Despite being one of the most advanced nations in the world, the UK has been notoriously remiss in recognizing equal rights for women, especially in the work force. A study by the Fawcett Society in the UK found that 51% of women and men from middle management to director level identify stereotyping as the major hurdle facing women at work. Each year, up to 30,000 women are dismissed from their jobs simply for being pregnant and an estimated 440,000 women lose out on pay or promotion as a result of pregnancy. Moreover, at least 75% of mothers have primary responsibility for childcare in the home. All these figures reinforce the bias that women have no place outside the home and are not identified as professionals.

We went to a primary school and in the guise of an art class, we asked children to draw a firefighter, a surgeon, and a fighter pilot. Out of 66 drawings, 61 were drawn as men and only 5 were drawn as women. What the children didn’t know was that the “teachers” were actually examples of professionals they were asked to draw. When we revealed the truth, their first reaction was utter disbelief. However, after spending valuable time with the professionals, the children started getting inspired.

The experiment proved that gender stereotyping starts early but it also confirmed that interaction with role models could change children’s perceptions.

In just two weeks after the launch, the campaign reached 3.5 million, became news in 82 countries, and was recreated at homes and in schools all over the world. Institutions and influencers from various backgrounds also showed support.

From a weekly average of 150 volunteers, sign ups increased 101% in the first week and 73% since the campaign launched.

All these were achieved with absolutely no seeding and media budget.

What was the impact on the children?

The children in the class had a completely different perspective on gender roles in the work place once teachers shared the fact and discussed that they were in fact women that did those jobs. School Teachers are now using our experiment as a classroom lesson on gender roles in the work place throughout the world with more working professionals, businesses and schools signing up to the charity every day which benefits children hugely and on a scale they didn’t have before thanks to the film.

Before and after?

Thanks to the experiment every child that took part in the film now understands that the jobs they drew were not just for men. Because of the films reach ( 16 Million up to June 1st ) thousands of school children throughout the world are now taking part in the same classroom experiment which is down to their teachers seeing the film and being compelled to try the experiment on the classes.

3 months on this school in which the study was done now uses the experiment as a lesson for all of it’s pupils and the charity has provided various

professional working women to the school as well as thousands of other schools to talk about their jobs .

Inspiring the Future believes that an effective way to end gender inequality is to tackle it right at the source. If we are able to create a piece of communication that would convince more women to volunteer and speak in schools, the battle for gender equality would become much easier in the future. To do this, we used an art class and turned it into a medium to expose the problem right where it happens.

Inspiring The Future is dedicated to tackling gender inequality right where it starts. The charity asks women professionals from various fields to donate an hour of their time to talk to young students and become visible role models. By doing this, they hope that children will be inspired to be whoever they want to be and learn that aspirations should not be limited by gender. This is especially important since studies show that gender stereotypes are developed in children as early as 5 to 7 years old.

The objective of the campaign is to raise awareness to this serious issue and encourage more volunteers to help end gender inequality right where it starts.