Male educators in parental representations, among stereotypes and change: care professionals, nature or nurture?

This contribution presents a part of the results of the research project entitled “Stereotipi di genere, relazioni educative e infanzie” (“Gender stereotypes, educational relationships and childhood") conducted between 2010 and 2012 by a group of researchers from the CSGE Centre for Gender and Education Studies at the Department of Education Studies, funded by the Emilia-Romagna Region. The purpose of the research was to measure the ideas and representations of gender and the relations between genders in adults who are educationally (and emotionally) significant for preschool children (0-6 years) and to foster widespread thought on the issue of the stereotyped images of the female and male identity that still exist and are transmitted from a very early age. In particular this article presents the focus of the analysis of the presence of males from the parents' point of view.