Which jobs are for women and which are for men?
- 30 min
- 10-19 years
- DIVERSITY
What do I want to find out?
Explore which characteristics and skills pupils define as typically feminine or typically masculine. What do pupils think are prerequisites for different jobs and do they relate to gender characteristics or skills?
What do I need?
- Eight blank A3 sheets of paper with the names of jobs at the top. Choose from:
car mechanic, pilot, carer, dancer, computer programmer, farmer, police officer, office manager - Blank cards or pieces of paper size A6 and a marker for each pupil.
- A recording template for the teacher and for option A you will need eight extra copies for each group of pupils.
- A worksheet with overlapping circles (Venn diagrams) for the pupils.
What do I do?
This activity has two possible starting points:
Option A:
- Divide the pupils into eight groups and give each group one of the A3 sheets and one of the recording templates.
- Ask: Who is better predisposed for this job? A man or a woman?
- Ask pupils to discuss and record their answers in the first column of the recording sheet.
Option B:
- Divide the pupils into eight groups and give each group one of the A3 sheets.
- Ask the pupils to make a drawing of a person that has this job.
- Ask the pupils for the reasons they drew what they drew. Discuss the details of their drawings with them – what they mean. And finally also why it represents a woman or a man.
- With the pupils in pairs or groups of three, hand out four empty cards to each pair/group.
- Assign each pair/group one job from the flip chart. The goal is to have two pairs/groups working on the same job.
- Ask each pair/group to write down on four cards in big letters two characteristics and two skills that they feel to be necessary for the job. For younger pupils ask What should this person be like? What should this person be able to do? What education or training should this person have?
- Ask each pair/group, one by one, to stick their cards on the A3 sheets with the relevant job.
- Create a list of all the characteristics and skills that pupils mentioned as important for each job.
- Ask pupils to record in Venn diagrams if the characteristics/skills from the list are typical for men, women, or both genders. Pupils should also justify their decisions
- Use the recording templates from the website to collect the pupils’ responses. The pupils should write down the skills and characteristics of the people that have the jobs on the A3 paper. Afterwards collate all the responses on a single recording sheet. This will give you an overview of the class as a whole.
How do I analyse the results?
- Examine and record what pupils think about jobs that are typically performed by women and those typically performed by men.
- Record which characteristics and skills pupils see as typically masculine or typically feminine.
- Note what reasons pupils give for attributing characteristics and skills to a particular gender.
How do I measure the change?
- Depending on the time between each audit, you can repeat the activity exactly, or use an alternative set of jobs based on the same criteria.
- Look for the extent of change in gender stereotyping shown between the two activities.
- To what extent do pupils question the activity itself or challenge any stereotyped views expressed by their peers?