The role breakers: Changing gender stereotypes through sports, science and technology
That’s the aim of the Amsterdam-based organisation Project Fearless: supporting girls to feel self-confident and fearless, for example through skateboarding.
There are still certain sports, activities and professions that are considered typically female or typically male. This starts in childhood. The Amsterdam-based organisation Project Fearless and the Beeldenbrekers project want to change that — and show girls what they’re made of.
The timer is set. 40 seconds. The teenage girl raises both fists. She’s wearing thick boxing gloves. The heavy punching bag is right in front of her. The timer beeps and she starts. With all her might, she punches the bag, almost causing it to topple over with her kicks. Cheers from the other participants echo through the room. The shouting motivates her to push herself all she can. At the end, her face is bright red. The girl is completely out of breath. But she’s beaming, because she’s never felt as strong as she does today.
Self-confidence through sport
This is the goal of the Amsterdam-based organisation Project Fearless: to support girls in becoming self-confident, strong and fearless through various programs.
In order to do so, Project Fearless offers, on the one hand, various sports workshops, such as skateboarding, five-kilometre-run training, bouldering, touch rugby and kickboxing. On the other hand, there are building-focused workshops offered in art, science and handicrafts to show the girls what they can create with their own hands. The courses usually last several weeks, but there are also one-day trial events that take place in various locations.
The project is financed in several ways: partly through sponsorship from local companies, but also through a contribution from the parents. An eight-week workshop on art and activism costs about 50 Euros, while skateboarding costs 150 Euros. "But we also have partial and full scholarships," says Mérida Miller, founder of Project Fearless. "We don't want anybody to be unable to join because of finances." Some workshops are even for free, though donations are welcome. The target group of the project, which started in 2019, is girls and non-binary children between the ages of 9 and 14. So far, more than 200 of them have taken part in the courses.
Meanwhile, Raya is admired by younger girls for her tricks on the board.
One of them is 13-year-old Raya, who started at Project Fearless when she was 11 and has been participating in skateboarding workshops and the run club ever since. "At first I was a little nervous about going to skateboarding, because I thought it was more for boys. But I saw that it was all girls and female coaches, and I was relieved."
For Raya, Project Fearless is a safe place where she can be herself and where making mistakes is not a problem. At this point, young beginners even come to her and admire her for her tricks, she says.
Jobs based on typical gender characteristics
Tess Schoneveld also knows that there is still a lot of work to be done concerning outdated gender roles in the Netherlands. She’s a project manager at the Amsterdam Expertise Centre on Gender Diversity in Technology and IT (VHTO: Expertisecentrum genderdiversiteit in bèta, techniek en IT), where she’s responsible for the Beeldenbrekers project, which informs elementary school students about gender diversity in tech professions.
A drawn picture shows a woman working on her laptop (image: VHTO Beeldenbrekers / Mila van Egmond).
"In the Netherlands, many professions are still based on outdated notions of supposed gender characteristics. Women work in caring professions or with children, men work in technology or politics. That's why we want to show children that things can be different." Schoneveld's assessment is also confirmed by figures from the Dutch Federal Statistical Office. For example, according to 2021 surveys, 8 out of 10 people working in technical professions are male. In pedagogical professions, on the other hand, 7 out of 10 are female, and in caring professions this is as many as 8 out of 10.
Schools can sign up for a free Beeldenbrekers lesson on the website, to invite a female expert in to present their technical job. According to Schoneveld, this offer is taken up by elementary schools throughout the Netherlands. The project is funded by the Equal Opportunities Alliance of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (De Gelijke Kansen Alliantie (GKA), Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap), but individual classes are also sponsored by companies.
Only male role models
"The students learn that the guest for the day builds bridges, then they paint a picture based on their expectations. Usually featuring male people," Schoneveld says. Inviting in a female architect aims to show, especially to female students, what is possible professionally.
"Many girls don't consider work like this for themselves," Schoneveld explains. "That's because they don't have female role models in these professions. When we ask them if they know anyone in the field, it's always their father, grandpa, or male neighbour, but rarely a woman."
"Hey! Turn around you’re catching fire from running super fast!!,” says Meesha's poster during running training.
These lessons, in which boys and girls take part, are often the first time that girls come into contact with technical jobs. That's why the Beeldenbrekers project is primarily about normalising the image of a woman in a technical profession. For example, female software engineers, 3D printing engineers, or product developers introduce themselves to the class. "The kids then get to touch building materials, try out a technical device or just put on a helmet, for example, depending on how old they are." One of the women, Schoneveld said, had the children scan various barcodes with a product scanner, after which words were displayed that they had to use to form sentences.
This lack of female role models has also been experienced by Catherine Sorbara, who has a PhD in neuroscience and runs workshops on science and climate change at Project Fearless. "My father, my brother, my teachers. All my role models in engineering, maths and science were male," she explains. As a girl, she says, she therefore always felt she had to prove herself more in comparison with the boys.
In her eight-week course at Project Fearless, she shows the girls experiments to teach them about the basics of climate change. "We simulate global warming in a bottle or develop concepts for sustainable and efficient wind turbines," Sorbara said.
"I want them to have the opportunity to try things out for themselves. In school, science subjects are about getting good grades, but it should be normal to fail, too. That's how it is in science. 99 percent of the time, you're wrong." For her, the focus is not on success, but on having fun with science experiments, she said.
She also wants to provide the girls with something they can do to deal with the disturbing reports about climate change in the media. "The girls know very well how delicate the situation is and that the world is not doing enough. That can scare them. But through what they learn with me, they can become proactive and no longer feel so helpless."
Targeting as young an audience as possible
11-year-old Meesha, who has now been participating in running and skateboarding workshops at Project Fearless for 18 months, has also learned what she’s capable of. "When I first started running, I was nervous about what people might think if I walked parts instead of running them." Since then, however, her running has improved greatly and she’s very confident because of it.
It's these insecurities girls have that led Mérida Miller to choose the youngest possible target audience for Project Fearless. "Young girls aren’t afraid. They dare to do things and try everything. But when they hit puberty, they start to doubt themselves and worry about what others might think of them, how they'll be perceived and how they'll look."
Selfie of Mérida, Raya and Meesha (forming the central triangle).
Tess Schoneveld from the Beeldenbrekers project aligns with this thinking: "We focus on children aged from 5 to 12. We do that because, at that age, role models are not yet so entrenched. In the course of their lives, children are strongly confronted with them in everyday life and the media, and we want to pre-empt that by presenting women in typical 'men's jobs.'"
Changing the image of gender roles
Raya's father Jake Noakes confirms this: "Raya made a short promotional film for the project in a workshop organised by Project Fearless, together with a female filmmaker. In the process, she saw that there are also women in what is perceived as a rather typical male profession. That's an inspiration to her. At school, kids hear all the time that girls can do everything boys can. But that's just theory. At Project Fearless, the girls get to experience it for themselves."
It's an influence that's having an impact, as Raya dreams of doing something creative as a career later in life. Maybe with film. But until that happens, she's determined to become a mentor at Project Fearless as soon as possible, to give young girls the support she's received herself.
What the children who participated in the Beeldenbrekers project at elementary school will decide is anyone's guess now. But no matter what the future holds, the girls now know that they are strong and fearless enough to do anything they want to.
Written by Sarah Tekath, freelance journalist and Project Fearless self-defence and kickboxing coach.
This article originally appeared in the German publication Deine Korrespondentin.