Abstract

The aim of this essay is to examine if children’s, in this case girls and boys between four and six year old, experiences and perceptions of various occupations follow a gender stereotypical pattern that is distinguishable in the society and that is evidenced by a gender distributed list presented by the Central Bureau of Statistics (SCB 2016).

These children’s experiences and perceptions are examined in relation to family and surroundings. The central question is how they describe occupations and occupational-related activities offered in a school and preschool environment from a gender perspective. These children’s experiences and perceptions are also examined in relation to how they describe their career-related aspirations.

Our study is theoretically based upon two different alignments of the gender theory that describe the social construction of gender.

The data collection is based on 7 group interviews with 31 children from one preschool class and two different preschools.

The results of our study indicate that the children have occupational experience that they relate to family members and/or to their immediate surroundings. The majority of the children’s experiences show that chores are distributed equally within the family and are therefore described as genus neutral. However, the majority of the children's occupational experience is gender-influenced, thus following the gender segregated labor market outlined by Central Bureau of Statistics (2016) list. Their own occupational aspirations also show that they follow this gender stereotypical pattern. The study emphasizes that the children are active agents in their development of gender identity and that their gender identity appears more clearly in specific contexts. On the other hand, we see that girls are more eager to extend the limits of the female arena. Another important aspect that the study shows is that the occupational activities offered in the school and preschool activities have a positive impact on how children distinguish their own ability. This can increase their ability to feel that they can do it if they really want to!