Gendered perceptions about specific jobs and careers are developed at a very early young age. They shape children’s aspirations and their awareness of, and decision to pursue, certain school subjects and careers. In other words, the persistence of strong gender stereotypes is one of the main reasons for striking gender imbalance in specific study fields and sectors of the labour market, such as transport. Currently, only 22’% of the people working in the transport sector are women. Many girls do not consider a career path in transport because gender stereotypes and expectations lead them in a different professional direction.
Challenging gender stereotypes throughout the education cycle is key to broadening individual aspirations and choices and to reducing gender imbalances in other spheres of life, such as employment. That is why, this project resulted in the development of two educational (one for primary schools and one for secondary schools) to help teachers organise discussions in class to effectively address gender stereotypes. The toolkits provide a number of hands-on activities and additional material, with the aim to challenge learners in primary and secondary schools to identify and question gender stereotypes and discover career opportunities in the transport sector. The learners explore that the sector is bigger and more varied than young people see and perceive it to be. It is also changing rapidly and becoming increasingly digitalised and sustainable.
To make sure that the toolkits are as relevant as possible for its audience and achieve their aims, the toolkits’ development was informed by a series of research activities providing an overview of the existing educational toolkits, material addressing gender stereotypes and current and future occupations in the transport sector. The study drew on desk research, surveys and stakeholder interviews. With support of national researchers, the toolkits were also tested in five EU Member States.
The toolkits are available in 24 languages, for use in all EU Member States:
- Educational toolkit to help fight gender stereotypes in primary school: Challenging learners to discover a world of opportunities based on the example of the transport sector
- Educational toolkit to help fight gender stereotypes in secondary school: Challenging learners to discover a world of opportunities based on the example of the transport sector
For background information, see also the Final study report on the development of the toolkits.
