Teachers as influencers

Gender Roles & Gender Stereotypes

How can you help pupils understand gender roles?

Provide a range of role models – by giving to pupil’s real-life examples that counter stereotypes, both in your own activities, and in topic work and external visitors.

Look at gender influencers – who use which spaces and equipment? Are boys and girls taught to sew or work with wood materials at the same class or by one gender or the other? Are there changes or movements you could make to encourage children to use sportive areas and tools equally free or certain spaces, like football areas are dominated by boys?

Use inclusive language – Small labels, like saying ‘pupils’ instead of ‘girls and boys’ or ‘parents and carers’ or ‘families’ rather than ‘Mums and Dads’, can help to reduce gender differences and to strengthen cross gender relations.

Change the reinforcement – Pupils are pressured to conform to social expectation of what it is to be a man or a woman. Depending on how much they conform, they may be rewarded or punished. Gender roles are the cause of gender differences: girls realize that they should be passive and boys realize they must be aggressive. Therefore, boys are awarded for being aggressive and girls are punished for being aggressive.

Avoid class gender bias – that leads to gender stereotypes, such as: math is easier for boys than girls and girls can have better result in literature.