RAISING FEMINISTS

This article considers the reasons for raising feminist children, how this concept might be operationalized, and what the correlates of such gender-flexible patterns might be. The data pertinent to gender-role acquisition and gender flexibility are drawn from an ongoing longitudi nal study of over 200 children and their families that originated when the children were 6 months of age and continues until they enter scho ol at age 6. Results suggest that despite the overdetermined and inevi table learning of gender stereotypes, variation exists in the degree t o which even young children subscribe to the stereotypes. These variat ions seem to relate to some realms of parental behavior.