On 14 May 2024, a workshop on Gender Roles and Stereotypes was conducted
for students of classes IX and XI in the school auditorium. The session was led
by Ms. Ishta Gupta, an alumna of Army Public School, NOIDA (Batch 2016-2017) and
a post-graduate in Philosophy with a specialization in Social and Political
Philosophy from the University of Delhi. Ms. Gupta completed her fellowship
with ‘Teach for India’ in Pune and has led the Project Niti Samwaad, focusing
on student civic engagement in the public domain. She is currently spearheading
Project Titli, aimed at fostering gender sensitivity in classrooms.
The primary objective of the workshop was to enhance students'
understanding of gender roles and stereotypes and to empower them to challenge
and address societal norms. The interactive session involved various
activities, including discussions on breaking stereotypes, identifying
instances of stereotyping in daily life, analyzing gender roles in
communication through examples of gendered language and communication patterns
and examining their impact on reinforcing stereotypes.
Students were also tasked with analyzing Indian advertisements that
depict gender roles and stereotypes. Following this, they were divided into
small groups to work on case studies related to gender roles and stereotypes.
The workshop provided valuable insights into the pre-existing gender roles and
stereotypes that hinder societal development, and the session was both
informative and engaging for the participants.