Early childhood, education and gender: elements towards a state-of-the-art

With the aim of starting up a description of the present state-of-the-art, this work brings together research thus far sparsely developed in the field of early childhood education (the first stage in basic education in Brasil), which analyzes power relationships between zero-to-six year old girls and boys, who attend day-care centers and pre-schools for many hours a day; between them and the predominantly female professionals in those places, as a results of an option made by their mothers (and sometimes also their fathers) and also investigate the power relationships between these adult women. The text also shows that, by bringing children, particularly young children, to assume their role in constructing reality, the feminists struggle plays an important role in producing social changes to the management of everyday time.

Young Children; Feminist Movement; Gender Relationship; Early Childhood Education; Day-Care center; Pre-School