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I Know You Are, I Said You Are: Gender Stereotypes and Kids

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Hanging upside-down from monkey bars, doing handstands, turning cartwheels – for years schoolyard play for young girls has involved pointless fussing with uniforms. Skirts or dresses aren’t always practical for girls.

The question of school uniforms has featured heavily in the headlines this year but, in terms of gender expectations and kids, it’s just the tip of the iceberg. In what other ways are entrenched ideas around gender limiting all our children and affecting their sense of themselves and their potential? And how can adults counteract stereotypes and be aware of their own biases when talking to kids – in the classroom, at home, on the sporting field and in the playground?

In this conversation, we’ll discuss recent and potential changes in policy as well as day-to-day tips for avoiding the traps of gender expectation. Join us for a practical, clear-eyed conversation about helping kids to be themselves.

Featuring

Sami Shah

Sami Shah is a multi-award winning comedian, writer, and journalist. Sami is a lecturer in journalism at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advancing Journalism, and is the Ambassador-at-Large for PEN Melbourne. ... Read more

Nelly Thomas

Nelly Thomas has been described as one of Australia’s most natural comedians. An award-winning performer, she was listed as one of Australia’s ‘most innovative thinkers’ in the Age’s The Zone and was featured on the ABC’s Big Ideas: The Smartest Stuff on TV, Radio and On... Read more

Ro Allen

Ro Allen is an experienced and longstanding advocate for LGBTIQ Victorians and has held leadership positions in the community and government sectors. Ro has been a member of three Victorian Government LGBTI ministerial advisory groups and chaired the ministerial advisory committee on LGBTI Health an... Read more

Alyena Mohummadally

Alyena Mohummadally is a Pakistani-Australian queer Muslim woman who spent many years as a community legal centre lawyer before recently retraining as a primary school teacher.  She is currently writing a cookbook on modern Australian cuisine with a Pakistani twist, and her two young sons are h... Read more

Location

The Wheeler Centre

176 Little Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000

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The Wheeler Centre acknowledges the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Centre stands. We acknowledge and pay our respects to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their Elders, past and present, as the custodians of the world’s oldest continuous living culture.