WHAT DO CHILDREN THINK ABOUT GENDER ROLES?

This week in a continuing workshop in Lucknow, children received Seema and Aman’s second letter. In the letter Seema posed the question of whether girls could grow up to be astronauts. This led to an invigorating discussion among the nine year olds, who not only expressed their own opinions but also challenged other opinions. We heard voices that said ‘girls get tired easily’, ‘girls are hardworking’, ‘it does not matter as long as we study’, ‘girls do not want to do hard work’, and so on.  It was good to see children try to convince each other about how both genders can work at par. The children will respond to Seema’s query in their letters as they write back to Seema and Aman. In the coming days we, at Khel Planet, look forward to challenge stereotypical opinions in this class about girls’ abilities through more play workshops.