The Fawcett Society's Commission on Gender Stereotyping

[Abitofalark]

An article by UCL, dated April 2019, stated that Professor Becky Francis, Director of the UCL Institute of Education (IOE) and Labour MP David Lammy were to co-chair a commission on gender stereotypes which would continue its research into 2020.
"The expert commission has been launched by the UK's leading charity campaigning for gender equality and women's rights, The Fawcett Society, following a poll revealing mothers (63%) and fathers (60%) were equally likely to agree that product marketing reinforces gender stereotypes. However, this was not limited to parents, as over half of men and women who do not have children also agreed."

The survey also found six in ten (59%) people agreed that ‘it is more acceptable for a girl to be a ‘tomboy’ than it is for a boy to be ‘feminine’’. This finding was consistent across women and men, and across ages.

"The Commission on Gender Stereotypes in Early Childhood has been set up to gather evidence and promote practical solutions to change childhood and change lives, and explore how gender stereotypes interact with other norms including race and class. It will run until 2020."
www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2019/apr/ucls-professor-becky-francis-and-labour-mp-david-lammy-lead-commission-gender-stereotyping

I got quite excited about this at first, not having noticed the date of the article and thinking it was being launched now and that it would be worth having a thread to keep tabs on it. The first surprising thing to me was finding Mr Lammy MP co-chairing an expert commission on gender stereotyping and the second was that it was commissioned by the well known Fawcett Society.

By now it should have reported so I will try to find out what if anything came of it and post further. Of course someone else here may know something.

Professor Frances: "I am delighted to be co-chairing this commission. The messages we give to children, at home, at school and as a society, has a huge bearing on the choices they feel are open to them, the skills and interests they develop, and on their futures. As my own research has shown, the marketing of toys has a significant role in reinforcing traditional gender stereotypes about what is ‘appropriate’ for girls and for boys, which will feed into children’s later choices about which subjects to study at school and which career paths to consider. We need to open up those choices for our children rather than narrowing them down. I very much look forward to working with David Lammy and the commission team to investigate these vital issues.”

The Commission members included education professionals and parents, Justine Roberts of Mumsnet, fatherhood groups, toy retailers etc. David Lammy, was at that time (still is?) Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fatherhood. The Government Equalities Office had someone participating as Observer. The Commission would meet six times during the year and take evidence from parents, carers etc.

Sam Smethers, Fawcett Society Chief Executive, said:
“Gender stereotypes are at the root of the persistent inequalities we see throughout our society. They are damaging for girls and boys, harming their self-esteem, segregating their career and life choices, conditioning their expectations. Evidence shows that there is no such thing as a female or a male brain but retailers persist in creating and perpetuating gender differences just to sell products. “Our new Commission will examine the way we raise and educate our children, proposing practical changes to support parents and teachers. We will evidence the harms that gender stereotypes cause and we will be challenging retailers and manufacturers to drop the lazy stereotypes and use their power responsibly.”

www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/news/fawcett-research-reveals-widespread-concern-about-gender-stereotypes-in-product-marketing

Very interesting. Don't Fawcett assert TWAW?

I think so, yes. While I was searching the website for information about this Gender Stereotyping commission, I came across a blog "Sex and gender identity: finding a way forward"written by Sam Smethers, the Fawcett Chief Executive about how to balance women's and trans' needs.
I will post a link to it on the other thread about her leaving Fawcett and try to keep this one for the Stereotyping commission work.

I've managed to find out where the Commission on Gender Stereotyping has got to since it set up in April 2019.

In short, they are completing the final stages of the work and their report will be out in December.

In the course of searching, I picked up some snippets of peripheral news. Becky Francis, who is chairing it, left UCL in January 2020 to be CE of the Education Endowment Foundation, which, with the Sutton Trust, runs projects to improve failing schools and poor outcomes. It was set up under Michael Gove, when Education Secretary, with an initial government grant of £125m.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Fatherhood, chaired by David Lammy, works closely with Future Men, a charity promoting positive masculinity and active and responsible fatherhood. It provides the secretariat for the APPG. The selection of Lammy for the Commission's work becomes clearer.
He's Labour left, though, and it is Fawcett we're dealing with so I'm not getting up my hopes as to what it will have to say about sex / gender.