|
Time |
Ach.
Obj. |
Activity |
Resources |
10
min |
2,3 |
Introduction
Ask students to form a continuum, with males at one end and females at the other, of who they think would be best suited for the following occupations:
Nurse Teacher
Principal Firefighter
Mechanic Doctor
And household chores:
Putting rubbish out Cooking
Gardening Child care
Household maintenance Cleaning
Ask students if they can justify their answers:
eg Why do we think that men make better firefighters?
Has it always been like this?
Why do women do more of the cooking at home than men? |
Clear space for continuum
Lists of occupations and chores |
15
min |
1 |
Statistically speaking
In small groups:
Hand out copies of statistics detailing how many men and women work in various occupations, and their earnings.
Ask students to note 3 things about the statistics that didn’t surprise them and 3 things that did surprise them.
Class discussion:
Why were we surprised/not surprised?
Which jobs have a gender imbalance?
Which jobs are balanced?
What might some of the reasons be for these statistics?
(The information from Statistics New Zealand for this activity includes the full time equivalent positions and quarterly employment figures.) |
Copies of statistics (below):
Occupations.xls
and
Quarterly employment survey
Highlighters could be helpful |
20
min |
2,3 |
Recruitment
Groups of 3 or 4:
Each group could have 1 page or column of the occupations list to choose a job from.
Students have to recruit for a particular occupation, considering the following factors:
• What kinds of skills are needed for this position?
• What kind of personal attributes are needed for this position?
• Would this job be more suitable to a male or a female?
• If so, how could the job be made more equal?
Supporting information:
• Perhaps have examples of job advertisements available for reference.
• Indicate that jobs are not allowed to be advertised as gender specific.
• The main idea here is to get students to realise that jobs aren’t gendered but skills-based. |
Copy of file (below):
List of occupations.
Recruitment section of newspaper |
5
min |
4 |
Reflection questions
Groups of 3 or 4 - different from those above.
What are the consequences of:
Women participating more in the workforce?
Men taking on traditional ‘women's’ jobs (and vice versa)?
What will our future look like if paid and unpaid work were completely gender balanced? |
Census highlights - Income, might be useful for background here. |