Lesson Plans

Could there really be a “gender gap” between what boys and girls earn for allowance? A recent survey showed that in U.S. families, boys are paid twice as much allowance as girls for doing weekly chores. According to the research, boys averaged more allowance than girls in part because they were more often assigned chores that are more physically challenging, including tasks like cutting the grass and bushes. Girls were more often paid for jobs such as cleaning the toilet, loading…

On June 10, 1963 President John F. Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act (EPA), which ensures that men and women receive “equal pay for equal work.” At that time, women earned a mere 59 cents for every dollar that men earned. Despite the establishment of civil rights laws and gains of the women’s movement since that time, significant disparities and barriers remain for women in the workplace. Not only do women of every race and ethnicity earn significantly less compared to men…

Images of girls and women in the media are filled with stereotypes about who women are and what their roles should be in society. These stereotypes can be negative, limiting and degrading and impact both how women perceive themselves and how others see them as well. This lesson provides an opportunity for students to critically examine certain media forms and their portrayals of women and girls. Students will consider how media shapes public perception and can perpetuate bias. This is a…

From basketball to archery, gymnastics to football, and boxing to fencing, in the 2016 Olympics, women athletes participate fully in almost every sporting event. Overall, 45% of the Olympic competitors are women. This year, the U.S. Olympic team includes the largest contingent of female athletes any nation has ever sent to the Olympic Games, featuring 292 women. At the same time, with all this progress and success for women athletes, there is a perception that the media coverage and commentary…

As we commemorate and celebrate women’s history and accomplishments in March during Women’s History Month, it is also an opportunity to reflect on the history of discrimination against women and the continued struggles for equity today. While we have made enormous strides in all aspects of society regarding equity for women, there are still injustices that remain. One is the gender wage gap. According to 2014 Census data, women earn 79% of what men earn and that number is…

In Spring 2015, two fourth grade students (boy and girl twins) in Somerset MA, decided it was time to do something about their school’s lunch policy that required boys and girls to sit at separate tables on opposite sides of the school cafeteria. Henry and Henriet James wrote an article in their school’s newspaper that questioned the policy and expressed their thoughts and feelings about separating boys and girls. To write it, they spent several weeks conducting research and…

Middle and high school students, especially those who identify or are perceived as LGBQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer or questioning), often face ongoing acts of homophobia. As LGBQ students go about their everyday lives in school, they can feel unsafe, miss school, be harassed and bullied, hear anti-gay slurs and other biased remarks and experience discriminatory policies and procedures. Despite the great strides our country has made in public opinion and positive legislation for LGBT…

The 87th Academy Awards were aired on February 22, 2015 amidst controversy and allegations of racism and sexism in the Academy and movie industry. The annual awards’ show included several political speeches by award recipients that addressed these and other issues, and there was a great deal of discussion on social media and elsewhere after the show about bias in the industry. Alejandro González Iñárritu, a Latino director, won the Academy Award for best director and…

The historical and ongoing impact of sexism on women has been documented and explored in a comprehensive way. As a society, we acknowledge that sexism exists in a myriad of ways, personally and structurally. There are laws and structures in place to address institutional sexism. This does not mean that we have solved the problem, but sexism is most often thought of as something that affects girls and women.  What is less understood and mostly not acknowledged is the impact of sexism on…

On October 10, 2014, it was announced that Malala Yousafzai won the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize. She shares the prize with Kailash Satyarthi, a children’s rights’ advocate from India. Malala Yousafzai is seventeen years old and the youngest person ever to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. She was shot in the head in 2012 by the Taliban because of her outspoken views about girls’ education in Pakistan and other parts of the world where girls are prevented from getting an education. The…

The First Girl to Pitch a Shutout in the Little League World Series In 2014 Mo’Ne Davis, a 13-year-old girl, made news headlines as the first girl to ever pitch a shutout in the Little League World series. At that time she was considered the “most talked about baseball player on earth right now” according to many observers in the sports world. Mo’Ne (pronounced Moh-nay) played baseball for the Taney Dragons of Philadelphia, PA. She was the only girl on her team, the…

[Updated]On June 26, 2015, in a 5-4 decision the Supreme Court of the United States held that that the 14th Amendment requires a state to license a marriage between two people of the same sex and to recognize marriages lawfully performed in other jurisdictions. This means that marriage equality is now the law of the land in all 50 states. Prior to this historic day, 37 states plus the District of Columbia had legalized marriage for same-sex couples. This lesson provides an…

Holiday season is a time of year when children and families think about buying toys for children. In our society, very few toys are free of gender packaging and most toys are either associated with girls or boys. Often, those associations are stereotyped, so that “girl toys” tend to focus on domesticity, nurturing and appearance whereas “boy toys” emphasize building, action and aggressive play. This lesson will give students the opportunity to learn about and reflect on…