Feminism in nurseries

[AndMiffyWentToSleep]

It was a fancy dress day at nursery today. All the boys were cowboys, knights or darth vader except DS, who was one of the younger ones and wasn't given a choice. The girls were ALL princesses.
All of them.
It is so depressing.
I feel I want to try and do something but I'm not sure what.

on a dress up day at school my niece was a suffragette! Her choice, and all her friends were princesses or the Duchess of Cambridge.
Was so proud to over hear her telling everyone who she was and why.

I'm a nursery teacher and have a real issue with this...I have banned the girls in my class from princess dresses at dress up time! It's great to see them as a vet or a monster or a rabbit or something. Sadly they all seem to have several million princess dresses at home...

I have noticed that the moment little girls put on princess dresses they all turn into a diva......anyone else noticed that?

It does seem a narrow choice (for both sexes) but the nursery is just the place where the early stereoptyping is showing up (rather starkly in this case).

I don't think enough people query why their daughter "loves" (always the hyperbole) punk, or princesses,or glitter. It is narrowing horizons far too early.

For the nursery-specific issue, if you can make suggestions how about asking for future dress-ups to be animal themed?

'punk' drat! I meant pink

i worry a little bit about the princessification at nursery too.

when 3yo dd started nursery she wasn't a "girly" girl at all. after a few months she was wanting ribbons and bows and dresses and pink everything.

interestingly when she is away from nursery(half terms, holidays etc) she forgets all about wanting pink dresses and hair bows and goes back to normal.

when she's back at nursery the pink fluffiness starts up again.

in dds case im 99% sure it comes from the other girls rather than from the staff, there's not much pink or princess stuff there

Because they want to, because it's the easy option, because they think they should...

The OP is talking about dressing up being bought from home, but I want to mention the nursery side of things. In nurseries that I work in the dressing up boxes usually consist of 'people who help us' stuff: Non gendered but children have clear ideas about boys being "firemen" and girls being nurses. Animal dressing up: Non gendered (apart from usually male lions which children don't seem to get anyway). Then there is usually a big bunch of puffy Disney ball gowns, and usually superhero stuff which is seen as boy's clothes.

Part of the reason for nurseries having the Disney dresses is ofsted wanting nurseries to follow children's interests. They like those dresses so nurseries buy them, so girls wear them, so they buy more. And there's always peer pressure.
Talk to the nurseries. Any good nursery will be interested in the issue (an easy way to find out if your nursery is any good!), and will want to do their best at dealing with gender stereotyping.

my DC's nursery had a princess come into the nursery as a treat (she was the daughter of one of the people who worked there). i complained, mainly because she was touting for business (all the kids got leaflets advertising her services) but also because I felt that promoting a negative female role model is wrong. I was the only person who complained and when I did, they were genuinely surprised that I had a problem with it.

Since DD started I've noticed a definite surge in her interest in pink, ribbons, etc. It makes me sad that her horizons have been narrowed so early in life.

On the plus side though: check out the 'a mighty girl' FB group and website. they have a section of dressing up costumes for girls. lots of suffragettes, astronauts, hotdogs....

This is a zombie thread but your second sentence does not logically follow from your first. She has an interest in pink, ribbons , etc - why does that narrow anything ?

Since DD started I've noticed a definite surge in her interest in pink, ribbons, etc. It makes me sad that her horizons have been narrowed so early in life.