” I don’t understand why you’re making us do all this stuff about boys’ jobs and girls’ jobs when we all know that it’s sexist to say that kind of stuff.”
-Primary 7 pupil during one of my “inspirational” lessons
It has become apparent during my work that there’s a huge divide amongst pupils when it comes to their awareness of gender stereotypes. The majority of children i have spoken to are well aware that statements such as ‘football is just for boys’ are harmful and damaging; some are even bored when we discuss this topic, as if i’m explaining the obvious.
A minority of the school population have perceptions of certain activities, attributes and personality traits as being masculine or feminine. I suspect that a lot of these are influenced by factors such as parental opinion, advertising or social media.
What i’d like to focus on are the ways we as a school divide activities and routines by gender, why we do this, and how we can make changes to these expectations. Moreover, i’d like to find a way to measure how this impacts pupils’ wellbeing.
Draft question: What happens when a school explores its approaches to gender?
This is a very interesting topic to research and look into. It must be extremely hard to create your plan here! I’m wondering if you could focus on specific classes and use google forms for questionnaires of experiences/opinions before and after. This might get you even more information about specific things you would like to explore in your school!