There are many ways to reproduce or reduce inequalities between girls and boys, and later between women and men. The Christmas holidays have seen the reappearance of a “chestnut tree”: should we offer or not to toys children traditionally associated with their gender? Incituration of gender confusion for some, tool for promoting gender equality for others, the classic partition between dolls, dinettes and stoves for girls, trucks, construction games and pistols for boys still organizes many commercial shelves.
Even parents who have bet on toys allowing the brothers and sisters to play the same things have difficulty escaping the last minute gift that gives blue and pink at the foot of the tree. an analysis recent content of the toy parks showed how much the content of these varied, not only between children of wealthy families and modest families, but also very clearly, and whatever the social group, between girls and boys. The early learning of gender stereotypes thus goes through the game and participates in the construction of what sociologists call sexual arrangements: lasting ways of perceiving, thinking and acting, associated with the feminine and the masculine.
But is it enough to offer a dinner to his son and a truck to his daughter to make them adults concerned with gender equality? The sexual arrangements are strongly shaped by what children observe at home, and “neutral” toys will not make the weight in the face of the daily spectacle of a father allergic to the washing of laundry and household. It is the weight of paternal participation in family life in the acquisition by children of an egalitarian vision of female and male roles which is precisely at the heart of a article recently published by sociologists Tomas Cano and Heather Hofmeister , in the Journal of Marriage and Family, reference review in family sociology in the United States.
Specialization of domestic tasks
The male and female involvement in family life has been measured for several decades in many “northern” countries by qualitative and quantitative surveys. They show very strong inequalities of domestic involvement between men and women, to the detriment of the seconds. These are measured both in time devoted to this involvement, and through the specialization of each other on certain tasks: DIY, gardening, games with children for some, cleaning, laundry, kitchen and dishes for the others.
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