My son told me once "Girls don't play cricket".
Now, look at the picture below and think "Are we in any way responsible for this?"
#BreakGenderStreotyping
Hello Everyone!
Let me give you a little background on gender stereotyping.
It starts early and most girls by the age of 10 report being less confident than boys. This is what the research says for advanced countries like UK and USA. In a country like ours, this starts even earlier.
Gender Stereotyping takes place invariably and even when you try to bring your child in a neutral environment. Reason? It is too deep rooted and all around us. When we say boys can’t wear skirts, girls don’t play with robots, we are putting them into gender buckets. When we treat our daughters more preciously than our sons thinking girls are delicate, we are stereotyping. Same is the case when we buy pink for girls and blue for boys.
While we refrained from doing these traditional things to prevent the bias, it creped inside my boy’s mind when he started observing the world around him. Being a cricket and sports fan, he watched live tournaments whenever they happened. And that got him the idea that only boys play cricket. Not a wrong observation for the child. It never occurred to me that our cricket crazy country only watches one type of cricket – The Men’s cricket. As he started school, I heard many more statements. We made some changes like watching more women sport, tweaking Ramayana and other mythological stories, reading about Goddess Durga and of course trying the best way to explain things. But what really worked was a book named ‘Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls’.
It is a book that talks about women achievers and real characters. Nothing is more inspiring than reading about real superheroes. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Bat Girl are fictitious but the women in this book are not. The book has 100 stories featuring 100 different women and their achievements. Every story is unique in terms f its struggle. There are boxers, activists, politicians, doctors and many more to inspire your little one. In fact, at one point it makes you wonder why these great achievers were not given their due credit. The beauty of the book lies in the fact that it bring real women to light across various fields. It highlights their struggles and the power of determination and hard work.
And what I discovered, that there are plenty of women from different eras who had fought the gender norms, achieved great heights and yet lay hidden in the pages of history. So, it not only the who kids discover these beautiful, strong women but also us.
For me, the best part of reading this book with my son was when he started correcting other people who confined to gender roles of women. I would like to share one particular instance when someone from the family said that girls are beautiful and boys are strong. My son instantly corrected him saying ‘We all are strong. In fact, women are stronger.’ He further went on to narrate the story of a great World War -II Spy ‘Nancy Wake’ who gave Germans a tough time and was nick-named as ‘White Mouse’ by the Nazis as they found her swift as mouse and were unable to catch her. I was a proud mom at that moment and realized I had at last sowed the seeds of gender equality, thanks to this wonderful book.
A must read for every child – for girls and for boys!
Now, look at the picture below and think "Are we in any way responsible for this?"
#BreakGenderStreotyping
Hello Everyone!
Let me give you a little background on gender stereotyping.
It starts early and most girls by the age of 10 report being less confident than boys. This is what the research says for advanced countries like UK and USA. In a country like ours, this starts even earlier.
Gender Stereotyping takes place invariably and even when you try to bring your child in a neutral environment. Reason? It is too deep rooted and all around us. When we say boys can’t wear skirts, girls don’t play with robots, we are putting them into gender buckets. When we treat our daughters more preciously than our sons thinking girls are delicate, we are stereotyping. Same is the case when we buy pink for girls and blue for boys.
While we refrained from doing these traditional things to prevent the bias, it creped inside my boy’s mind when he started observing the world around him. Being a cricket and sports fan, he watched live tournaments whenever they happened. And that got him the idea that only boys play cricket. Not a wrong observation for the child. It never occurred to me that our cricket crazy country only watches one type of cricket – The Men’s cricket. As he started school, I heard many more statements. We made some changes like watching more women sport, tweaking Ramayana and other mythological stories, reading about Goddess Durga and of course trying the best way to explain things. But what really worked was a book named ‘Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls’.
It is a book that talks about women achievers and real characters. Nothing is more inspiring than reading about real superheroes. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Bat Girl are fictitious but the women in this book are not. The book has 100 stories featuring 100 different women and their achievements. Every story is unique in terms f its struggle. There are boxers, activists, politicians, doctors and many more to inspire your little one. In fact, at one point it makes you wonder why these great achievers were not given their due credit. The beauty of the book lies in the fact that it bring real women to light across various fields. It highlights their struggles and the power of determination and hard work.
And what I discovered, that there are plenty of women from different eras who had fought the gender norms, achieved great heights and yet lay hidden in the pages of history. So, it not only the who kids discover these beautiful, strong women but also us.
For me, the best part of reading this book with my son was when he started correcting other people who confined to gender roles of women. I would like to share one particular instance when someone from the family said that girls are beautiful and boys are strong. My son instantly corrected him saying ‘We all are strong. In fact, women are stronger.’ He further went on to narrate the story of a great World War -II Spy ‘Nancy Wake’ who gave Germans a tough time and was nick-named as ‘White Mouse’ by the Nazis as they found her swift as mouse and were unable to catch her. I was a proud mom at that moment and realized I had at last sowed the seeds of gender equality, thanks to this wonderful book.
A must read for every child – for girls and for boys!
pooja
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20 Jan 2018