EUROPEAN PROJECTS-ESHA

EFFECTS OF GENDER STEREOTYPES ON HUMAN ACTIVITIES

(GRUNDTVIG PROJECT)

EFFECTS OF GENDER STEREOTYPES ON HUMAN ACTIVITIES

2010-2012

The ESHA project has been an opportunity to work on the concrete effects of gender stereotypes on human activities from a European point of view. The purpose has been to identify the way those stereotypes influence and prevent people from doing things in different areas of life (at home, at school, at work and in society) and fight them by gathering and sharing existing tools and/or creating new adapted ones, useful in every country of European Union.

The respective situations of men and women are far from being equal in the different parts of Europe, mostly because of cultural considerations (and therefore stereotypes). Identifying individuals as men or women leads to social expectations and confine them in roles with specific and strictly limited activities.

 Education plays a large role in the dissemination of stereotypes. That’s why this project aim has been to deconstruct this dissemination process by clearly defining its origins and operational resources, to create innovating tools that could be included in training courses for adults.

ESHA project has tried to develop a wider knowledge of gender discrimination in the participating countries, in order to facilitate further actions in this field. The partners have created a questionnaire to be filled in their network, to learn from its results, to gather and analyze the existing education tools, and build up the frame of new tools.