Transcriber: Magdalena Željeznjak Reviewer: Neda Vrkic
I want to start with this video.
Some of you might know it already.
A father and son get in a car crash.
They are both badly injured and are rushed to the hospital.
The father dies.
The boy is taken to the operating room,
but then the surgeon walks in and says:
“I can’t operate on this boy.”
“He’s my son.”
How is this possible?
Tell someone next to you what you think the answer is.
Okay. I will give you the answer, which is very simple.
The mother is the surgeon.
I am sure that some of you who didn’t know the riddle
might have been confused for a moment.
Since many people tend to think of surgeons as men.
This is a good example of gender stereotypes,
which are mistaken judgments based on gender.
The idea that certain characteristics or roles
can be better performed by men or women.
Girls are supposed to be caring, beautiful, sensitive, creative, emotional,
like pink and like to play with dolls.
And we often think of boys as strong, tough, leaders,
athletic, brave, good at math and football.
This is me and my football team.
We are all girls.
One day we were playing against the boys’ team.
The coach and his team arrived and asked: “Are we playing against girls only?”
The coach was surprised and the boys left to the dressing room laughing.
Can you guess who won?
(Laughter)
Of course we did.
Why would those boys think they were going to win?
Children and adults are made to believe
that certain characteristics or roles are for boys or girls,
because that’s what we see around us every day.
We learn about how we are expected to behave through our family,
how we are raised, at school and from our friends,
but also from toys, books, social media, TV and commercials.
Books, social media and commercials often emphasize
the way boys and girls should look and behave.
For example, a woman cleaning or the hero being a man.
This is me over the years when dressing up.
The princess dresses in our costume box were only used by my friends.
And I would always dress up in so-called boys’ costumes.
I never associated with any gender stereotype.
I never liked playing with dolls or Barbies.
Always liked math, played football.
And in general, I don’t like girly things.
So why is this a problem?
Believing certain things are for girls or for boys
can lead to bullying and can limit opportunities.
Why do some people find it strange
when a girl likes math, or a boy likes to dance?
Why do we automatically think of a man when we talk about the director?
And why is a nurse always a woman?
Because of these stereotypes that we see around us every day,
we might think it’s not for us and don’t pursue our interests.
So what can we do to change it?
You can all help to break the cycle by speaking openly about this problem.
We should all be able to do what we like regardless of gender.
It's important to have role models.
The school is already setting a good example by having so many male teachers.
A job that is seen by some as a woman’s job.
Another example is that we have a wide range of books in the school.
In the creative room
there are even some books which have “for girls” in the title,
and tape has been put over a thing “for everyone”,
which is creating awareness for this topic.
This year I joined boys’ soccer too.
As the only girl.
Those are all great things.
However, we can still improve
and challenge our teachers, parents or friends
if we see or hear anything that is a gender stereotype.
It can be simple things, like an afternoon teacher preparing
blue birthday crowns for boys and pink ones for girls.
A teacher saying “sweetie” to a girl and “mate” to a boy,
or someone saying: “We need a strong boy to do this.”
Many of those things are said and done without people even noticing it.
And we need to call it out.
I want a world where we can become everything we want.
Where women go to the moon and the best football players are women too.
Where men don’t have to be ashamed to be a dancer or a stay-at-home dad.
I want a world where jobs are balanced between all genders.
I want us to be open-minded and treat everyone equally.
Thank you. (Applause)