This study examined the conceptions of Finnish child care personnel about girls' and boys' work, as well as fathers' and mothers' work education, based on a mail survey of 317 female preschool teachers chosen from the register of the Kindergarten Teacher Association. The subjects were asked to write an essay about the subject "a girl doing work, a boy doing work, a mother as a work educator, and a father as a work educator." The survey found that the teachers attached so-called "women's work" to girls more often than they attached such work to boys, and that they attached "men's work" to boys more often than they attached such work to girls. There were more mentions relating to positive attitudes to work by girls than by boys, according to the essays, and more mentions of mothers doing children's work education than fathers doing such activities. More than half of all work education units represented traditional, gender-segregated work education, according to the essays. (Contains 99 references.) (MDM)