Formation of gender representations in preschool children

Abstract

The personality of a modern person develops under the influence of colliding traditional and innovative gender attitudes, while the most sensitive social group is preschool children. The modern world abounds with contrasts in relation to gender — rigid gender stereotypes coexist with gender unification and outrage. Gender, considered as a social gender, is formed during a person’s life. The main differences between the gender and gender-role approach are mainly reduced to strengthening and tightening behavioral patterns in accordance with the biological sex in gender-role education and, conversely, to softening and blurring behavioral differences between the sexes in the gender approach (Krotova, Bakhotskaya 2021). Recently, interest in the issues of gender education of preschool children has increased. Such an increase is primarily due to those transformational processes in society which lead to changes in traditional gender roles in all spheres — family life, professional realization, culture, etc. Preschool age, representing the most sensitive period in the formation of all personality aspects, is also significant in terms of gender education. The first social institution that has the strongest impact on the child is the family. The pre-primary education exerts further impact. However, unfortunately, the pre-primary educational institutions that purposefully deal with gender education often only focus on the external manifestations of gender, without understanding the deep essence of this process (Krotova, Bakhotskaya 2021). That is, it is more likely to talk about gender-role education than about gender. Thus, instructors often impose external gender stereotypes on children; for instance, ‘men do not cry’, ‘girls like pink’, etc. Another widespread assumption states that gender socialization is difficult in single-parent families, to the extent of claiming a certain ‘inferiority’ of children from such families. Obviously, such approaches are more harmful than beneficial. A significant and, unfortunately, not always positive influence on gender education is also exerted by the information space surrounding the preschooler — the external environment, such as toys, the film industry and advertising — thereby aggravating the situation with gender education and personality formation (Krotova, Bakhotskaya 2021).