Lesson Plan
1. Introduction
- Have students vote (either with ballots or hands) which profession they would most prefer out of a list of what could be considered gender-limiting occupations. Ideally there will be a variety in gender for each of the given occupations.
(Doctor, Nurse, Teacher, President)
- Ask students what gender they imagine for each of the given occupations. Discuss the differences between their preconceived notions of gender and the reality of gender for each of the occupations.
2. Brainstorm
- Have students come up with their own examples of occupations in which gender is a part of the word. If they do not come up with examples on their own, offer examples such as (fireman, mailman, policeman). Discuss how using a single gender in a word is limiting. Offer the following example, “what if a woman wants to fight crime when she grows up? Would she say she wanted to be a policeman? Probably not. What might she say instead? Policewoman, police officer. What are other examples like this. Use terms like mail-carrier and firefighter.
3. Introduction to Spanish Gendering
- Introduce Spanish gender by asking students if they know the Spanish translation for the previously mentioned occupations. Have visual representation of occupations in Spanish, either print outs or write them out on the white-board. Give students the Spanish equivalents of the occupations.
Firefighter = bombero / bombera
Mail-carrier = cartero / cartera
Teacher = professor / profesora
Nurse = enfermero / enfermera
- Compare the gender systems of English and Spanish. Discuss how Spanish is not as limiting in that each of the given terms has an equal gender counterpart.
4. Conclusion
- End with an activity. Have students apply the Spanish gender system to English occupations i.e. suffix “a” or “o” feminine or masculine to the end of the students’ desired occupations, for example, “doctora” or “singero”. The point of this exercise is to enforce more gender equality in terms.