Gender Equality Provided in Childhood

The representatives of preschool education sphere in Sweden concluded that addressing children with pronouns he or she, that emphasize gender differences, can be viewed as gender discrimination and should be abolished.

According to the supporters of the initiative, similar changes in the education system will help to instil into children the respect to the opposite sex, and ensure gender equality in future.

Lotta Rajalin, the director of a preschool educational establishment in Stockholm and a participant of the program, which had already started, said that her colleagues and she use gender-neutral language when speaking to children. For example, it concerns talking about doctors, teachers, police officers, electricians etc. As professionals see it, it helps children to think more broadly and do not imagine, for example, a police officer only as a man.

One of the main reasons for starting this program was that, as the experts noted, modern society often imposes misconceptions on girls and boys about their roles and behavior. Thus, it is assumed that young ladies should be gentle and modest, while boys are allowed to be not only courageous, but even rude. According to one of the teachers, Jenny Johnson, a change in the pre-school education will help children not only to choose freely what they really want to be, but will also lead to a more tolerant attitude in society to the representatives of a non-traditional sexual orientation.

Source of the image: Photl.