The World Health Organisation describes gender as referring to ‘the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women’.

In this unit, we explore how gender roles and expectations influence identity and rights. We aim to inspire pupils to question norms and dominant masculinities and to bring about greater gender equality. 

Across 6 hour-long lessons of activities, we will look at topics such as:

  • expectations around gender roles and identities, the importance of equal rights and what we can learn from the perspectives of others
  • examples of gender equality and inequality from different cultures and across the world 
  • case studies from different countries, how they can inspire us to identify issues of gender inequality in the school or community and how pupils could plan to take action for positive change.

Aimed at 9 to 13 year olds, the Gender Equality programme helps you to develop your pupils' core skills around the areas of citizenship, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity and imagination.

The activities connect to a variety of curriculum areas including English, citizenship, geography or history.

These materials can be used with or without a partner school, and instructions are provided on how to best use the resources.