Fairy tales have been around forever.  Granted each version told has little alterations, but for the most part, there are not a lot of working women in them. Take for example Rumple-Stilts-Kin not only is there no working women, but the beautiful, poor maiden is sold by her father for her ability to spin gold. So here we have a women set up to work, and what happens? Rumpel-Stilts-Kin has to do it for her. What better way to tell young girls that they do not need to work than to let them know that they can just had a man do it for them? Great message.  I wouldn’t exactly say you could find a positive female role model in this story, or any other fairy tale for that matter.

As the oldest, and most told stories it is really important to consider how many young girls hear these stories. Generally, versions of fairy tales are the first stories that kids hear and whether they are young girls or boys they are still receiving the same message; girls do not work. I don’t care if they are tradition or not, but fairy tales promote problematic constructions of women.