Gender equality in the early years

it is 94 years since the Representation of the People Act 1918 was passed allowing certain women to vote in the UK. Since that landmark Act of Parliament it is fair to say that gender equality has come a long way.

Obviously this is still by no means perfect; men can still expect to earn more than their female counterparts (as explained in this infographic by Payscale) and only recently has the question of equal maternity and paternity leave been seriously addressed, but progress has undoubtedly been made.

However, when it comes to raising our children the same old stereotypes often prevail. Boys wear blue and like to run around and get dirty, girls wear pink and like to sit quietly and play tea parties (although pink actually used to be a colour primarily worn by males, it was only in the 19^th century that this went out of fashion). If we look at books, tv and film it really is difficult to think of more than a handful of strong female characters that are not reliant at some point on the help of their male peers or that do not conform to the convention of being ‘sugar and spice and all things nice’.

One pioneering nursery in Paris (the Bourdarias nursery) has taken the bold step to address these typecasts and instil a sense of equality from a much earlier age, namely by attempting to make the toys and games gender neutral. They are not doing this by forcing the children to play games they are not comfortable with or do not enjoy, they simply make it acceptable to take part in whatever activity they like.

The nursery is also trying to encourage the children not to be constrained by gender roles by employing a male cookery teacher and a female craft teacher, to make it clear that these are tasks that can be, and should be, taken on by both sexes. The teachers themselves are also having to learn how to treat the children as people rather than changing their behaviour depending on whether they are dealing with a boy or a girl.

This system has been highly commended in France and the local community has been very supportive. Let’s hope that more nurseries will choose to employ similar ideas and that this style of teaching will grow.