Tram

Tram

Materials: Five chairs

Exercise description

Set up five chairs next to each other (like seats on a tram) so that the whole group can see them. The second and fourth chair are reserved for women and the other three for men. Ask three men (volunteers) to imagine they are on public transport (a tram) and to sit on the chairs (the first, third and fifth) in typical male poses. Then ask two women to join the scene and sit down in typical female poses.

Ask the observers to keep quiet and note down their observations if they need to. Let the scene go on long enough for the actors to become uncomfortable and start interacting, and then let the interaction develop for a bit (two or three minutes).

Ask one of the three male volunteers to return to the plenary and ask for another female volunteer from the group. The actors are not tasked with taking on the role of the opposite gender. Ask them to sit in the chairs so that the women first take up typical male poses and the men take up typical female poses. Let the scene last a few minutes for interaction to develop. Ask the observers to comment on what they noticed and compare the scene now with the one before. Ask the actors what it was like taking on the roles.

Type of exercise:

Experiential learning, Roleplay

Duration:

15-60 min

Notice:

Possible difficulties:

Related Workshops:

Gender equality

Workshop example:

Gender