Gender Really Matters in Group Work: A Visibilization and Politicization Teaching Sequence

Abstract

Abstract Analyzing gender inequalities when teaching political science can be an opportunity. Making inequalities visible in the classroom using students’ personal experiences can help teachers generate co-responsible practices which are necessary in a context where group work is increasingly important. Moreover, revealing gender inequalities through the students’ daily work can help them to understand a key element of the discipline: that politics needs to go beyond private views of social problems, in order to reach collective solutions. In this article, starting with five discussion groups, we give students a voice, to reveal how female students in the classroom take on private and reproductive roles that increase the work they do and affect the evaluation they receive. We have used this diagnosis to design a teaching sequence, implemented in 4 groups between 2018 and 2022, that aims to make gender inequalities visible in work relationships between peers as a first step toward students interpreting and managing these relationships politically.