By Kirsty Ruthven, The Children’s Society
I was reminded recently whilst working with a group of Year 6 pupils that challenging gender stereotypes needs to firmly be on the agenda in primary schools.
After watching a gripping short story as a stimulus for a creative writing task, I was met with comments like, “What a dumb girl!” and “Why do girls like that always make silly choices?” when discussing the main character in the story.
After some in-depth discussion and sensitively sharing our ideas, we agreed that language like this was unhelpful and stereotypical.
We also discovered when watching the conclusion of the short story that the ‘dumb girl’ was nothing of the sort!
Gender stereotypes are most often evident in social expectations, media portrayals and everyday interactions. Although in recent history there has obviously been progress in relation to gender equality, it’s a journey not quite at its desired destination.
For example, how often do we talk about caring masculinities in school and use role models that support a wide range of ways of being a boy or a man?
Are educators fully aware of the important role they play in either perpetuating or disrupting gender stereotypes?
Gender stereotypes impact us all and schools are not immune from the strong forces in society that fuel them. As educators, it’s important that we take a whole-school approach to tackling any kind of inequality, that we work together on a shared vision to support all children to reach their full potential.
This might mean examining the language that we use, the lessons that we teach and the opportunities we provide for all pupils to challenge stereotypical behaviour.
By recognising and challenging these stereotypes early on we can remove the barriers they may place on children’s aspirations, choices and outcomes.
That’s why The Children’s Society has developed the free Beyond Gender Stereotypes (BGS) programme with our global partner, Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice as part of the Global Boyhood Initiative. BGS empowers pupils to:
· Build healthy relationships and ways of expressing emotions.
· Follow any interests and hobbies they want to.
· Understand they can pursue jobs or careers they choose, unrestricted by gender stereotypes.
The programme provides a two-and-a-half-hour self-guided online course for educators, seven one-hour PSHE lessons for Key Stage 2 pupils and accompanying classroom materials, like PowerPoints and downloadable resources, to support educators as well as parents and carers.
It gives schools practical, engaging and safe ways to discuss these important topics with children to help them to understand how they can support each other in creating positive change.
To find out more about the Beyond Gender Stereotypes programme, visit: bit.ly/BeyondGenderStereotypes
Kirsty Ruthven is a Service Manager at The Children’s Society.
