The portrayal of gender roles in this Ladybird book from the seventies is the history I have chosen to share for Anairam's weekword choice. I love Ladybird books from the sixties and seventies-the illustrations are amazingly detailed and the subject matter has a great range. This is one of the Peter and Jane books I remember from my primary school days. They are written in a very staccato way-designed to teach children to read through repetition of key vocabulary. e.g.
Sarah wrote her blog post.
Here is the blog post Sarah wrote.
I have written a blog post, Sarah said.
Here it is.
Here's my blog post.
The style just makes me think of someone reading it in a really aggressive and increasingly hysterical manner!
This book, 'Boys And Girls' is fascinating in that it can't quite make up it's mind about where it stands on roles. On the one hand Peter and Jane are shown having similar interests-flowers, trains, apples and rabbits. On the other hand there is a clear message that men do the work up ladders and women make the tea. The last page I have shown is weird-Peter gets the apple while Mother gives Jane the cakes (plural!)
I went to the annual Early Years Conference in Greenwich last Friday and gender roles was a big theme. It is a fascinating area and I have really been thinking about it a lot this week. Today I had a conversation with three boys in the nursery and they were adamant that I could not be Ben Ten (a cartoon hero type figure) because I am a girl. In the end I asked them if there was a girl super hero I could be and they did say a name (which I didn't know) so at least there is progress. I am also interested in the way that passive behaviour from girls is not necessarily challenged.
