Which counry is the most sexist in your opinion?
for example
Where are parents more likely to not give cars to little girls and dolls to little boys?
Where are parents more likely to dress their baby girls in pink with bows on their heads and their boys in team merchandise
Where are women more likely to have a double glazing salespersons refuse to speak to them without their husbands present?
Are we supposed to have the same answer to each question?
I think that probably the US is more sexist than the UK.
No, they were example questions, and I'll go back and correct my typos now!
...I got called away and just hit submit then shut down when I came back, forgetting I hadn't finished checking it! roll lol
I ask because I see so many mixed messages here and my children were so small when we left the UK I'm wondering if I just hadn't encountered it there rather than it not existing.
On the one hand, here, girls are encouraged to play sport and to excel academically, they are allowed to do "boy" things and I have never heard one chastized for behaving in an unladylike fashion, but at the same time they are given so much pink and fluffy stuff and have the whole Disney Princess thing rammed down their thoats so forcibly that girls who don't play will dolls are almost ostracized by their friends at a very young age.
Boys, however seem to get a much tougher time of it. They are not allowed to play with dolls -I have seen more that one boy told off for playing with them -especially by fathers. I've seen boys being told off for crying when they're hurt -little boys -preschool boys. Boys are encouraged to wrestle, to play at soldiers to want to hunt, to follow sports teams.
I hear girls being praised for being beautiful, clever, pretty, industrious... for boys I hear just "you're such a big boy" or 'I'm proud of you".
Of course I'm genrealizing wildly, but I don't remember this sort of treatment of boys in the UK. I do remember girls being told to be ladylike, though.
I have to laugh - I tell my 11-year-old "that's not very ladylike" but only when she's wearing a skirt and sitting with legs akimbo - otherwise it matters not.
I think it is probably about evens.
We get a lot of it over here from MIL and some others in respect of Little Wonder. But my partner certainly doesn't share such views (and MIL isn't too bad to be fair) - but its no worse than the more distant members of my family in the UK - particularly the Yorkshire mob.
Up this way we have girls who wrestle, hunt and play American football etc not just cheerlead.
I this corner of the US girls are not prissy for the majority.
I suspect girls in Florida for instance it would be quite different. Having met Cuban and Peurto Rican families I found they overdressed their girls and treated them like little princesses. Of course this could just be my friends there.
I have an Irish friend who is very down to earth non girly type who has one of the prissiest girls. Not sure where that came from other than the influence of her American friends.
Up this way we have girls who wrestle, hunt and play American football etc not just cheerlead.
I this corner of the US girls are not prissy for the majority.
Daft thing is that your part of the world is where my MIL comes from - and there's nothing prissy about her either :o
Edit: actually I should clarify something - MIL's comments are more related to LW's cousin, a boy, doing girly things - like playing with dolls.
In general anywhere you go boys playing with dolls is frowned upon, unless they are GI Joe and Action Man.
On the other hand girls playing with trucks or cars doesn't seem to bother people.
In general anywhere you go boys playing with dolls is frowned upon, unless they are GI Joe and Action Man.
On the other hand girls playing with trucks or cars doesn't seem to bother people.
Entertainingly he is about to become a sibling and one of the suggestions for preparing him is to give him a doll so he can copy mom and feel part of the whole process. His Mon was telling us at the w/e that they'll get him a doll, toy stroller the works. MIL wasn't fussed - but some of the others present looked distinctly uncomfortable.
8) I tend to think that they are more traditional here, especailly in the south.
ie men do "man'ly things" etc and woman need to do the house work etc
I often hear people say 'Hun', 'Luv' when they speak to clients. But can I say a politically incorrect joke. Hell no, ooops cannot even say that lol
I think you've skewed the survey Monster with the questions you've asked.
Canadian and American friends of mine who've lived or are living in the U.K find British workplaces and just the level of public discussion far more sexist than here.
It's not just attitudes to kids.
Be it here or the UK, I think it depends which part of either country you live. So, I guess I'd have to say, in my experience, it's about even. )
In the UK, most of the little boys at playgroup had dolls (as in baby dolls) -especially ones with younger siblings. It certainly wasn't as frowned upon as it seems to be here (and where I live is generally considered to be very "progressive"). The preschool teacher told me that when there are lots of new siblings, the children (boys and girls alike) will spontaneously form a breastfeeding group using the dolls. Most parents think its funny and cute, but not the dads when they see their sons joining in.......
Yeah, sure the survey's skewed, Lee ...it was just a starting point ;)
In the UK, the pre-school teachers have to (it's part of some law and to do with OFSTED) actively encourage boys to participate in what was considered traditionally girl games and playing with girl toys (baby dolls, kitchen, dressing up not just as a soldier, housework etc). They also have to provide dolls that are both sexes and of different color/ethnic groups. Even childminders have to comply with this now in the UK. )
There are pre-schools here on Long Island that also have this view, but I do get the impression that that is not normal for American standards and doesn't appear to be set in stone.
Also, apparently, around 1990, a law came in regarding equal rights and money made available to be given to females as to males regarding playing sports, in both schools and colleges. So, if you think about the amount of money involved in football, basketball, and baseball for the males, it isn't surprising that a lot of girls play soccer and lacrosse etc. Don't believe that that includes private funding though. However, apparently, before 1990 from what a female professor was telling me, the female sports got hardly anything - and if you look at the sports in this country they don't have things like netball, hockey etc., that are considered 'female' sports, like they are in the UK. Sports are more defined in the UK between the sexes and in the past that was probably fine.