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How I try to free my daughter from gender stereotypes
‘Weren’t you supposed to raise your child gender-neutral?’ a friend asked me. I looked at my daughter walking around in her pink dress, moving her waist and hands gracefully. Her favorite color is pink. She loves wearing a dress every day. And a lot of clips on her hair. That said, we do try to raise her free of gender stereotypes. It is not always easy. It looks like we lost the war against pinkification.
But we try:
Limit the ‘be careful’. Research shows that we tend to say ‘be careful’ four times more to girls than boys after a small mishap. Another study revealed that parents cautioned their daughters about the dangers of a playground fire pole significantly more than they did their sons. They were also much more likely to assist them. Then we are surprised when girls grow up to be more fearful than their male counterparts.
