Gender and Technology Training Guidelines
UNDERSTANDING GENDER
This session is principally addressing gender attitudes in society, and may not be
needed where participants have already received this type of training
PURPOSE: Understand more about how men and women fit into society.
TIME
1 1/2 hours
MATERIAL
Handout on gender
Newsprint
Small cards in two different colours,
Felt pens or crayons, cellotape or blue tack
ACTIVITY:
Step 1
Introduce the session by saying that the idea is to focus on what men and
women do - their roles and responsibilities. Participants should think about
the different things that men and women do in the course of a day, and how
those tasks are perceived by others.
Step 2 -
Brainstorm from the group what they understood by the term Gender.
List all responses but do not discuss at this stage.
Step 3 -
Distribute cards and ask participants to write down men’s tasks and women’s
tasks. Men should also think of what their wives, mothers and sisters do, and
women of their husbands, fathers and brothers. Men’s tasks to be written on
cards of one colour and women’s tasks to be written on cards of another
colour. Paste the cards up under the two headings - men’s tasks and women’s
tasks. Look at, but do not discuss.
Step 4 -
Go back to group and talk about the statements listed in Step 2. Examine
gender versus women's and men's roles, access to decision making, power,
social status etc. Challenge participants as to why men or women ‘have’ to do
certain jobs. End with the concept that gender is a social construct and not
biological.
Step 5 - Summing up
Step 6
Go back to the cards. Change the headings to biological and social and
redistribute the cards. Do this as a group. Discuss. What tasks are social?
What tasks are biological? Have there been any changes?
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