GENDER KNOWLEDGE IN EGALITARIAN AND TRADITIONAL FAMILIES

In the present paper a small sample of 27 two-parent families who were self-identified as sharing parenting equally are compared with a more traditional set of 42 two-parent families. Both samples were primaril y Caucasian. Children from the egalitarian families adopted gender lab els Inter during the second year of life and showed less sex role know ledge at age 4 than the children in the more traditional families. Fat hers in the egalitarian sample were move liberal on the Attitudes Towa rd Women Scale than fathers in the F-L study. Fathers in the egalitari an sample interacted with their child 50% of the time (on an equal bas is with the mothers), while fathers in the F-L sample contributed only 25% of the parent-child interaction. Boys in the F-L sample received more negative reactions, but this was not true in the egalitarian fami lies. The point is made that it is fathers who are behaving differentl y in the egalitarian sample; the mothers in both samples were very sim ilar in both attitudes and behaviors.