Tool "Guess the Job"

Language: English

Project Featuring This Tool: Rainbow Resources

Themes:Gender and Sexuality Inclusion and Equality

The group plays a game of “taboo” to explore gender stereotypes and economic discrimination in the workplace.

Time 90 minutes
Approximate number of participants Up to 20
Age under 10, 10-15
Date published 9 Dec 2011, 15:17

Objectives

To reflect on stereotypical links between gender and professions

To explore equality at work, particularly differences between salaries of men and women

Materials

Copied and cut out role cards (appendix ). (If you translate this game, write both the male and the female versions of the profession onto each card.)
A score board (blackboard, whiteboard or flipchart to record the team scores)

Step-by-step instructions

1. Divide the children into two groups. Make sure that there is a good mixture of girls and boys in each team.

2. Explain to the group that they will play an adapted version of ‘taboo’: give one person in the first team one of the prepared role cards (see appendix ). Ask them to explain to their group the person on the card with out using the name of the profession. This team has to guess the job. They have one chance to guess. If they guess incorrectly, the other team has a chance to guess. If they guess correctly they get another card. The team that guesses correctly gets one point.

3. After each round, the facilitator should place the card in the ‘women’ or ‘men’ pile depending on which gender the team assumed the person to be by using ‘he’ or ‘she’ (without making it obvious to the group).

4. Discuss with the group:

Which jobs were assumed to be done by men and which by women? (Reveal to the group for which jobs they used ‘he’ and ‘she’.)

Why is there a difference between ‘male’ and ’female’ jobs?

Do you know people who have a job that is usually seen as ‘for the other gender’?

Are they good at their job?

Are there jobs that only men can do or only women can do?

5. Explain that one end of the room represents ‘well paid’ and the other ‘low paid’. Ask them to put all the cards from the game on the floor according to how much they estimate people get paid in these jobs.

Debriefing

Is there a difference between ‘typical male’ and ‘typical female’ jobs? Is this fair?

Who is advantaged in this comparison? Why could this be? How would it be fairer?

Tips

You can find the appendix in the attach file

Attached files