Parents Should Encourage Their Daughters To Run Around And Climb Trees To Get Better Jobs, Says MP

Now we don’t know about you, but most little girls we know DO run riot. They definitely don’t leave all of the tree climbing and the den building to their brothers or male play pals while sitting quietly in a corner.

But Tory minister Esther McVey reckons that girls aren’t encouraged to push boundaries enough when they’re children – leaving men as the ones

to snap up jobs and promotions later in life.

But while we’re all for women advancing themselves and their careers, we’re not convinced that little girls are as meek – and well behaved – as McVey paints them out to be.

“I think girls, whether it’s the way they’re brought up, sit quietly beside mum and dad and speak when they’re spoken to,” McVey told the Mail.

“And boys are allowed to run around outside and climb on trees and make dens, and that actually does have an impact later on in life where girls are frequently looking for acceptance by others, whereas boys are much more naturally pushing the boundaries.”

McVey’s comments come after recent research has shown that men are more likely to embellish their CVs then women, when applying for a job.

So perhaps a second campaign could be #dontlieonyourcv. Just a thought.

“I thought it was very revealing that head-hunters check through a women’s CV for something like 25 minutes to analayse because the chances are she will play down her achievements,” says McVey.

“Whereas it can take them two-and-a-half hours to check a bloke’s because they’ll write about things as if they have done them, when in fact that would be a promotion.”

Because of this, the Tory MP is launching the #notjustforboys campaign today, which she hopes will boost the amount of women in jobs which are usually dominated by men – such as construction, science, IT and engineering.

And she thinks that the preparation for these types of roles should begin during childhood.

“There’s a lot of people who are getting to 18 or 20 and saying ‘if only I’d known, if only I’d got the right subject grades at A levels I would have taken those options’. We just want to make sure that girls are going forward,” says McVey

“Among engineering professionals only seven per cent of women are working in that area. Yes it has gone up since 2011, but that’s 93 per cent of women who might think ‘I would have done that’. So many people like to use the latest phones or programmes, we are saying don’t just be the consumer of technology, be the creator and think of the opportunities that will open up for you.”

McVey’s not alone in her quest to start addressing gender equality in childhood. Last year, a new law was announced in Spain, forcing children to help out with household chores – regardless of their gender.

And children’s clothes, books and toys have become more gender neutral in recent years in an effort to stop segregation of the sexes.

Play kitchens, fairy wings and princess castles are no longer pitched solely at girls and binoculars, toy cars and miniature helicopters aren’t only found in little boys’ rooms.

Of course there are differences between the two genders – but that doesn’t mean that girls only want to wear pink and boys blue.

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Do you think young girls should be encouraged to push boundaries more? Let us know in the comments.