Students Take Action Against Gender Prejudice

A group of students from Crescenta Valley High School recently conducted a survey regarding gender prejudice. The students – Philip Song, Jocelyn Chia, Kayleigh Carrillo, Marcus Monterroso, and Zoey Marroquin – wanted to spread awareness of gender prejudice to increase recognition of situations in which it is prevalent, and possibly help prevent it.

They asked a total of 40 people of varying ages within the community the following questions. Below are their results:

1. How do you define prejudice?
– 95% of people know what prejudice is and were able to define it.
– 5% of people were unable to define prejudice.

2. Do you think men and women should have traditional roles in society? (This relates to occupational roles)
– 12.5% of people agreed with this statement.
– 77.5% of people disagreed with this statement.
– 10% of people said it would depend on the role.

3. What would you do if you witnessed discrimination because of gender?
– 50% of people said that they would intervene and/or say something about it.
– 5% of people would alert another figure such as a teacher, someone of authority, etc.
– 20% of people said it would depend on the situation.
– 17.5% of people would do nothing.
– 7.5% of people said they would try to help or comfort the victim.

4. How often do you hear sexist remarks?
– 45% of people said often or daily.
– 27.5% of people said not as often as they used to or every now and then.
– 27.5% of people said rarely or never

5. Were you ever a victim of gender prejudice?
– 55% of people said they had not been a victim.
– 37.5% of people said yes, they had been a victim.
– 7.5% of people are not sure if they were a victim or not.

These students hope that the above results will provide the community with valuable information about how their society views this topic and what needs to be changed. The group also created a video about gender prejudice to teach people, such as bystanders, how to stop this prejudice from occurring. The video is on Youtube.com under the title, “The Tolerance Project.”

Submitted by Kayleigh CARRILLO