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Julie Cohen is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist MFT and a Child Mental Health Specialist with a private practice in Los Angeles. Her areas of focus include: depression, anxiety, panic, post-traumatic stress, bipolar…
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Will Gender-Neutral Preschools Help with Gender Equality?
I just read an article about a new preschool in Sweden that has created a preschool where all references to gender have been removed. The premise being that males have an unfair advantage in life due to gender and that by creating a gender neutral environment all children will be equal.
“At the 'Egalia' preschool, staff avoid using words like 'him' or 'her' and address the 33 kids as 'friends' rather than girls and boys. From the color and placement of toys to the choice of books, every detail has been carefully planned to make sure the children don't fall into gender stereotypes.”
They have even gone as far as to hire a “gender pedagogues” to oversee the decisions regarding what to include and exclude throughout the school. While I am a huge supporter of equality, I do wonder if this really works. Does creating a gender neutral environment facilitate equality?
Personally, I would rather see a curriculum that focuses on empowerment from a strength based perspective. I am concerned that by making gender invisible it might create an environment that ignores differences rather than embraces them. If it were up to me I would go to the opposite extreme and empower children to identify their own gender.
For children and adolescents who identify as transgender there is often incongruence between the gender they identify as and what their peers and family call them. This is often a set up for shame and loneliness and bullying. It’s a very interesting idea but I think equality between genders has more to do with tolerance and acceptance.
- Julie Cohen
“At the 'Egalia' preschool, staff avoid using words like 'him' or 'her' and address the 33 kids as 'friends' rather than girls and boys. From the color and placement of toys to the choice of books, every detail has been carefully planned to make sure the children don't fall into gender stereotypes.”
They have even gone as far as to hire a “gender pedagogues” to oversee the decisions regarding what to include and exclude throughout the school. While I am a huge supporter of equality, I do wonder if this really works. Does creating a gender neutral environment facilitate equality?
Personally, I would rather see a curriculum that focuses on empowerment from a strength based perspective. I am concerned that by making gender invisible it might create an environment that ignores differences rather than embraces them. If it were up to me I would go to the opposite extreme and empower children to identify their own gender.
For children and adolescents who identify as transgender there is often incongruence between the gender they identify as and what their peers and family call them. This is often a set up for shame and loneliness and bullying. It’s a very interesting idea but I think equality between genders has more to do with tolerance and acceptance.
- Julie Cohen
RELATED POSTS
What no one pays attention to are things such as gender neutral bathrooms, neutral gender options when doing things such as signing up for things or taking tests or putting gender on your drivers license; or putting sexual reassignment surgery on peoples'
Posted on 12/18/09 08:20:41 pm
Plus, all the bedding, car seats, etc, seem to be geared towards gender. Not much neutral out there... We are still super early (8w5d) so we have plenty of time to decide. I guess my question is: Did you find out the sex? and Why did you chose that decisi
Posted on 12/14/07 10:44:39 pm
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Someone very dear to me is transgendered and he was told by his church when he was just a teenager that he had brought this upon himself with "fantasies" and - um - "self-gratification." BUNK!! I, for one, am tired of seeing TG's treated this way.