Every Tuesday, Mackenzie brings home her Red Folder, which contains all the graded papers from the previous week for us to look over. A couple of weeks ago, Mackenzie's class had an assignment which provided a short description of a job, and the students had to match the illustration that was being depicted in the statement (see below). Other than the fire fighter, all the other "male dominated" professions were represented by men, while the veterinarian, reporter, writer child care worker were women.
How are children, both boys and girls, supposed to think the sky is the limit and that they can be anything they want to be when they are, at an early age, are being exposed to activities like this where roles are divided clearly for the jobs men and women do in the community?
I wonder who I can contact to make a change about this activity. It wouldn't hurt to expose children to jobs where both males and females are in those professions typical deemed male and female dominated.
Just thought I'd share my thoughts...
Also, I haven't forgotten. I owe y'all another HerStory interview. It's almost ready and should be posted by Wednesday.
Until next time!
Well, don't lose hope. Labwork used to be dominated by men but is now almost exclusively women. Something like 85% of labworkers are women now when going back as late as 1995 (I think), it was flipped the other way. Change can be slow but things do change.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, Danielle. I just feel like we should have progressed more than where we are now. Slow change is better than no change at all!
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