Bus Drivers and Gender Equity

My son and I were reading "Franklin and the Tooth Fairy," a children's book about a young toothless turtle who envied his friends whose tooth losses proved they were growing up. I learned a few things from this book (like that turtles don't have teeth), and our little guy did, too.

On one page, Franklin was on the school bus with his species-diverse first-grade class. There was a bear, a snail, a rabbit--and TWO foxes, one pint-sized and one grown-up and driving the bus. This was something excitedly pointed out by our boy.

"Look!" he said. "Two foxes!" Indicating the driver, he added, "That one's his father...or mother."

I was so relieved he's tacked on that last little bit.

Then he asked me, "Which do you think it is, Mama? His father or his mother?"

I coudn't fault him for assuming the young fox was a boy. He obviously was projecting himself into the story. (At least that's what I told myself.) But I didn't want to give him the answer to his question and seized the chance to examine his psyche.

"I don't know," I said. "What do you think?"

He takes after his mother in not wanting to be wrong, so he said, "You just tell me, Mama."

"Well," I said, "I think his mama's a doctor, so that must be his daddy."

The little guy considered this. "But most doctors are men," he said.

"Your doctor's a man," I replied, "but mine is a woman. And so is your friend Sara's. Just because your doctor's a man doesn't mean they all are. Lots of doctors are women."

He accepted this and turned the page. And I continued reading with a smile (or was it a smirk?) of triumph on my face.