What is the play of gender? Learning to be "boy" ... Learning to be "girl"

Abstract

Gender is a social construct, that is, an entirely social creation of ideas about the roles specific to men and to women (BEAVOUIR, 1970). In this context, the present study examined the relationships between different genres and the way they are expressed in "play". The sample had 15 children, seven girls and eight boys, all aged between three and four years, students of a Children's Educational Center in Brasilia, Federal District. Five sessions of Systematic Observation of spontaneous play, a moment where children did not have directed activities, were performed (RICHARDSON, 1999) along with a semi-structured interview with the teacher responsible for the class. From the data analysis, it can be inferred that the formation of groups was not necessarily determined by the composition of the group according to different genres, however, a higher incidence of homogeneous groups was found. The games do not necessarily follow social stereotypes linked to gender.