Yesterday, June 17th, the Ratiu Center for Democracy organized the workshop “Femininity – Masculinity”, the first activity of the campaign “Stop Gender Discrimination!” Although the rainy weather was less than agreeable, at 14.50, the participants began to arrive – some dry beneath umbrellas, others soaked to the bone.
The 17 participants (5 of them colleagues at CRD), from a diverse range of demographics, had the opportunity to learn about the differences between gender and sex, and the way in which stereotypes and gender discrimination are formed and perpetuated.
The workshop started with the following questions: “How many of you are women?” and “How many of you are men?” The utility of these questions and the gender-sex definition was highlighted by the negative answers given by two of our female participants. The workshop continued with an exercise meant to highlight gender stereotypes among participants: women used a flip-chart to draw a man and describe his exclusively masculine attributes, while men were asked to do the same thing regarding a woman. The debate which followed the exercise was quite heated. Asked to agree or disagree with the given attributes, participants disagreed with 80% of all answers and concluded that many of the supposedly distinct gender attributes can be found in both genders. A small step in combating gender stereotypes and pointless generalizations!!!
For the “Abigail” exercise, participants (divided into three groups) scored Abigail as having the best behavior, because she "sacrifices herself for love". The least desirable behavior went to John, "a brute". Due to the fact that the mother is not influencing her daughter’s decisions, that she "doesn’t help [her daughter] and that is exactly what a mother must do”, the mother received strong criticism from all groups. No participant asked about the whereabouts of the absent father, the mother’s responsibilities accepted without question, emphasizing the perpetuation of the motherhood myth. Whereas Sinbad, who treats the woman as a sexual object and physically harasses her, was not criticized harshly by participants. They argued that Sinbad proposed and Abigail accepted.
After the Abigail exercise and follow-up, we discussed gender issues via the Discrimination Tree. Its fruits represented gender discrimination and the roots were the causes of discrimination, factors which influence and perpetuate gender discrimination and patriarchal behavior.
Participants identified solutions to reduce stereotypes: the necessity of introducing “gender civic education” in school curricula; a change of education within the family through gender role neutralization; repeating the workshops and info sessions on gender issues in Turda.
I would like to thank all the participants for their participation at the workshop!
We are waiting for you today at 18.00 for the movie screening.
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