We’ve just had a chat at bed time, after watching Boss Baby, the animated movie. We talked about the funny bits and about how the siblings love each other and then we had a laugh about how her younger sister is the boss** baby. She looked at me so sincerely and said..
but she can’t be the boss baby can she? She’s a girl. All bosses are boys.
We’re a feminist household. Both me and her father work. We have THE SAME JOB! Her favourite book is one that we got from The People’s History Museum about feminist heros! She enjoys ballet and cricket and reading and running and would never expect a boy at school to be any better at anything than she is. We model equality and have a wide circle of friends from lots of different backgrounds. Off the top of my head, we know nearly as many women ‘bosses’ as men.
But it’s still there. Is this where the pay gap starts? With the expectations of six year olds? What do I do? How do I stop it? Where does it come from?