'Challenge gender roles in the nursery'

The report, The Development of Gender Roles in Young Children, urges parents, early years workers and policymakers to encourage more male involvement in childcare and to integrate gender issues into recruitment and training programmes for early years staff.

EOC chair Julie Mellor said, 'Children learn about conventional "male" and "female" behaviours from a very early age and from a wide range of sources, including parents, local communities and peer groups, early years workers and the media. Unless adults encourage them to question these beliefs in early life, traditional ideas about women's and men's roles in society may inhibit their choices throughout their lives.'

The report calls on childcarers and early years staff to question their interaction with children and ask themselves if they have different expectations of boys and girls. It says they should also assess what images children have of boys and girls, men and women, and encourage more men to get involved in the work of their local playgroups and nurseries.

The EOC report also called on the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority to re-assess what children should achieve in reception classes 'to ensure they incorporate gender awareness'.

Challenging gender stereotyping and involving men in childcare on an equal basis with women has been the policy at the Sheffield Children's Centre since it was set up ten years ago. Half the 74 employees are men, and the centre's co-ordinator Annie D'Aquila said their presence provides a role model for boys.

She said, 'It's worked extremely well here. We have children sent from the NSPCC and other organisations who have been abused, and having a mix of staff provides just the right setting for them.

'Things have changed in recent years. The idea of men working in a nursery in Sheffield would have been unthinkable when the steelworks were here. But there's no stigma attached to it now.'

Ms D'Aquila said the old assumption that childcare was for girls who were not academic had been replaced by a recognition that training in childcare requires a much higher academic achievement than in the past.

She added that as part of the six areas of learning, care plans were devised and tailored to the needs of individual children.

'About 90 per cent of our staff are from ethnic minorities and we have many children who are refugees. We have to take into account their cultural background, and we do not hand out dolls for girls or cars for boys,' she said.