Review of Strategies to Address Gender Inequalities in Scottish ...

Funding for the PSI came from a variety of sources, including the Scottish Executive, thelocal authority, churches and charities. They have also ‘begged and borrowed’ to getinitiatives off the ground, including asking suppliers for surplus stock.iii. The implementation of the strategyThrough a consultation process, the EYCCT found that fathers did want to be involved,but not through the kinds of groups run for women. They wanted to be more active, morehands-on, and were looking for physical, practical activities. The team started runningSaturday morning sessions in neighbourhood centres that would appeal equally tomothers, fathers and their children. Sessions included making books, constructingpuppets and kites, storytelling and preparing food, and some were also run in theevenings. They developed a series of parent and child workshops on popular themessuch as Monsters Inc, and fathers did turn up with their children. They became muchmore involved and the team reported that they grew in confidence and their relationshipswith their children improved. They enjoyed the fact that their children saw them makingthings and the children were impressed by their fathers’ skills. However, they still tendedto make comments such as ‘see the wife, that’s her job’ when asked to give a view onchildren and their schooling.The workshops were intended to involve fathers in the kinds of activities they could do athome and to give them skills, ideas and suggestions for following up the workshops.Either parent, or both, could attend any workshop, as they chose, and they attracted abroad range of parents of both genders. In addition, grandmothers frequently attended,and when young mothers came, they often brought someone else such as a parent, partneror friend.The team took the deliberate decision to demand nothing of parents in terms ofcommitment to the initiative. Experience indicated that it was difficult to engage someparents in discussing their children and their progress, and many parents did not reallywant to be more involved than just attending individual workshops. It was also felt thatparents would not want to be involved in our focus groups, and attempts to achieve thiswere unsuccessful.Some nurseries are now running early evening sessions along similar lines and, althoughthey were initially concerned that this was not a good time of day for fathers, these hadbeen very well attended, with some fathers coming on their own.In the nursery school, the headteacher targeted three areas of activity for action: sortingactivities; role playing/dressing up; and indoor/outdoor play.a. Sorting activitiesPreviously the objects used for sorting had tended to be plastic and of familiarcontent, e.g. farm animals, transport, etc. The nursery has introduced a broaderrange of types of objects, e.g. minibeasts, leaves, artificial flowers, with a greateremphasis on varying colour and texture. Where possible, these are tied into topicwork, e.g. the seasons, the jungle. Around St Valentine’s Day children wereprovided with hearts in different materials, e.g. wood, plastic, velvet. They have alsointroduced objects such as nuts, bolts and screws to be sorted, compared, sequenced,etc., ‘to address the interests of boys’.b. Dressing up/role playingAccording to staff, both boys and girls were happy to dress up using the existingstock of outfits (usually parents’ cast-offs), but it was felt that both groups neededgreater stimulus for imaginative play. To encourage this, staff introduced new outfitssuch as magical ones (witch/wizard) in interesting fabrics and, specifically to appeal______________________________________________________________________________________Review of Strategies to 28 University of StrathclydeAddress Gender Inequalitiesand University of Glasgow