Abstract

The purpose of the study is to examine how children perceive the relation between play and sex and analyse it from a gender perspective. This by answering the questions: "Is the children’s choice of place, materials and company in play dependent on gender?" and "Is there a significant difference between the sexes and/or ages?" The study was done through twelve focusgroup interviews with three children in each group except two groups of two children in each. Eight boys and nine girls of six years old and nine boys and eight girls of nine years old were interviewed. Boys and girls were interviewed in separate groups and the questions were open ended and followed up. The analysis was done from a gender perspective where gender is considered a social construction, and the dichotomous and hierarchal gender system is the normative point of view for this essay.

The results showed that there were differences between both the sexes and the ages in the children included in the study. The children had a strong opinion of what was common for boys and what was common for girls to play. The boys had more difficulty crossing gender boundaries than the girls. There was a difference between the ages in that the younger children played more role-play and the older children tended to play games with structured rules. There were differences in power between the sexes. The boys played in a larger area than the girls and the girls positioned themselves as weaker or subordinate. In the choice of playmates the boys and girls played largely separated and when integrated play occurred it was generally as opposite sides of a chasing game. The girls verbalised a lager focus on the relationship to their playmates than the boys did, where signs of hierarchical orders within the groups of girls was evident. There were also differences in choice of materials used in play in both ages. Examples for further research could be an observation of the children combined with interviews to note differences in the children’s view of the relation between gender and play in theory and what it looks like in practice. Further research in the power yielded by girls could also be done.