ABSTRACT
Developing skills for managing conflict in everyday social interactions is a central achievement in childhood, as well as an ongoing process throughout one’s lifetime. Much of our thinking about conflict has negative connotations, however. A definition that frames conflict primarily as a heavy-handed adversarial activity is hardly gender neutral. Heavy-handed contests fit hegemonic masculine gender stereotypes in many cultures and have been shown to be more typical of Euro-American and Afro-American boys’ behavior than of girls’. The chapter focuses on the discourse skills used by some White, middle-class, advantaged preschool girls to manage their disagreements. It shows how their management of opposition is a jointly constructed achievement. There is a likeness between pretend play and theater. The language of pretending embodies both the planning and enactment of a story. There are stagecraft roles as well as character roles to be played.
