Flickors och pojkars lek i dockvrå och dockskåp: Normativa förväntningar och hierarkier i förskolan vid mitten av 1900-talet.

This study investigates children’s play in a gender stereotypical environment: The home corner and dollhouse in Swedish kindergartens in the mid-1900s. The main objective of the study is to investigate gender ideals that characterised young children’s play in an institutional setting in the mid-1900s. The research questions are:

1. To what extent can gender-stereotypical expectations of girls and boys be observed in the documentation of play?
2. How do female teachers describe girls’ and boys’ play in the home corner?
3. What kind of agency do girls and boys get in the play?
4. What ideals for play emerge?

The study finds that there were distinct gender-stereotypical expectations for children’s play in Swedish kindergartens in the mid-1900s. The female teachers described girls’ play as more focused on caregiving and domestic tasks, while boys’ play was described as more active and often linked to professional roles outside the home. The observations of children’s play in the dollhouse showed that girls often took a dominant role in the play, while boys adapted to this dynamic. The photographs from preschool helped reinforce these gender stereotypes by showing girls playing with dolls and boys playing in carpentry workshops. Regarding ideals for play, the data material presents a complex picture of both traditional and more challenging play patterns.

This study uses several sources to investigate gender stereotypical expectations of children’s play in the mid-1900s. The study uses three different types of data material: a 1950 survey, play observations from 1950 and photographs from 1961. The analysis is shaped around the four research questions. The researchers are interested to see if there were differences in how female teachers described girls’ and boys’ play in the home corner and what opportunities and limitations girls and boys had in the play. The study also aims to identify the ideals for play that emerge in the data material.

Backman Prytz, S., & Forsberg Koel, J. (2023). Flickors och pojkars lek i dockvrå och dockskåp: Normativa förväntningar och hierarkier i förskolan vid mitten av 1900-talet. Nordic Journal of Educational History, 10(1), 41–64.