Examining the communication of gender roles to parents: a quantitative content analysis of online birth congratulations cards

ABSTRACT The Internet serves as a media source to communicate information about modern societal perceptions and cultural attitudes regarding gender stereotypes. The current study evaluated sex-typed electronic birth congratulatory cards aimed at parents of newborns, to determine the extent the text and images in these cards communicated sex roles and gender stereotypes. In this quantitative content analysis of electronic cards (k= 200), coded variables included visual (e.g. dominant colour, presence of human baby or animals, presence of baby clothing/accessories, toy type, and decorations) and verbal (e.g. message style, message tone, physical and non-physical descriptors, and number of words) characteristics. Interrater reliability indices across the two coders were fair to excellent. Chi-square and t-tests found that the dominant colour of the images (pink and blue), decorations (frills/lace/ribbon), and the extent of interaction, independence, play, and gender stereotypes depicted differed significantly between boy and girl typed cards. A logistic regression model explained a substantial proportion of variance in the website gender-typed classification of boy versus girl cards. The findings provide insights regarding current societal attitudes towards social and gender roles in families, with the implication that people transmit these messages by sending and receiving such online communications.