Social gender is a psychosocial feature that characterizes an individual as feminine or masculine. The aim of this study was to examine gender roles stereotypes of pre-school children and their mothers regarding their duties/tasks. The study group consisted of 10 children aged 65-74 months attending kindergarten in a primary school affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in Ankara and their mothers. In order to collect the data, Demographic Information Collection Form and Social Gender Stereotype Measurement Tool were used. Each item in the measurement tool has three answers: “Woman”, “Man”, “Woman and Man”. The child and the mother were asked as to who performed each duty/task in the Social Gender Stereotype Measurement Tool. After receiving the answer, they were asked to express their thoughts in detail for each item through the question “Why do you think so?”, which was not available in the measurement tool. According to the results of the study, it was determined that children and mothers had certain gender roles stereotypes for all kinds of duties/tasks. No children and mothers gave the answer to the question only “Man” was responsible for childcare, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, ironing and entertaining guests. No children and mothers gave the answer to the question only “Woman” was responsible for bill payment, driving and repairing. The children had more gender role stereotypes than their mothers. It was concluded that the answers of the children could be based on two reasons. One of them is the fact that “mothers or fathers should do the tasks/duties” and the other is “the mothers or fathers do the duties/tasks”. According to mothers’ answers, mothers’ gender role stereotypes were fewer than their children; besides, some mothers gave androgenic answers.

Gender roles stereotypes, preschool period, social gender.