bloody nursery gender crap

[OhDearNigel]

so dd (2.5) came home on Monday with a cardboard doctor's bag they had made in dressing up. Out of the following choices, what do you think it said

1. Surgeon Kitty
2. Consultant Kitty
3. Dentist Kitty
4. Doctor Kitty
5. Nurse Kitty

(her name is kitty). yes, you've guessed it absolutely right. I have nothing against nursing but why do we have to reinforce this tired stereotype that girls=nurse ? Even my 67 year old mother was annoyed.
Then to top it all I was talking to someone about her yesterday saying how she loves rubbing creams on things and making them better. Guess what they said "oh, maybe she'll be a nurse"

If there is a brick wall, I am banding my head on it.

or banging..

Well putting cream on is probably more a nurse activity than a dr.
I do know what you mean but nursing is just as valuable as being a doctor.

I am not talking about the relative merits of nurses v doctors though.

Maybe she asked it to say Nurse? Or do you know that was Nursery directed?

I hear what you're saying & totally agree. They're all v important professions but no need to reinforce stereotypes as men make good nurses too

Ds3 dressed up as a doctor. MIL suggested that dd would therefore like to be bought a nurses outfit ...

When DD was young (can't remember how old, maybe 5-7), she believed that women could only be nurses and couldn't be doctors . Where the hell do they get these ideas from, in the 21st century? maybe nursery

Do you know what the equivalent they did with boys was? If they were automatically Drs then you have a point but it could have been that everyone was nurses, or she picked to be a nurse.

DS is 2.8 and has told me he is going to be a nurse and loves pretending to be one!

The stereotype certainly does exist though, when I was at school I was told that my Dad wasn't a nurse and must be a Dr.. he arranged for a male friend who had been a nurse in the Gulf War to come and talk to the class which soon shut them up

Well in the Nursery I teach at we have had both male and female police officers and fire fighters today so I'm not convinced that we can all be held accountable for gender stereotypes

The stereotype certainly does exist though, when I was at school I was told that my Dad wasn't a nurse and must be a Dr.. he arranged for a male friend who had been a nurse in the Gulf War to come and talk to the class which soon shut them up

I got the cane for saying my uncle was a nurse. Actually I had two 'uncles' who were nurses, one was actually an older cousin.

Then my brother went into nursing and his son wants to do the same.

On one of my recent trips to hospital I saw three nurses in a row, not one of them had a fanjo.

My female doctor cousin bought DD aged 2 a doctors kit for her birthday last year. Both MIL and FIL separately looked at her and said "oooh a nurses outfit".

sassh