GENDER STEREOTYPES IN CHILDHOOD

This article analyzes the stereotypes, around gender, that exist among the Early Childhood Education students from different educational centers in the Region of Murcia (Spain). For this, the tastes and preferences of students from a gender perspective have been analyzed, the use of school spaces and materials has been identified from the gender perspective, as well as the interactions and socio-educational relationships between boys and girls in the school context. Through a mixed methodology, the questionnaire and observation have been used as a school instrument and data collection method. The total sample of this study has been made up of 175 boys and girls belonging to different educational centers in the Region of Murcia. The results obtained show that both girls and five-year-old boys - in the sample - have several of the typified stereotypes assigned to each sex: they play and, in addition, want to play, with different toys depending on their sex; they use different spaces in the classroom, thus, while they prefer to play in the symbolic corner, they do it in the corner of the buildings. Therefore, it is evident that patriarchy is still latent in small things, in the differentiation of activities, language, the performance of household chores, games and toys ..., which together cause the perpetuation of a sexist stereotype that conditions our lives since we are born. On the other hand, it's affirmed that educational centers become one of the most relevant areas as it acts both as a reproducer of behaviors and as a regulator of them. In addition, making this situation visible from childhood makes it possible to instill tolerant, egalitarian, and democratic values in girls and boys that refuse to differentiate people because they are of one sex or the other.