The future for our children is changing and the gender lines are blurring.
In celebration of British Science Week, it is incredible to see that more girls are aspiring to be scientists than ever, and so much so that it has now entered the top 10 dream careers for girls today.
These findings are from new research into what children aspire to be today, and what their parents wanted to be many generations ago.
The rise of STEM
Today, girls crave careers focussed in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM), with vet, scientist, doctor and nurse all appearing in the top ten dream jobs and teacher taking the top spot.
Meanwhile, boys are more focused on the spotlight, dreaming of becoming footballers, policeman and vloggers.
Career influences come from a number of sources and the push on STEM activity within schools from the government has clearly had a huge impact. We’re seeing this at Hoop too – STEM activities are increasing in popularity every month.
In fact there has been a 217% increase in STEM activities for children in January this year, vs last which suggests they are growing to meet the demand from families.
The impact of influence
As the results show, girls are still more likely than boys to aspire to care-giving roles.
Looking more closely at the boys results, vlogger has taken the title of the third top career choice for boys, inspired by the unwavering popularity of YouTube, becoming an influencer on YouTube is a dream for many.
Computer game designer/tester also made the top 10, driven partly by the phenomenon of computer games like Fortnite.
The focus now needs to be on harnessing and continuing to push STEM further, with both girls and boys.
| Dream jobs of modern boys | Dream jobs of modern girls |
|---|---|
| 1. Footballer | 1. Teacher |
| 2. Police Officer | 2. Vet |
| 3. Youtuber / Vlogger | 3. Doctor |
| =4. Teacher | 4. Nurse |
| =4. Fire Officer | =5. Actor |
| 6. Engineer | =5. Scientist |
| 7. Doctor | =7. Artist |
| =8. Pilot | =7. Ballerina |
| =8. Vet | 9. Singer/Popstar/Rockstar |
| 10. Computer Game Designer or Tester |
10. Author/Writer |
The way we talk to girls will be crucial in helping them to achieve their career goals.
All jobs should be encouraged as viable options for both genders and this message should be one that is repeated at all stages across children’s development – particularly as they head towards GCSE selection.
These movements are positive, but we need to consistently tackle the stereotypes that remain in modern society.
Though progress has been made, outside factors including the media and even the opinions of friends can mean that labels still needlessly restrict children and their future career paths.
This needs to continue to evolve to enable children to dream bigger than they have before.
Encouraging children’s passions
We offer parents a huge range of different opportunities for children to uncover and develop
their passions across the whole of the UK. From ballet to science experiments, filming workshops, football camps and even coding classes we list over 100k different activities per month.
There are a lot of free activities that families can explore as well, in fact 1 in 5 of the activities that we list on Hoop are free.
These are classes that are allowing children to explore and to find their passions and interests, and to spark that intrigue and feed that thirst for knowledge.
Learning through play from an early age is a powerful thing, children’s identities are starting to form from the moment they are born and from as early as aged seven, children are starting to share occupational aspirations, influenced by the people they meet and the immediate environment they are in.
On Hoop, we are offering children the opportunity to socialise with other children and to learn new behaviours and skills, combining laughter and learning.
We’re excited by the new professions in the list and by the opportunities for children today to go for it, to aim high and to be who they want to be when they grow up, while having a lot of fun along the way.
The progress we’re seeing is significant but the journey continues, there’s much more to be done, after all the children of today are the men and women of tomorrow.
What was your dream job when you were young? Did you fulfil your dreams? Let us know by posting a comment.