How we can battle gender sterotypes in Guiding
I love my role of a Peer Educator within Guiding and the messages I get to teach the girls in the units I visit. Body Confidence and Mental wellbeing are both incredibly important for girls to get talking about from such a young age but I've got to say Breaking Free, the latest Peer Education resource based on gender stereotypes has got me feeling inspired and excited to get out and about running sessions.
The Girls Attitudes survey, conducted by Girlguiding found half of participants feel they need to conform to gender stereotypes which makes girls feel angry, anxious and less important than boys- we need to change! But the survey does show there is hope, finding gender stereotypes make girls more determined to succeed and that we are living in a society where change is happening!
I think breaking free of stereotypes, no matter what gender you associate yourself with is extremely important and no one should feel limited on what they can achieve just because they are a girl or because they are a boy. I thought I would share with you some ideas that I've come up with to help you battle and overcome stereotypes within your unit meetings and if you have any of your own please do let me know via the comments or my Instagram (@megsguidingadventures).
Book a Peer Education session
No matter which resource you ask a Peer Educator to deliver all will help girls beat stereotypes! From understanding they are much more than their looks to knowing how to seek support when they need it, all the skills and topics Peer Educators introduce girls too will help them to be who they want to be without stereotypes holding them back!
Some of you may already be aware of these books but essentially they are full of short stories about inspiring and empowering women. You could perhaps run a whole meeting on a particular female or finish up your meetings by reading (or getting one of the girls) to read one of the stories to the rest of the unit! They could be really good to take on pack holiday or a sleepover to read to the girls whilst they are falling asleep! Its little things like this which help girls overcome the boxes society may put them in.
Create a girl led programme
This is something we should all be doing anyway but i know sometimes it can be easy to get caught up and just plan things you think the girls will enjoy but through giving girls the freedom to pick and choose what they want to do it allows them to explore new areas and what they like and dislike. They may want to do sport or do science activities, which leaders may not always think and even if girls do decide they want to do craft, they have picked it themselves, showing its what they want to do rather than what they are made to do!
Local Girl Bosses
This is a bit more dependant on where you live but perhaps a female has recently been appointed in a male associated role, it could be a firefighter or perhaps your lord major, even your ladies football team, I think its really important to show girls your gender does not limit your future! And through inviting some local girls or woman who are doing this it may help some of the girls within your unit to believe this!
Think Before we speak
This is more for us leaders to do but to make sure we think before we speak. To overcome stereotypes we need to make sure our actions and words don’t enforce them! The same applies if we hear girls saying something like boys can’t play with dolls or only boys can do that. We don’t have to lecture girls on it but having a quick short conversation can be enough to make a girl realise their gender doesn’t matter and if we only change the opinion of one girl then we have made progress in the right direction!
I hope maybe some of these ideas have helped and I would love to hear how you are all challenging gender stereotypes in your meeting place! Look out for some more posts about gender stereotypes coming up on the blog as it is also the topic of my Queen's Guide award research!
Speak soon!
M x
I hope maybe some of these ideas have helped and I would love to hear how you are all challenging gender stereotypes in your meeting place! Look out for some more posts about gender stereotypes coming up on the blog as it is also the topic of my Queen's Guide award research!
Speak soon!
M x
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