I wondered whether the writers that I loved who thoroughly excluded women, such as Grahame and HP Lovecraft, were doing so deliberately or out of ignorance? I started an experiment to find out: choosing a work by each, I introduced female characters to see what that told me about their earlier absence.

The series has been criticised in the past as sexist, classist and anti-environmentalist. Small changes have been introduced in recent years, including the arrival of a Japanese engine, Hiro, and a spin-off DVD featuring engines from other countries. But the new overhaul, beginning with the 2018 series, is the biggest transformation since the television adaptation was first broadcast in 1984.

Singh noted that it is important for children and adults to internalize these affirmations, and "sometimes we don't give enough voice to that and we don't teach that." The words of the book are "like an inner dialogue that we would hope our children would have about themselves," she added.

Gender bias is rife in primary school learning books and can be found, in a strikingly similar form, on every continent, various experts say. It is a problem "hidden in plain sight".

"We're not going to be getting her baby dolls and Barbies. We want her to have open-ended free play toys," she says.

The design, called Watt-r, aims at reducing the time that women and children spend collecting water in places like rural Africa. On average, a trip to get water in a developing country requires walking more than three miles round-trip, carrying a jug that weighs around 40 pounds on the way back. In areas affected by drought, the walk can be 15 miles or more.

I want my son to experience all there is to experience. I want him to be able to show his emotions to his friends, his significant others, his partners. I want him to grow up aware. I want him to grow up without needing to prove his masculinity. I want him to grow up secure in himself and his place in this world.

" What or whose view of the world, or kinds of behavior does the book present as normal? Why is the book written from this perspective? How else could it have been written?"

Children are given the freedom to challenge and cross gender boundaries. Rather than encourage children to do particular things, the teachers are careful not to box children based on their gender or subtly discourage them from doing certain things.

According to a recent report by Common Sense Media, "Watching Gender: How Stereotypes in Movies and on TV Impact Kids' Development," gender stereotypes play a big role in teaching boys and girls what the culture expects of them.