Counterpart relations across genders: Volunteers speak

You asked, we investigated! Some volunteers wanted to hear suggestions or advice for working with counterparts of the opposite sex. We polled current volunteers from all sectors and here’s how volunteers responded in their own words…

Males PCVs with Female CPs …

“I always hear comments or chisme about how I’m dating the profe I work with. When it’s kids from class I tell them that we just work together, but when it’s adults making jokes I laugh it off.”

“I made a point to get to know my profes’ husbands and families. And also just co-plan at times and places they feel comfortable with.”

“I work with all women in both my schools. This can be challenging at times. It can be hard to feel a part of the community there although I get along with most of them individually. I haven’t really found anything (activity or topic of conversation) to make me feel more part of the community. I work there and have confianza with my profess, but my communities are elsewhere.”

Role Plays on Gender Roles

To get the group you work with thinking about the traditional roles and occupations for men and women, try a role play! In the activity Aprendemos Ser Hombres y Mujeres small groups choose one person to be a woman and one person to be a man, and then dress them up using papelógrafo and other recycled materials.

When all the ‘women’ and ‘men’ are ready, they act out how they think men and women would act in a normal situation—talking and moving around—while another member of the group takes notes. The notes are then used to start a discussion about the difference between sex and gender and the ways gender roles are learned and imposed by society.

Gender Conscious Movie Night

We’re all aware of how gender stereotypes in movies and TV shows can negatively affect our perceptions of ourselves or others; however, watching movies is a fun activity to do with kids, women, men, your host family, or other community members. Many schools use movie nights as a way to collect money for a specific purpose or event—charging one or two córdobas as an entrance fee and hosting it at school once classes are over.

In this post we’ll discuss two ideas for making movie nights a little more gender conscious: (1) including a gender checklist while watching any movie or (2) showing a gender-equality themed movie or documentary like Girl Rising or Half the Sky.