What Can I Do to Nudge the Gender Box / Rachael Shaw

Why should I be concerned about gender boxes?

Before starting school, boys and girls have begun to show differences in how they behave. Children learn these unwritten rules about their gender through personal experience and through their beliefs about societal expectations. They regulate their own and their peers’ behaviours to fit in with these rules. For example, if they are led to believe that “boys don’t play with dolls” or that “girls don’t play football” then they will soon begin to not only conform to these statements themselves but will also begin to enforce it among their peers so that eventually they and their peers fulfill these statements – boys do not play with dolls and girls do not play football.

These unwritten rules about how boys and girls should, or should not behave, are what is meant by gender boxes. By perpetuating them there is the possibility that young people will limit their behaviours and thinking – missing out on exciting activities and opportunities because they are ‘a boy’ or ‘a girl’. As they get older, there is the possibility that they will begin to limit their aspirations – not considering occupations in areas which they feel are not for ‘people like them’; even though they may have had the most suitable skills and would have thoroughly enjoyed the work.

Moreover, and perhaps more importantly, by perpetuating gender boxes there is the real possibility of causing damage to mental health. For example, boys growing up feeling they shouldn’t cry and can’t speak to someone when they are feeling anxious; girls growing up feeling that they should not be assertive and spend time worrying about how their body looks.

This is why YOU, as someone who works in education, should be concerned about gender boxes. YOU have tremendous power to manipulate the environment in your classroom/school. You decide where people sit; what order people line up in; who gets to speak; who gets to participate, where and when, etc. You set the norms of what is considered the expected behaviours of everyone, and hand out rewards and sanctions accordingly. The children and young people in your care will be watching and listening. The norms you set will be adding to the ‘rules’ they have unconsciously created, as to how males and females should, or should not, behave.

What can I do to nudge the gender box

It would be great if I could specifically say “do this every day” and that would challenge the gender boxes. But it isn’t as simple as that. Not only is it impossible to think of absolutely every scenario that you will ever come across in your career and have a perfect answer for each of them; but it is also impossible to know the background of every child you will ever come across and what they have already formed in their thinking about how girls and boys should behave. It would also be wrong for us to try and force a simple reverse perception onto children – for example, by stating that only boys can play with dolls and only girls can play football. This would be just as damaging as it still maintains the gender boxes whereby some things are allowed and some things are not, simply because of whether we are ‘a boy’ or ‘a girl’. Rather it is better to create an ethos whereby our actions are creating an atmosphere where gender does not form part of the perceptions of what is, or is not, possible for any individual to achieve. One could call these small actions ‘nudges’.

Having spent considerable time studying for a PhD on such subject matter, I have created a concept entitled Nudge the gender box.These nudges are not in the form of a simple tick list of actions, they are elements which staff working in schools should consider, split into two sections entitled Social Interaction and Environmental Influences. You can find all the components of this concept here, Below I provide just two examples as a taster – one from each section.

An item from the social interaction section is:

• Dealing with appropriate and inappropriate behaviours equally and fairly, regardless of the biological sex or gender of the individual.

Thus, if a child has, for example, intentionally hit another child without provocation; it should not matter whether the perpetrator (nor the victim) is a boy or a girl. The individual should face the usual consequence associated with such actions. One should, for example, not deal less severely with a boywho hit another boy than with a boy who hit a girl, because the gender stereotypical view is that boys usually engage in rough behaviours.

Conversely if a child is seen to be behaving in the appropriate manner for a given situation – working without talking, for example,if this is to be praised, it should not matter whether the child is a boy or a girl. In other words, one doesn’t give less praise to a girl simply because your stereotypical gender expectations are that girlsusually work quietly, and boys usually chat.

An item from the environmental influences section is:

• Ensuring that no item, activity, or behaviour unnecessarily receives a gender label, which could then create or perpetuate a stereotypical perception that something is, or is not, acceptable, achievable, or expected simply by being a boy, or being a girl.

For example, when one requires furniture to be moved one doesn’t go asking for “strong boys to help” instead one asks for “pupilsto help”. Or when needing an area to be tidied up, one doesn’t go and just ask for girls to undertake this task thus perpetuating the stereotype that only girls can be tidy etc; instead, one finds a mix of girls and boys to tidy up. Or when needing a volunteer to demonstrate a specific skill in football, one doesn’t always choose a boy, or conversely only choosing a girl to demonstrate skills in netball;thus, perpetuating gender stereotypes of whether kicking or throwing a ball are skills which are only for girls or only for boys.