if the child suggests that the Moles should tell the
Porcupine to go because it is their cave and they were there first, the experimenter
would ask if there is another way that the animals could solve their problem, and
then prompt if necessary with the suggestion, "Some people might say that they
should work together to solve their problem. How could they do that? Why would
that be a good solution?" and finally, "Of all the ideas we talked about, which do you
think would be the best way for the animals to solve their problem?" The task
therefore allows the child to discuss both moral orientations, and ultimately to
choose one as the preferred approach to conflict resolution.
Johnston's (1988) original study included data from adolescent subjects aged
11 and 15 years who responded to the Moles and Porcupines fable described above,
and another fable (Dog in the Manger: see Materials, below). Johnston found that
 48 C. R. Beal et al.

adolescent boys were more likely than girls to suggest solutions expressing an
orientation to rights, and to endorse rights-orientated solutions as best after both
orientations had been considered. However, to date there has been little indication
that such gender differences might exist before adolescence. In fact, two studies with
elementary school students indicated that both boys and girls showed a slight
preference for solutions involving the care orientation (Garrod et al., 1990; Garrod
& Beal, 1993).
The failure to find gender differences in moral orientation during childhood
stands in contrast to the findings for adolescents, and is also inconsistent with
Gilligan's theoretical arguments about the early origins of gender differences. There-
fore, it seemed important to investigate further whether gender differences in moral
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orientation might have been masked by specific aspects of the fables task. One
possibility is that children's reasoning might vary with the gender of the characters
in the fables. In the original task, the animal characters are either male, or their
gender is unspecified in the stories. This is consistent with the pattern observed in
much of children's literature and school textbooks: several studies have shown that
male animal characters outnumber females in children's stories by as much as 95:1,
and male animals are more likely to be shown in illustrations accompanying the text
(Weitzmann et al, 1972; Sadker et ah, 1991; Sadker & Sadker, 1994). Animals
whose gender is not explicitly specified in the text of the story are also much more
likely to be shown as male than female in accompanying illustrations (Beal, 1994).
In addition, when reading stories to toddlers, mothers label gender-neutral animal
characters as male at least 90% of the time (DeLoache et al, 1987; Switzer, 1990).
Thus, children's past experience should lead them to assume that the animal
characters in the fables are male even when their gender is not specifically
mentioned.
Why might the gender of the characters in the fables influence children's
reasoning? First, boys and girls have learned different approaches to handling
conflicts within their peer groups, which generally include others of the same gender.
Boys are more likely to engage in direct confrontations and to discuss rules and
issues of fairness in peer conflicts, whereas girls have been found to use less direct
conflict resolution strategies with their female peers (Langdale, 1993; Beal, 1994).
Thus, children's own experiences with conflict resolution and negotiation would
suggest that different problem-solving stategies might be appropriate or effective for
male and female characters (Langdale, 1993).
A second reason to predict that character gender might influence children's
reasoning is that gender stereotypes about conflict resolution tactics are strongly
reinforced in children's literature, particularly stories and materials in which charac-
ters confront obstacles and challenges. For example, Barnett (1986) found that male
and female characters in children's storybooks were depicted as showing different
styles of helping with problems, with female characters being more likely to help in
an expressive style (e.g. comforting, consoling, providing emotional support)
whereas male characters were more likely to provide instrumental help (e.g. actions
designed to obtain a goal or overcome an obstacle). Tetenbaum and Pearson (1989)
also found that male and female storybook characters were depicted differently; in
 Children's Moral Orientation 49

their review of 50 children's books, female characters were rated as showing a

stronger care morality and more frequent concern for relationships and connections
between the self and others.
Some prior research is also consistent with the possibility that character gender
might be a potentially important influence on children's moral orientation. In
particular, several prior studies have shown that adolescents' and adults' reasoning
on Kohlberg dilemmas varies with the gender of the characters (Freeman & Giebink,
1979; Orchowsky & Jenkins, 1979; Bussey & Maughan, 1982). Although the effects
were somewhat inconsistent across studies, and not always observed (cf. Garwood
et ah, 1980), it seemed important to investigate whether character gender might also
be a potentially important factor on the fables task.
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If children have acquired different expectations about appropriate problem

