Imagine a world where every time you submit a job application, the job platform doesn't suggest opportunities based on your qualifications but rather on stereotypes. What’s frightening is that this isn't a dystopian fantasy—it's a reality shaped by Artificial intelligence (AI). In this blog post, we'll delve into gender biases in AI, understand how these biases arise, their consequences in the real world, and what we can do to create fairer and more inclusive technologies.
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William Davies Primary School in Newham have achieved the Gender Action Initiator School award. We paid them a visit (on World Book Day, hence the costumes!) and were given a tour of the school, talking to teachers and other staff members before meeting the schools’ STEM club and getting some great questions from the students. We look forward to visiting more schools over the next year, it’s great to see all of the hard work that is going on to push for change.
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Join us at our networking event and commit to taking a whole school approach to gender inequity.
Tuesday 25th June, 8.30am - 1.30pm
Socially constructed, rigidly gendered roles negatively impact on many young people’s aspirations and limit the choices they make. The need for Gender Action was driven by over 15 years of research, from large-scale randomised, controlled trials to teacher-led classroom pilots, that show the need for a whole-school approach and a focus on addressing societal biases. Lasting change requires the full buy-in of the school management team and a ‘whole school’ approach. Piecemeal interventions, such as those at subject level, simply do not work.
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Read about how an amazing science teacher went about developing resources for her school to inspire all students to develop a love of STEM.
Read MoreAngharad Morgan, Gender Action Programme Co-ordinator has written a blog post for NCFE.
Gender stereotypes harm everyone. They place us all into binary boxes, impacting the way we develop, learn and view ourselves. Before a child is even born, their biological sex has determined how society will define them, through a gender binary.
Read the full article here: https://www.ncfe.org.uk/all-articles/gender-stereotypes-education-harmful/
Read MoreEvery year on the 12th August, the world celebrates International Youth Day. This tradition has taken place since 1965 when the United Nations came together to recognise the experiences of young people across the globe. In 2023 there will be 1.2 billion young people aged between 15-24 years, making up 16% of the global population. This is a time for us to reflect on the issues affecting our young population, wherever you are in the world.
Read MoreIn terms of challenging stereotypes about gender roles and gaining publicity for the wider debate, it could be argued that the growth of women’s professional sport is a key driving force. In rugby the Women’s 2022 World Cup and the 2023 Six Nations attracted record attendances. In cricket, the recent Women’s Ashes series had sellout crowds in almost all of the matches, with television viewing figures doubling. The Tour de France Femmes attracts almost as much publicity as the men's’.
Read MoreAre you ready?
The Gender Action awards programme is excited to announce that we are again able to accept schools wishing to apply for Initiator and Champion Level.
Read MoreIt’s coming home as the England team made history, with an incredible win in the Women’s EURO 2022 final. The team displayed talent, teamwork and confidence in their final performance winning the game 2-1 against the German team. Emotions were high as the women celebrated their win, understanding their achievements would have impacts beyond the tournament inspiring young girls across the country to get involved and strive for excellence.
Read MoreIt’s safe to say that women are no longer living inside society’s preconceived box of expectations and stereotypes – look at International Women’s Day for a taste of the achievements made despite unwelcome bias. Their #ChooseToChallenge theme is all about challenging gender stereotypes, bringing attention to sexism and putting your hand up to call out inequalities to create a more inclusive world. Where better to plant the seed of feminism and awareness than in the biggest learning curve in life – during childhood?
Read MoreFollowing the murder of Sarah Everard, there has been a flurry of activity and reporting asking how violence against women still persists in 2021. This has led to recent announcements from the government that they will be increasing street lighting and police presence to help combat Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and make women feel safer (BBC, 2021). The government’s latest announcement, however, seemingly misses the point. GBV will continue to occur unless the root of the problem is tackled, that is, gender inequality.
Read MoreOver the first lockdown, the share of childcare and domestic chores between men and women became more equitable. In May, the ONS found that lockdown had led to a 58% increase in the amount of time men spent on childcare. As children have returned to school this Autumn however, women are doing 99% more unpaid childcare than men.
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Considering gender equality as early as nursery and primary school is essential because that’s when gender stereotypes, and therefore gender inequality, is learned and embedded into behaviour and thought processes. As a result, it is important to consider the language that is used and the stories that are told at the early years level to prevent perpetuating these gender stereotypes. This article intends to provide a general overview of gender equality in the early years and primary so teachers can be made aware of where improvements should be made.
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Gareth Smith, Engagement Manager for Major Sports Events, works for London Sport and manages the Mayor of London’s “Major Events Engagement Fund”. The purpose of this fund is to develop community programmes that bring Londoners together and increase opportunities for people to engage with sport and their community.
Sport has a unique ability to improve the lives and living conditions of local communities and the power to address a wide range of social challenges. Helping to provide those genuine and meaningful opportunities for communities to engage with sport and physical activity, as well as positively impact upon the lives of residents, is something that all major sports events should strive towards.
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The ASPIRES2 report – a longitudinal study of young people’s science and career aspirations, age 10-19 – was released at the end of February. As Gender Action was inspired by the research in the first ASPIRES project, we were particularly interested to see what the next stage of this research would show. Professor Louise Archer and Emily Macleod from UCL Institute of Education, who worked on the ASPIRES project, are key members of the Gender Action team,
You can read the executive summary and the full report on the ASPIRES2 webpage.
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Georgina Phillips, who works on Gender Action, was interviewed about the programme for Early Years Alliance’s Under 5 magazine
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To celebrate our first year, we held an event for our teachers, early years practioners and friends at City Hall.
Deputy Mayor Joanne McCartney welcomed everyone to the event and emphasised the Mayor of London’s enthusiasm for work that looks to reduce limits on the potential of young people.
Professor Becky Francis, outgoing Director of the UCL Institute of Education, then led the keynote discussing the research behind Gender Action’s work.
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31 of our Supporters submitted plans last year and 25 successfully passed and were awarded their Initiator badges. We checked in with our Initiators during Autmum 2019, and have produced the below case studies on their work so far.
You can also download pdfs of these case studies below.
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