A quarter of young people think that a woman shouldn’t be Prime Minister.
Just sit for a second and take that in.
Yes, folks, we’re in dubious research territory here. Mobile network O2 went to the trouble of surveying more than 2,000 children aged 4 to 18 on gender roles and careers. They were asked which jobs were better suited to women and men.
Before I get into the percentages thrown up in this study, a question. What kind of answers were we expecting from the kids under 7 in particular? At that age they’re more interested in their own shoelaces than career choices.
The children aged between 4 and 10 decided that women are best at being nurses (64% said yes), nannies (79%) and hairdressers (63%). They said men make good scientists and engineers. Can they spell ‘scientist’ without getting a ‘c’ and an ‘s’ mixed up along the way?
I’ve got two decades on these kids, but when I was little the men I saw on TV were Postman Pat and Fireman Sam. At 4, I probably thought an ‘engineer’ was some kind of hearing defect. When I got to about 6 or 7, I decided I wanted to be a dentist. Where did that come on the list?
Once we get to the 11-18 age bracket, we start talking tech. 47% think it’s a job for the boys. How many of the children thought the technology industry is the best place for women? 4%. Gosh, that’s a bit depressing. Especially if you’re reading this and you work in tech already. I can only sympathise.
The publication of these figures has naturally caused some consternation. People are wringing their hands over ingrained social stereotyping going back decades. We even had dear sweet Robert Peston giving a soundbite about how ‘shocked’ he is by these findings. There’s talk of sending crack teams of business people into schools to show kids they can grow up to be whatever they want.
Ultimately, I think this is all down to a combination of leading questions and a generation gap. That’s right, ‘generation gap’ – even though we’re blaming these percentages on ‘archaic’ beliefs about the patriarchy.
If you ask kids to name a job women are good at, they’ll pick whatever job their mum/sister/aunt does. It’s not that they have strongly-held beliefs, it’s just all they know. If you ask kids to specifically separate out occupations between men and women, they’ll do it and not question your motives. Few children are aware enough at that age to stop and ask why a job needs to be subject to gender segregation.
And of course younger people are less likely to consider a woman as Prime Minister – they’ve never experienced it. Ask an older person and they’ll say “Well, yeah, we had one before, right?” To a child, that’s beyond their comprehension. Like being able to eat a whole pizza in one sitting. They don’t think it possible within their view of the world. That, in and of itself, is okay. That’s the whole point of giving children an education, so they find these things out.
I didn’t decide to become a copywriter until I was about 22. What did you want to be when you were little, and what career do you have now? Send us a tweet.
