manual: women workers' rights and gender equality - International ...

Exercise
Step 1
• Divide the participants into four groups: one group in each corner of the room
• Give each group a paper with the activities and a paper with the man, woman and couple
• Ask the groups to cut the paper with activities/situations into separate pieces (this can also be
done before the session)
• The same should be done with the page with the drawings of the man, woman and couple
• Explain that the activities/situations are taken from just a day of a rural family
• Ask the groups to place all activities/situations under the 3 cards. The activities usually done
by women under the card with the woman, the activities usually done by men under the man
and those activities done by both sexes should be placed under the couple
Step 2
• Discuss the results using the following questions:
- Under which card are most activity cards: the woman, man or couple?
- Is this the same in all groups?
- If yes, why?
- Who do they think makes longer workdays?
- What are the reasons for this?
- What is the main workplace of women and of men?
- What do they think of this situation?
Step 3
• Summarize the division of work; most probably the number of cards placed under the woman
is longest because she gets all household related activities. As a result her working day will be
longer
Step 4
• The activity cards placed in this way are needed for the second and third session on the
division of work. Put a red cross on all activity cards under the man, a green cross on the cards
under the woman and a yellow cross on the cards under the couple
Notes for the trainer
In this session a distinction is made between activities from which an income can be generated,
activities done in leisure time and household activities. Since the largest share of the activity and
situation cards show household activities, most probably the number of cards placed under the
woman is much larger than under the man. This shows clearly the division of work as it is in a large
number of households around the world.
Points for the summary
Despite the very considerable differences in daily live of different groups usually the outcome will be:
- Men and women do different things during the day
- Women usually work more hours
- Women have more varied tasks, and sometimes do more than one thing at the same time (like:
looking after the kids and preparing a meal or doing the laundry)
- Women do more work for the family
- Men have more leisure time
- Women have less sleep
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