Small children may be the world's biggest sexists. A U.S. study released yesterday shows that anyone trying to change the world's gender relations may be fighting a losing battle because even children as young as 3 fall under the sway of their peers and quickly learn what it means to be a girl or a boy. The findings come as no surprise to Jacqui Strachan, a Toronto mother of two boys, aged 8 and 5. It surprises and amazes me as a feminist to think that I was so wrong. You can't change them.
Boys are boys and girls are girls.
Even where teachers have been encouraged to promote gender equality, same-sex segregation remains pervasive, the study's authors report. Dr. Martin and Dr. Fabes spent six months watching 28 boys and 33 girls. The children, aged 3 to 6, played at an unidentified university daycare facility in the southwestern United States. In the beginning of the school year, the boys and girls behaved in similar ways. By spring, the differences were noticeable.