solving approaches for males and females, then one possibility is that both boys and
girls might suggest more care-orientated solutions in fables that include female
characters. In addition, differences between boys and girls might have been under-
estimated in earlier studies. In particular, girls' concerns about maintaining relation-
ships might not necessarily have been strongly elicited by stories involving male
characters. If so, girls might be especially likely to show an increased orientation to
the care perspective in stories in which the characters were female. In order to
investigate these possibilities, two experiments were conducted with third grade
children (8-year-olds). This age was selected because prior work has shown that the
children are cognitively advanced enough to consider and evaluate both orientations,
allowing us to examine the potential effects of character gender on which moral
orientation is suggested first and which is selected as the best solution (Garrod et al,
1990; Garrod & Beal, 1993).

Experiment 1
Method
Participants. The study included 64 children. In this and the following experiment,
children were drawn from two elementary schools located in a rural, working class
area of New Hampshire. All children attended third grade, and their average age was
8 years, 8 months; almost all where white. Their parents had provided written
consent for their participation. Children were randomly assigned to one of four fable
conditions (described below) with the restriction that there would be equal numbers
of boys and girls in each condition.

Materials. The Fables task (Johnston, 1985, 1988) includes two fables: Porcupine
and Moles (described above) and the Dog in the Manger. In the latter, a dog lies
down for a nap in the ox's manger and refuses to move when the ox returns after a
hard day's work in the fields, ready to eat the hay that the dog is lying on. In the
original fables, the characters' gender is either male or is unspecified. For example,
as may be seen in Table I, the Porcupine is male, as indicated by the pronoun "he",
whereas the Moles' gender is not specified.
 50 C. R. Bed et al.

Four variations of each fable were created in which each character's gender was
specifically mentioned and systematically varied, as follows: (1) both characters were
male, (2) one male (e.g. Moles), one female (e.g. Porcupine), (3) one female (e.g.
Moles), one male (e.g. Porcupine) and (4) both characters female. The fables were
revised by using gender specific pronouns ("he" and "she") to refer to each
character. Each child saw two fables in one of the four gender versions: for example,
Moles-Porcupine male-male, and Dog-Ox male-male.

Procedure. Each child was individually interviewed by a trained assistant in a quiet

room at his or her school. Each child was presented with the Moles and Porcupine
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and Dog in the Manger fables, in counterbalanced order. Following Johnston

(1988), the interviewer first read each fable aloud to the child, and then asked the
child (1) how the animals in the story should solve their problem (first solution), (2)
if there was another solution and (3) what would be the best solution. The
interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed.

Coding. Children's first and best solutions were classified as showing an orientation
to care/concern for others, or an orientation to justice/rights, according to Johnston's
(1985) criteria. Briefly, answers that were judged to invoke impartial principles or
rules, or to refer to duty, standards or obligations, were classified as reflecting an
orientation to rights. For example, references to the Moles' ownership of their home,
their being in the cave first or their obligation to keep their prior promise to the
Porcupine were considered to be rights-orientated solutions. In contrast, solutions
judged to reflect the care orientation focused on ways to maintain the relationship
between the characters, prevent the characters from experiencing harm or suffering
or to promote the welfare of all involved. For example, suggesting that the animals
work together to expand the cave, or that they find the Porcupine another home
nearby, or that they take turns sharing the space, were answers judged to reflect the
care-orientated perspective. Transcripts were coded by a trained research assistant
who was blind to the children's gender. A subset of 16 (4 chosen randomly from
each condition) was independently coded by the first author; agreement was 93 per
cent.

