Don't Take that Dress Off James

Have we made advances in eliminating sex role stereotyping in the materials we use in our pre-schools and junior schools? Do we now show young children that women are active exciting people found often in occupational roles as well as domestic roles?
Those of you who believe not, are right. A 1980 study repeated one done in 1975: both looked at the way males and females are represented to young children in early childhood institutions. The second one found little change. Forty-two places were visited in 1975 in three cities and, in 1980, 12 playcentres, 12 kindergartens, 12 child care centres and 12 junior classes were visited in a cross-section of suburbs in four different cities.
Questions of two kinds were asked: (a) questions which simply asked for the number of representations, objects, etc. (b) questions which asked the observer to judge the nature of these representations of males and females.