Gender Training Material
The Manual can be used for the orientation of policy-makers, curriculum developers, media professionals, adult learners and even the public at large. It is organized into ten sections that build on one another to sharpen participants' understanding of gender-biased thinking within, and all around, them.
After orientation and warm-up activities, the manual moves quickly toward an exploration of gender issues and identification of gender-biased attitudes and behaviour. Participants are "tricked" into discovering some of their own stereotyped assumptions about men and women, then guided through various activities in which they define and challenge the roles, responsibilities, rights and rewards that societies assign to men and women purely on the basis of their sex.
By the end of Section Four, participants are able to identify the multiple roles that women are expected to fulfill as mothers, wives and workers in and outside the home. In Section Five, they learn about the "gender gap" in educational opportunities and achievement for boys and girls, and in Section Six, they read and discuss a selection of news clips that highlight the roles women can, do and must play in modern societies.
From there, they begin to identify, dissect and critique the thinking and teaching that perpetuates the view that men are dominant, capable, and natural leaders while women are submissive, weak, and dependent on men. Because the materials used in these sections are stories and illustrations excerpted from real-life education materials, participants get a good look at the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that education promotes and maintains gender based inequities. In proposing modifications that render these materials gender sensitive, they
undertake the work of undoing this bias.
To read the full document, please click here