Goals
Brief description of the issue
A strong endorsement of gender stereotypes is associated with higher school dropout rates, for boys as well as for girls. In order to free themselves from these preconceived views of girls and boys’ roles, teenagers must understand what are gender stereotypes, how they’ve learned them and what level of freedom they have in regard to these gender norms. The example of how the media portray political women allows students to look at an external case study.
This lesson plan named Suffragettes and Iron Ladies is promoted by MediaSmarts, “a Canadian not-for-profit charitable organization for digital and media literacy. Our vision is that children and youth have the critical thinking skills to engage with media as active and informed digital citizens.”
According to the website’s description, this lesson will allow students to “identify stereotypical images of girls and women as represented by female action heroes”.
Teachers can also find here how this activity helps developing cross-curricular competencies as well as subject-specific competencies.
You can download the activity directly on MediaSmarts’ website or in the “Documents” section below.