Non Exclusive: Primary school children enact gender stereotypes when imitating certain job roles, a new study has found. In an experiment conducted
Non Exclusive: Primary school children enact gender stereotypes when imitating certain job roles, a new study has found. In an experiment conducted by easyJet, a group of seven-year-old children were asked to act out various occupations, with both girls and boys donning moustaches, choosing male names, and putting on a deep voice, when playing the roles of a mechanic, a builder and an airline pilot. Boys were captured reaching for long wigs and announcing that nurses have high-pitched voices, whilst girls, playing the role of builders, adopted a deep voice and put on beards and moustaches. When asked to imitate a pilot, both girls and boys put on male voices to announce, ‘this is your captain speaking’, and chose names such as James, John and even ‘Mr Banana’. At the end of the video of the children aged seven years old from St Albans and St Stephen Primary School, were excited to be introduced to a real-life female easyJet pilot. The experiment was commissioned by easyJet ahead of the launch of its 2024 Pilot Training Programme, with the aim of tackling gender stereotypes and inspiring more women to consider a career in aviation. The campaign has been launched following new research by the airline revealed that over half (52%) of British primary school children believe that a pilot is a job for a man. The study of 2,000 children (aged six to 11 years old) and their parents found 47% of children have already formed an opinion on the careers available to them by the age of 11 according to parents. When asked why they believed that pilot is a role for men, the top reason given by children was that they had never seen a female pilot (41%). In fact, data shows travellers will hear ‘This is Your Captain Speaking’ from a female voice in just 1 in 17 flights per year*. More than half (59%) of British parents surveyed still believe there are misconceptions that a pilot is a job for a man and of those young girls surveyed, 47% sai
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Photo credit: © Raj Valley / Alamy / Afripics
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Keywords: airline, children, experiment, gender, pilots, school
