The TV adventurer Bear Grylls supports gender-neutral child-rearing, with boys being taught to sew and knit while girls are encouraged to abseil and climb mountains.
He told The Sunday Times: “I don’t think your gender should define what you think you can and can’t do. It’s important that both girls and boys learn the same sets of skills.”
Grylls, who is Chief Scout, insists that all children need to take risks and that “being adventurous is not gender-specific”.
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He said: “Some people think Scouting is just for boys, and this really isn’t the case . . . all of our action-packed activities are for both boys and girls.”
A quarter of Scouts are girls, and no activities are off limits to them, including rock climbing,