• Question: How do you think gender and culture affect the way children grow up?

    Asked by anon-236977 to Tom, Rachel, Priya, Jessica, Dan, Beatrice on 13 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Priya Silverstein

      Priya Silverstein answered on 13 Mar 2020:

      I think it’s really sad that gender is thrust upon children literally from birth – and I would love to see what would happen if that wasn’t done. My future child is gonna be my own mini experiment – me and my wife have planned to use gender neutral they/them pronouns for our child unless/until they ever choose to use different ones.

    • Photo: Beatrice Hayes

      Beatrice Hayes answered on 15 Mar 2020:

      I think culture has a lot to do with gender. Culture impacts children hugely as they grow up. It’s really interesting to find out about children and teens in other countries and see just how different their lives are.

    • Photo: Rachel Reid

      Rachel Reid answered on 17 Mar 2020:

      Hi there, thanks for another great question. I do worry sometimes that narrow views about gender roles will have a big influence on children growing up, including my own! I have 2 girls and when I used to shop for baby clothes I didn’t like that there were many ‘pink’ and ‘blue’ aisles in most of supermarkets and other stores – it’s so polarised! – but there are lots of movements speaking out against this – see for example the Let Clothes Be Clothes initiative. I also love the book ‘Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls’ – a collection of stories about inspiring women – and I hope my two will they will feel inspired by it/them as they grow up! 🙂

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