Results and Discussion

As has been found in previous work, almost all responses were scored as either
reflecting the care or rights orientation (cf. Johnston, 1985; Garrod et ah, 1990;
Garrod & Beal, 1993). Therefore, we decided to use as the preliminary dependent
measure the number of responses coded as showing the care perspective. Children's
care responses were summed over the two fables, yielding scores ranging from 0 to
2 for each child's first solution ("How should the animals solve their problem?") and
best solution ("Of all the solutions we talked about, which is the best?"). Mean
scores may be seen in Table II. Initial comparisons showed no effect of fable,
classroom or order of presentation.
 Children's Moral Orientation 51

TABLE II. Mean number of solutions expressing the care orientation

Fable version

Male-male Male-female Female-male Female-female

First solution
Experiment 1
Boys 1.37 1.12 1.50 1.28
Girls 0.77 1.25 0.87 0.88
Experiment 2
Boys 0.60 1.20 1.16 1.00
Girls 1.14 1.14 0.80 1.42
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Best solution
Experiment 1
Boys 1.62 1.12 1.50 1.71
Girls 1.33 1.25 1.50 1.44
Experiment 2
Boys 0.80 1.20 1.50 1.50
Girls 1.43 1.14 1.60 1.00

Maximum score = 2.

The care response scores were analysed in a fable version (MM, MF, FM,
FF) X child gender (boys, girls) X solution (first, best) analysis of variance, with
solution as a within-subjects factor. The results showed a significant effect of
solution, F(l,57) = 6.78, P < 0 . 0 5 . Children were more likely to choose solutions
embodying the care perspective as the best way for the animals to solve their
problem than they were to suggest it initially. This is consistent with earlier findings
showing that children move towards the care orientation when discussing a dilemma
(Garrod et al, 1990; Garrod & Beal, 1993).
The analysis showed no effect of child gender: boys and girls were equally likely
to suggest solutions that embodied the care orientation. Again, this is consistent with
earlier findings showing no overall difference in the moral orientation adopted by
elementary school children (Garrod et al., 1990). Finally, there was no interaction
between child gender and fable version: as may be seen in Table II, children
responded similarly across the four versions. Thus, contrary to our predictions,
children who heard the female-female version of the fables were not more likely to
suggest care-orientated solutions. Also, girls were not more influenced by the gender
of the characters than boys.
Because the absence of a care response almost always indicated the presence of
a rights response, a parallel analysis of rights response scores showed the same
pattern of effects. Also, the inclusion of several ambiguous responses (e.g. child
describes both care and rights orientated solutions in one answer) did not affect the
significant findings.
One possible explanation for the failure to find differences in reasoning due to
the four fable versions was suggested by a review of the transcripts. This revealed
 52 C. 2?. Bed et al.

that in some cases children appeared to misremember the gender of the story
characters, as indicated by the pronouns used in their comments and suggestions
about how the characters would solve their conflict. These memory errors were
more likely when the characters were female: 6 per cent of the children made at least
one such error in referring to a character after hearing the male-male versions, 31
per cent made such errors in the mixed-gender versions (specifically, remembering
female characters as males) and 69 per cent in the female-female fables condition.
Our conclusions were somewhat limited by the fact that these errors were detected
in children's spontaneous comments rather than as the result of direct questioning
about whether the animals were male or female. However, it did appear that
between one- and two-thirds of the children had a fairly pronounced tendency to
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assume that the animal characters were male, even though female pronouns had
been used. Therefore, a second experiment was conducted in which the four fable
versions were supplemented with drawings that emphasised the gender of the
characters.

Experiment 2
Method
Participants. Forty-eight third grade children from the same elementary schools
participated in the second study. As in Experiment 1, children were randomly
assigned to one of four fable conditions.

