We know that adults consciously and subconsciously "expect" their leaders to be male and Caucasian. But now it looks like the white male-ness of our past leaders is alive and well in the minds of kids as young as five. In 2006, research teams at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Kansas quizzed 205 children ages five to 10 on "their knowledge, attitudes and beliefs" about the similarities among the U.S. presidents we've had so far. The three studies asked kids from "diverse" racial and ethnic backgrounds about why there had never been an African American, Hispanic, or female president. Here's a summary of the results:
The researchers found most children are aware that women and minorities have been excluded from the U.S. presidency. Although most of the children believed people of all races and genders should be president, they offered surprising answers as to why only white males have held the nation's highest political office:
Overall, the kids were optimistic about their chances of becoming president (what parent is going to shoot down an idea like that?) though the girls who attributed the lack of female presidents to discrimination were more likely to say they couldn't ever hold the office. By contrast, African-American children who identified discrimination as the reason for white-only commanders in chief showed an increased interest in becoming president—which, should Barack Obama win in November, will only continue to rise.
One in four participants said it is illegal for women and minorities to hold the office of president;
One in three children attributed the lack of female, African-American and Latino presidents to racial and gender bias on the part of voters; and
While some children expressed the belief that prejudice shapes how adults vote, another third of the participants said members of the excluded groups lacked the skills to hold the position.
