the book often is used in the classroom for lessons on gender roles, intolerance, or general anti-bias education. to counterbalance inherent micro-inequalities in the classroom, "william's doll" is employed as a method through which educators expose students to the concept of sex-stereotyping. while exposure through children's literature has been employed by many marginalized populations, representations of males such as william with traditionally female characteristics have not been as easily welcomed. many educators, for example, object to using texts representing gender-role reversal in the classroom, whereas others promote it, recognizing the critical role schools play in childhood identity and sexuality development.