Materials. The revised fables (male-male, male-female, female-male, female-

female) were used in Experiment 2. In addition, cartoon drawings were prepared for
use as illustrations. The drawings were made with coloured pencil on white card,
9 X 6 inches. A different set of drawings was used for each fable condition (MM,
MF, FM, FF). The animal characters were shown with stereotypical dress cues
indicating their gender: female animals were shown with long curly eyelashes,
wearing skirts, and with pink bows on their heads, whereas male animals were shown
with blue baseball caps, baseball jackets, and trousers. Three drawings were used for
the Moles and Porcupine fable; drawing 1 showed a Mole and Porcupine by the cave
entrance, smiling at one another; drawing 2 showed a sleeping Porcupine filling the
cave and crowding the Mole, who had a distressed expression, against the cave wall,
and drawing 3 showed a Mole pointing to the door and looking at the Porcupine.
Two drawings were used for the Dog and Ox fable. In drawing 1, the Ox was shown
pulling a plough in the fields while the Dog slept on a pile of hay in the barn;
drawing 2 depicted the Ox standing at the barn entrance looking at the Dog who was
sitting up on the hay; the Ox is shown with wide eyes indicating surprise and a
down-turned mouth indicating disappointment.

Procedure. The procedure was the same as in the first experiment, except that as the
 Children's Moral Orientation 53

fable was read to the child, the accompanying drawings were placed on the table as
illustrations. The drawings remained in view throughout the interview for that fable.

Results and Discussion

The first question was whether the illustration helped children notice and remember
the gender of the characters accurately, as intended. In contrast to the first experi-
ment, only three children (6%) made errors in referring to the characters during the
interview. One child recalled a male character as female, and another recalled a
female character as male. The third child made both types of errors, one on each
fable, but quickly corrected himself after each error. Thus, the illustrations did seem
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to be effective in reinforcing the gender information provided by the pronouns in the

fables.
To investigate the effect of character gender on children's moral orientation,
children's responses indicating an orientation to care were summed across the two
fables, yielding scores ranging from 0 to 2. Mean scores for first and best solution
are shown in Table II. These scores were analysed in a fable version (MM, MF, FM,
FF) X child gender (boys, girls) X solution (first, best) analysis of variance, with the
latter as a within-subjects factor. There was an effect of solution, F(l,40) = 3.89,
P< 0.055. Although the effect did not reach conventional levels of significance, it
was consistent in direction with the pattern observed in Experiment 1 and in earlier
studies (Garrod et al., 1990; Garrod & Beal, 1993). There was again no effect of
child gender, and no interaction between gender and fable version. The results
therefore replicated the findings of the first experiment: children's reasoning was not
affected by the gender of the characters in the dilemma, and there were no
differences in moral orientation between boys and girls.

General Discussion
The goal of the present research was to learn if children's reasoning about moral
dilemmas would be influenced by the gender of the characters involved, and if boys
and girls might show different reasoning as a function of gender socialisation with
peers and stereotyped depictions in children's literature. The fables task (Johnston,
1985, 1988) has been used to assess children's moral orientation by presenting
dilemmas involving animal characters who must deal with a conflict, and by asking
children how the characters should solve their problem. In the original task, the
characters are male or gender-neutral. In the present studies, the fables were
modified so that children responded to dilemmas involving all male, mixed gender,
or all female characters. The primary focus was the moral orientation—care or
rights—adopted by children in response to the different versions of the fables.
In both experiments, boys and girls showed very similar reasoning on the fables
task, with both moral orientations being expressed by children of either sex. For
example, many boys spontaneously suggested solutions exemplifying the care orien-
tation. For example, one boy responded to the Moles and Porcupine fable by saying,
"they should make another hole next door so they could both have their own homes
 54 C. R. Beal et al.

