Tackling Gender stereotypes amongst young people

This was the theme of the second online workshop that the Rumourless Cities Network organised as part of our programme of sharing and disseminating the work of the network. 

The issue of  negative gender stereotyping by young men  featured in the work of a number of partners in the network. This is an issue that came as a bit of a surprise as the underlying assumption that partners had was that negative gender stereotyping was declining amongst young people. However, unfortunately this is not the case. We are all influenced by gender. Gender norms (or rules) tell us what is appropriate for girls and for boys, women and men to do in our society. Because of gender stereotypes, girls and women are often less valued and have lower social status.

Girls and women suffer most of the negative impact of rigid gender norms and roles - they are more likely to experience restrictions of their freedom and mobility, they experience epidemic levels of violence and harassment across the globe and have fewer opportunities to choose how to live their lives. 

Alison  Henderson from the Fawcett Society  presented the results of new research undertaken by the society in respect to the impact of gender stereotypes in early childhood-The research  highlights the lifelong impact of gender stereotyping in childhood. In extensive survey undertaken , 45% of people said that when they were children, they experienced gender stereotyping as they were expected to behave in a certain way. Stereotyping in childhood has wide-ranging and significant negative consequences for both women and men, with more than half (51%) of people affected saying it constrained their career choices and 44% saying it harmed their personal relationships.

Half of all women affected (53%) said gender stereotyping had a negative impact on who does the caring in their own family. Older women were particularly affected by this. 7 in 10 younger women (18-34s) affected by stereotypes say their career choices were restricted.

The workshop also  provided an overview of approaches to gender mainstreaming. Gender mainstreaming has been embraced internationally as a strategy towards realising gender equality. It involves the integration of a gender perspective into the preparation, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, regulatory measures and spending programmes, with a view to promoting equality between women and men, and combating discrimination.

Hanna Biller from the Austrian National Youth Council presented  toolbox that the National Youth Council has developed which offers a practical guide as to how to tackle conscious and unconscious  gender bias in youth organisations . For example one practice she presented is of taking a gender “audit” of their  own meetings. What this means in practice is have two observers( one male and one female ) noting who speaks and for how long at meetings. Whose comments are  picked up by others and whose are not. 

Emma Withington , from the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts(Wagggs) also presented  their gender and diversity mainstreaming toolkit. She spoke very candidly of the difficulties they faced and emphasised the need to have an approach that was focused on the long term as change “will not happen overnight”. 

All the presentations can be accessed here