While an English elementary school teacher created a list of clues for words that contain “ur” in them, they probably thought they were doing kids a service sticking to familiar jobs, days of the week, and other intuitive responses. However, one girl, 8-year-old Yasmine Sutcliffe of Birmingham, thought outside of the box when one of the responses was clearly designed to solicit a sexist response from the impressionable youngsters.
No doubt the teacher didn’t anticipate Yasmin’s thoughtful and far more appropriate response when assigning these questions. However, the response hopefully gave the responsible party something to think about as social media championed the girl for refusing to subscribe to outdated gender roles.
Here’s a photo of the assignment, initially shared by Yasmine’s father, Robert. The offending question and enlightened response are circled.
While her answer certainly shook the antiquated belief that “woman equals nurse” when applied to anyone working in a hospital, some were quick to point out that equating any job at all, be it menial or lofty, to a certain gender is the very definition of sexism.
