INTRODUCTION

UNICEF and UNIFEM’s “Women’s Education” Project presents this workshop on “Sexual Roles and Stereotypes” which is directed to all those individuals involved in the development of different stages of production of educational materials, such as authors, writers, compilers, illustrators, draftspersons and editors of textbooks, educational manuals, school guides, children tales and stories, posters and, in general, all of the materials designed to support formal and non formal, childhood and adult education. The workshop has been organized in an effort to systematize accumulated experiences through the implementation of training activities undertaken with researchers and technicians involved in the design, creation and edition of education materials. We wish to take this opportunity to express our appreciation for their valuable inputs and theoretical baggage, practical experience and sensitivity towards this subject.

The workshop, through practical methodology, seeks create awareness among participants and lead them to discover sexist contents in the materials which they develop. It also presents simple guidelines to eliminate stereotyped messages based on gender, which damage the development of boys and girls.

This is the first of a series of workshops addressed to those who in one way or another intervene in education, parents, teachers, popular educators, groups of women and the media.

The basic objective is to unchain a process to modify and eliminate unequal contents referring to boys and girls and transmitted in education. These, in turn, are reinforced by traditional roles and masculine and feminine sexual stereotypes found in educational materials as well as in every-day living experiences. This seeks to achieve, in the near future, an equitable and fair society for all of its members, without superiority or disadvantages for either sex.