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. We learn those stereotypes from a very young age, so much that when we ask young children what they want to be when they grow up, their answers are often very gender conforming. Therefore gender stereotypes have to be broken down even at the elementary level if we want to give students all the chances they need to succeed in school. To do this, concrete activities aiming at deconstructing gender stereotypes can be very helpful and spark interesting discussion with your group.