Quick Hit: More on that Swedish school that’s fighting gender bias

Children play in the garden of “Egalia”. Fredrik Sandberg / AP file

Remember that Swedish pre-school that’s fighting gender bias with totally common sense but nonetheless badass tactics like ‘treating everyone the same’ ?  Well if you were interested in that story, you should check out this piece as a follow up. Turns out things are going pretty swimmingly for the school that’s breaking ground and taking names when it comes to flouncing this whole “gender inequality thing”. This most recent profile offers some charming new details about the teachers’ efforts to provide the students with a gender neutral education including their use of the gender neutral pronoun “hen” (or no pronoun at all, substituting it at time for “friends”):

 “…this taxpayer-financed preschool, known as the Nicolaigarden for a saint whose chapel was once in the 300-year-old building that houses it, is perhaps one of the more compelling examples of the country’s efforts to blur gender lines and, theoretically, cement opportunities for both women and men.

What the children are taught, said Malin Engleson, an art gallery employee, as she fetched her 15-month-old daughter Hanna from the school, “shows that girls can cry, but boys too.”

“That’s why we chose it,” she said. “It’s so important to start at an early age.”

Sounds like an exemplary model. But the school hasn’t received all rave reviews:

A persistent critic has been Tanja Bergkvist, a mathematician at Uppsala University whose blog consistently attacks Sweden’s “gender madness.” In an article for the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, she questioned whether children were not being “brainwashed by our parents already at the age of 3 months.” On outings, she mocked, “what do they do when a girl is picking flowers, while a boy collects rocks?”

Haha. I guess haters gonna hate. Check out the whole piece here.

Brooklyn, NY

Lori Adelman started blogging with Feministing in 2008, and now runs partnerships and strategy as a co-Executive Director. She is also the Director of Youth Engagement at Women Deliver, where she promotes meaningful youth engagement in international development efforts, including through running the award-winning Women Deliver Young Leaders Program. Lori was formerly the Director of Global Communications at Planned Parenthood Federation of America, and has also worked at the United Nations Foundation on the Secretary-General's flagship Every Woman Every Child initiative, and at the International Women’s Health Coalition and Human Rights Watch. As a leading voice on women’s rights issues, Lori frequently consults, speaks and publishes on feminism, activism and movement-building. A graduate of Harvard University, Lori has been named to The Root 100 list of the most influential African Americans in the United States, and to Forbes Magazine‘s list of the “30 Under 30” successful mediamakers. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Lori Adelman is an Executive Director of Feministing in charge of Partnerships.

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