Gender Equality Training – That’s what we were called for at the Group M Office in Bangalore on 31st October 2018. From Team CSR, Pratishtha Arora and Arnika Singh led the training where we were supposed to take up issues like gender bias, stereotypes, feminism, masculinity etc. etc. But as far as our experience is concerned, none of the gender equality training can follow the same rules, modules and definitions. Largely, you need to analyse and gauge the demographics of the group, then initiate the conversation.
At Group M Bangalore, a renowned ad campaigning and marketing company, we understood the group was dynamic but participation was a task as they were busy in their accounts. To break the ice, we started seeking their responses on definition of feminism and how has the advertising industry stereotyped women to be a homemaker and a caring figure. An advertisement was played and the discussion around stereotyping was initiated. Its important to note that for a successful gender training, you need to put out content that is relatable to your participants.
As we moved forward, we conducted ‘Role Play’, an exercise that pushes the participants to think as their other gender and respond to life situations. At a point, they themselves see the bias and hurdles that men and women face in their lives. This is done to not force upon our definitions but to let them feel the difference themselves.
The discussion also moved around the sexist things that men and women both face in their daily lives. While is expected to be a homemaker, the other one is forced to be the bread earner. Take a guess who is which one?
We ended with several factors that contribute to give a workplace a gender just feel and what role does each one of them play to make sure the environment is not hostile for anyone.
To book a training for your organisation/institution, please contact us here pratishtha@csrindia.org.