and both be friends". Another suggested, "You could get a blanket and cover it over
him so when he rolls over and he bumps you no one will get hurt. . . you can't throw
him out or he will freeze to death". Girls also frequently suggested solutions
exemplifying the rights orientation: "The porcupine should maybe just move out
because it's the moles' home and they were there first. The moles was (sic) asking
the porcupine to get out so maybe he should just leave. Then the moles could have
their own house, the one they built just for them". "He should go because it's not
his house". "She should find a different house because it was the moles' house first".
Across the two experiments, only two children (boys) suggested violence-orientated
solutions: one suggested that the animals should have a duel, and the other said,
"When he [Porcupine] was sleeping, the moles should pull out all the quills so he
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doesn't scratch". Overall, the picture was one of gender similarity rather than
difference in the moral orientations expressed by our sample of third graders.
There was no indication that children's reasoning was influenced by the gender
of the characters in the dilemmas. The results of the second experiment, in which
children saw illustrations emphasising the gender of the characters, provide es-
pecially strong evidence on this point. Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude
that the similarity of boys' and girls' moral orientation is not due to children's failure
to notice or remember whether the characters were male or female. Of course, it is
possible that other manipulations might still elicit different types of reasoning from
boys and girls. For example, the hypothetical and fantasy element of the stories (i.e.
involving talking animals) may have led children to adopt different solution strate-
gies from those that they might have chosen for other tasks. However, there are also
no indications that boys and girls adopt different orientations on the real-life moral
problem task (Walker et al., 1987) or on social perspective-taking tasks such as the
Selman interview (Garrod et al., 1990).
Overall, the present results converge with other findings to suggest that boys'
and girls' reasoning about moral problems appears initially similar in childhood,
even though their experiences growing up as male or female have been quite
different (Walker et al., 1987; Walker, 1989; Langdale, 1993; Beal, 1994). The
growing evidence for gender similarity in childhood presents a challenge to the
suggestion that early differences in patterns of attachment might lead to differences
between males and females in notions of relationships and moral orientation. In
particular, the possibility that males are socialised early to adopt a more individual-
istic, detached perspective on moral problems does not fit well with the present
findings indicating that both boys and girls showed a small but consistent preference
for the care orientation. In fact, children are more likely to choose the care
perspective than they are to suggest it initially, indicating an increased commitment
to this perspective across the interview. Thus, early in development, both boys and
girls appear to understand the importance of solving problems in a way that
considers the needs and concerns of all participants.
Although there is little evidence for gender differences in moral orientation
during childhood, several studies indicate that such differences may appear in early
adolescence. Johnston (1988) found that 11-year-old girls preferred the care orien-
tation whereas boys of the same age showed more of an orientation to rights.
 Children's Moral Orientation 55

Consistent findings were reported by Garrod et al. (1990); in their study of

6-11-year-olds, solutions that involved the use of violence or mean tricks were
suggested only by 11-year-old boys. For example, one boy suggested, "The moles
should shoot him [the Porcupine]" whereas another offered the idea, "Tell him to
go out for two days and they'll let him back in, but then block up the door" (Garrod
et al., 1990, p. 24). Gender differences have also been observed among 11-year-olds
on the Ethic of Care interview, with girls showing a stronger care orientation in
responding to a set of dilemmas involving interpersonal conflicts between family and
friends (Skoe & Gooden, 1993b). Yet, as noted earlier, among adults the picture is
one of greater similarity than difference, at least when men and women respond to
similar types of dilemmas.
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Given that the evidence for gender differences in moral orientation appears
mixed, an important issue for future research is to investigate in more detail the
potential influence of ethnicity and social class. In one study with the fables task,
children from a rural, working class community were somewhat more likely to
emphasise solutions involving the rights of individuals than were children from a
more affluent university suburb (Garrod & Beal, 1993). Similarly, impoverished
Native Canadian adolescents were more likely than affluent white teens to adopt an
orientation emphasising principles of rights, justice and fairness (Garrod & Webster,
1994). Similar findings were reported for adults in a racially diverse sample studied
by Gilligan and Attanucci (1988), with minority students being more likely to adopt
a perspective emphasising rights. Thus far, these studies have not shown gender
differences, in contrast to research showing that girls from relatively affluent, highly
educated, predominantly white familes are especially likely to express the care
orientation (Gilligan et ah, 1990). These preliminary findings suggest that the
salience of a particular moral orientation may depend more on an individual's
situation within the society than on gender, with members of marginalised groups
having greater reason to emphasise principles of fairness and justice. Following this
notion, some researchers have suggested that the expression of the care orientation
in women who have been victimised or abused may reflect others' racist or gender-
stereotypic expectations more than their own individual perspectives (Eugene, 1989;
Puka, 1989). It may be especially important for girls and women to learn to integrate
their concern for others with an appropriate focus on their own needs as individuals,
and this developmental task may be affected by factors such as social status and
ethnicity.
In addition to the findings on moral orientation, the results of the present
studies have implications for research on the impact of sexist language on children.
Previous studies revealed that, like adults, children who hear stories using the
supposedly generic pronoun "he" typically assume that only males are involved
(Hyde, 1984; Fisk, 1985; Switzer, 1990). Other work has shown that children even
make inferences about characters' abilities based on the use of "he" versus "she".
For example, Hyde (1984) found that children who read a description of the
fictitious job of wudge-making using the pronoun "he" assumed that women would
not be good wudge-makers, but those who read a "he or she" version thought that
either sex could do a good job.
 56 C. R. Bed et al.

