Gender Switch

Short Description

Woman or man - how do young and old see the gender roles? Pupils slip into the role of the opposite sex and play with the stereotypes and prejudices of the times when the grandfather or grandmothers were their age. For this purpose, the students aged 16 and 17 interviewed their grandmother or grandfather. For the photographs that were being taken, they changed into the opposite sex and were styled in the way their grandparents looked when they were their age.

Pupils of the Anna-Essinger-Gymnasium in Ulm reflected on gender roles and stereotypes (in private and professional lives) in the context of art lessons.

The results were presented in a photo exhibition at the University of Ulm as part of the Spring Academy. The pupils led the participants of the Spring Academy through the exhibition and explained their photos. The pupils were able to talk about the professional and role models of men and women with the participants of the Spring Academy, who were all about the same age as their grandparents. In this way, young and old were able to learn more about the perspectives of other generations.

This method is based on an artproject of Cindy Sherman.

Pedagogical Information

The method helps young people to reflect contemporary and historical gender stereotypes, and to understand what it meant for their grandparents' generation to grow up as a man or a woman. With the help of this method, generations can talk about gender.

European Dimension

The method can be used for European encounters to address and question role and gender stereotypes. It enables an intercultural and intergenerational exchange and can contribute to the reduction of prejudices and stereotypes.

Applied in projects

Danube Women City Guide

In the European Danube project “Danube Women City Guide”, the aim was to raise awareness of the importance of women and their life achievements along the Danube, to network women along the Danube and to strengthen new city tours for women. The project was funded by the Baden-Württemberg Foundation.