A few good, practical ideas on how to raise your child free from gender stereotypes (and how to combat the stereotypes that inevitably sneak in), backed by interesting studies. The writing was pretty repetitive, though.

This book is very good for what it is, which is a discussion of how completely ubiquitous gender norms are in childhood and parenting, the harm it does children, and the total lack of any scientific basis for common assumptions like "boys like trucks, girls like dolls." (Yes, my toddler son loves trucks; he also will have his toy animals greet each other with kisses, or methodically hug every stuffed animal at a friend's house.) There is extensive data, and discussion of how young children, at an age where their brains are actively engaged in pattern-matching, rule-finding, and classification will notice that their teachers refer to "boys and girls", or their parents say "that boy on the swing", and conclude that gender is the most important characteristic of people. I've been deliberately trying to avoid doing this since reading the book.

What the book doesn't do, which disappointed me, is talk about gender non-conforming kids other in a cursory and somewhat dismissive manner (explaining that many children briefly experiment with gender roles without being genderfluid or transgender.) ( )