Gypsy Kids claim it’s ‘shameful’ for boys to clean and say men would be ‘laughed at’ if their wives worked
The latest episode of the Channel 5 show highlights the inequality between girls and boys in the Traveller community
TRAVELLER kids as young as nine have revealed they would think it “shameful” for a boy to help with cleaning.
Next week’s episode of Gypsy Kids: Our Secret World focuses on the inequality between sexes in the Travelling community – and how the girls are taught to cook, clean and wait on their men from a young age.
One little girl is asked what she would think if a boy “did a girl’s work.”
She says: “That would be shameful for them because they would be talked about.
“If they wanted to do it they could do it but that is just crazy.”
A boy insists: “A woman has to stay at home and look after the kids, cook, clean, and the men have to go out and work and graft all day.
Another adds: “Boys can go out and stay out late and the girls have to stay at home and clean up.
"To clean up is rubbish because it’s not a boy’s job.”
But not all the kids thought the same, and some were keen to move with the times.
Romany twins Johnny and Abraham – who recently told The Sun Online about their life as “men in boys’ bodies” – said: “The world’s changing and we’re changing with it.”
The show, which airs on Thursday, sees Irish Travellers Shakira and Sherena, from County Westmeath, bucking the rules by learning to box and both said they wanted to work in the future.
But mum Mandy was adamant that the girls would grow up with the “traditional skills” of a Traveller wife and she is seen teaching them to cook and clean.
Most read in Fabulous
She admits that women are treated as second class citizens, saying: “I find with Travellers men are up here and women are pushed down.”
But she adds: “Husbands won’t be too impressed if they can’t cook.”
She also reveals that men would never allow their wives to work.
She said: “If I went out and worked my husband would be made a laugh of.”
While the girls clean the family home until it’s spotless, Sherena moans: “The women do all the work inside. The boys would never wash up or clean inside, never.”
But Sherena and Shakira are not keen to toe the line, and want girls to have equal chances.
Shakira, 11, says: “Why do you have to live up to Traveller rules? Why can’t we go by our own rules? They need to give us a chance too.
“It’s shouldn’t be fair that boys get more hired than girls because we’re all the same. We can all do the same things.”
The two girls are seen training in the boxing ring, ahead of an inter-county competition which could see them get into the Irish squad.
But they admit that many of their own community are against them getting in the ring.
Sherena said: “You don’t see many Traveller girls boxing and there are some Traveller boys out there that wouldn’t like a girl doing anything like that.”
Shakira added: “Every girl is like ‘You can’t do that, you’ll get hurt’ but I don’t see me getting hurt. A few black eyes maybe, but they’ll go.”
The 11-year-old is also desperate to take over her dad Anthony’s farrier business, something that is also frowned upon in the Traveller community, who traditionally pass businesses down to sons and nephews.
Although both sexes now get the same education and often leave after primary school - as seen at the UK's only Traveller school - the girls are not expected to work.
Shakira said: "I’d love my dad’s job and I’d like to take it over.
"I love horses and nothing will change me from loving them. People say ‘You’re a tomboy you act like a boy’ but I don’t care. It’s not their life it’s mine."
While she helps her dad with horses every day, he's not convinced she should become a farrier in her own right, as he believes it will put suitors off.
He said: “I can’t see a traveller man marrying a Travelling girl who would be a farrier. But stranger things have happened."
The episode also reveals the extent of bullying the Travellers are subjected to at school, and tells the story of Ben, who was moved from 11 schools after being picked on for his ethnic background and even got his ARM BROKEN when he was attacked by 16 pupils.
Gypsy Kids: Our Secret World, airs on Thursday nights at 10pm on Channel 5.
