BRIDGING THE DIVIDE

Many of Sweden’s governmentfunded preschools are working to deconstruct the gender divide, as the curriculum requires teachers to “counteract traditional gender roles and gender patterns” and encourage children to explore “outside the limitations of stereotyped gender roles”. Teachers try not to refer to their students’ gender – instead of “boys and girls,” they say “friends”. A gender- neutral pronoun, “hen”, was also introduced and quickly absorbed into mainstream Swedish culture.

A study published in 2017 in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology found that some behaviours do go away when students attend these “gender- neutral” preschools. For example, kids at these schools do not show a strong preference for playmates of the same gender, and are less likely to make assumptions based on gender stereotypes.