Although prior work clearly indicates that children are sensitive to the implica-
tions of sexist language, the present data suggest that merely including female
pronouns within a text may not always be sufficient to overcome these stereotypic
expectations. In fact, we found that many third graders remembered story characters
as male even when female pronouns were explicitly used to refer to them, unless
illustrations were included in which gender was clearly and stereotypically depicted.
These results raise a small warning about efforts to create a better gender balance in
classroom materials (Sadker & Sadker, 1994). Recent surveys of textbooks for
elementary school students have shown that although publishers are now including
fewer male characters than in the past, the decline in male characters has been
matched by a corresponding increase in the number of supposedly gender-neutral
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characters, such as animals and other non-human characters such as talking clocks
(Stitt, 1988). Our results suggest that this type of change will be ineffective, and that
even more explicit indications that females are included may be needed to ensure
gender-equitable portrayals in children's textbooks and literature.
Much of the writing on just schools (e.g. Power et ah, 1989) and democratic
schools (e.g. Mosher et ah, 1994) have been directed to senior high schools.
Sadowsky (1992), however, was written eloquently of her success at adapting
democratic structures to fit an elementary school—the Heath School in Brookline,
Massachusetts. Our findings support Sadowsky's extending the concept of demo-
cratic participation and problem solving to the school as a whole and suggest young
children can benefit from democratic schooling in childhood, since elementary
students are shown to be able to appreciate multiple points of view on a problem.
In addition, our work demonstrates that children may be able to appreciate,
understand, and even prefer solutions that are different from those they came up
with on their own initiative. Teachers might take this to mean that they could
suggest alternatives for children, as Sadowsky does, and allow children to arrive at
their own conclusions about the best solution. After years of running the Heath
Community Meeting for her fourth and fifth graders, Sadowsky observes "the
children—even the youngest ones—are showing that they can find solutions to some
of their problems and do not always have to ask the teachers for help" (p. 257). Our
work suggests that boys as well as girls can probably appreciate appeals to the need
to consider everyone's feelings, needs and concerns in arriving at a solution. We
would do well not to underestimate the flexibility and range of children's problem-
solving skills.

Acknowledgements
We would like to thank the teachers and staff members of the Thetford and Marion
Cross Elementary Schools in Vermont for their generous assistance with this project,
along with the parents and children who participated. We would also like to thank
Pamela Brockmeier for preparing the illustrations used in Experiment 2. Data from
the first experiment were presented at the April 1994 annual meeting of the
American Educational Research Association in New Orleans.
 Children's Moral Orientation 57

Correspondence: Carole R. Beal, Department of Psychology, Tobin Hall Box 37710,

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003. email, < cbeal@psych.
umass.edu > .

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