BREAKing gender stereotypes in Estonia, Iceland and Lithuania

Did you know that only 10% of women choose STEM occupations and only 6% of men are working in education, health, and social work activities in Estonia? In fact, in most European countries the gender stereotyping of careers is still a hidden issue and one of the key contributing factors to ongoing overall inequality in the labour market.

The aim of theBREAK! project was to encourage open-mindedness regarding gender role stereotypes and to empower people and help them to overcome stereotype-based barriers concerning occupational pathways. In order to produce change, a cross-media intervention was designed by partners from Estonia, Iceland and Lithuania.

TV series “Why not?!” including alternative endings (available in 5 languages) and online game Face or Fact are helpful and fun to discuss stereotypes in guidance session. Thematic training and guidelines were provided for teachers and career practitioners. Also, radio shows and social media content were integrated.

The main conclusions learned from the project:

1. The population is heterogeneous in gender-related practices and any interventions have a different effect on various segments of the population. It is necessary to inform people about this heterogeneity and its sources (interests, traditions, stereotypes, group positioning, etc.).
2. Enablers and barriers to understanding and practising gender equality in specific groups and contexts should be studied.
3. It is necessary to teach a critical attitude to the (social) media content and media influencers and promote media literacy among young people.
4. Since young people are rather inaccessible from traditional media communication, extra attention should be put on channelling to this target group information about the new content in the ways they could be able to notice this and become familiar with it.
5. School staff, guidance professionals and parents need training and support to handle the topic of gender equality and gender-sensitive career development
6. Cross-media intervention and public broadcasting is recommended to combine entertainment and education, in the anticipation that such an edutainment-project can most likely reach different layers and different targets in society.

You are welcome to find out more about the interactive tools and findings on the Euroguidance webinar.