Pilot successful in changing young children's views on gender
by Catherine Gaunt
Monday, January 6, 2020
Young children’s views of gender can be overturned by adopting an approach that challenges perceived views of boys’ and girls’ toys, a study has found.
A pilot of a whole-setting approach in primary schools designed to tackle children’s unintentional gender bias has been successful in ‘disrupting limited gender norms’.
Lifting Limits, a social enterprise which challenges gender stereotypes and promotes gender equality in education, tested its programme in a year-long pilot in five primary schools in the London Borough of Camden, with 1,900 children and 270 staff.
‘Gender stereotypes limit children’s futures,’ the evaluation report says. ‘Once the idea of “girl jobs” and “boy jobs” (or “pretty girls” and “strong boys”) takes hold, the unequal gender outcomes seen in later life become almost inevitable.
‘Despite children being told they can be “anything they want to be”, that message is often undermined by what they see, hear and experience in school.’
In the report’s introduction, Gina Rippon, professor emeritus of cognitive neuroimaging at Aston University, said research shows that from the age of two, ‘children become ardent gender detectives, rapidly absorbing the social significance of colour coding in their world (pink for girls, blue for boys), noting that there are “boy toys” (LEGO and tractors) and “girl toys” (dolls and prams).’
Impact on children
At the end of the pilot year there was greater awareness and acceptance of a more diverse range of possibilities for women and girls, men and boys, with particular opportunities to intervene in the early years.
Three times as many children in the early years perceived football as a game ‘for everyone’, rising from 22 per cent to 70 per cent (see chart below).
Lifting Limits’ programme director Olivia Dickinson said, ‘Our findings for early years were incredibly promising, which is why we want to expand into early years settings. The training is specific to any schools or early years settings that sign up to our programme for the whole school/nursery approach. We are in 13 schools this year, and want to be in more early years settings, and plan to expand beyond London.’
Commenting on the research, Stella Ziolkowski, the National Day Nurseries Association’s director of quality and training, said, ‘Nursery practitioners are very good at not reinforcing gender stereotypes with regards to how children play and dress. But we can always do more, especially to shed unconscious gender bias, specifically in challenging the wider family’s views if they perceive their child to be behaving in an untraditional way, such as boys playing with dolls.
‘As this report shows, the early years are when a child picks up social norms about their gender and how society expects them to behave. This potentially limits their horizons. Therefore, it’s crucial that funding is also provided to support and train early years practitioners to set children off on the right path.’
Challenging stereotypes
Together with Zero Tolerance, NDNA Scotland recently held a ‘Wee Circle’ in line with the First Minister’s National Advisory Council of Women and Girls (NACWG) spotlight on ‘Gender Stereotypes and Early Years’. This was held in Edinburgh with private, public and third sector organisations to ensure cross-sector collaboration.
NDNA's early learning and childcare (ELC) adviser Linz Connell, said, 'We talked about issues around gender stereotypes in the home and community, ELC and wider society. We discussed how these manifest, the impact and how they could be addressed. Issues that arose included (but were not limited to) language and messaging, the role of healthcare practitioners, the gendered nature of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the role of and attitude towards men in early learning and childcare.
'We discussed the need for gender to be included in the curriculum for early learning and childcare and professional training and development, the role of co-production in developing resources and the need for LGBTQI education outside of ELC settings. We also highlighted the need for an intersectional lens - intersectionality shapes children’s social identities and impacts on their everyday lives.'
- Early years settings interested in signing up to the programme can find out more at www.liftinglimits.org.uk
