GENDER REFLECTIONS
Goal: Identify the external pressures and influences that have shaped students’ understanding
of and interactions with gender identity.
Time: Recommended as a take-home assignment; anywhere from 15-45 minutes in class.
Materials: No extra materials needed.
When: We recommend using this activity in the middle of the semester when students might
feel more comfortable sharing their personal experiences with one another.
Instructions:
1. Ask students to consider what they identify as gender cues (societal messages telling
us how to behave as men/women/boys/girls, or what to expect from people we
identify as men/women/boys/girls, or how to tell another person’s gender).
2. Have students write a short reflective piece (i.e. poem, journal entry, short essay)
about an experience, lesson, or message given to them about gender that shaped how
they identify or perform gender.
3. Ask them to consider in their pieces what meaning they have assigned to their gender
versus what meanings those external messages or gender cues have assigned to their
gender.
4. Read some of the pieces aloud (leaving them anonymous unless the author chooses to
self-identify after the piece has been read).
5. Discuss each.
Follow-up Questions:
1.) Have you ever systematically considered how you developed your gender
identity?
2.) How are your gender identity and expression still informed or affected by your
experiences growing up?
3.) What messages do you send to others regarding what it means to be a man or a
woman?
4.) Have binary gender or sex-based terms (man/woman, male/female) limited your
identity and/or discussions with others? How?
