A campaign pushes back against limitation and gender roles.
In #RedrawTheBalance, a campaign from Inspiring the Future, a group of kids were asked to draw people in various careers like firefighters or surgeons.
Here's what they drew:
A surgeon.
A child draws a surgeon as a man.
Photo from YouTube video
A firefighter.
Children attach gender to different jobs they draw based on stereotypes.
Photo from YouTube video
Notice a trend?
According to several studies, children tend to be more rigid in their gender stereotyping, which may be because they have a more "absolutist sense of rules" than adults do.
Children learn this stereotyping behavior from lots of places — parents, friends, and, of course, the media they consume. Unfortunately, the stereotype that certain jobs are for certain genders still prevails to this day, which is a shame because it means that kids grow up thinking there are certain jobs they can't do because of their gender.
There is good news, however. While young kids are impressionable, that doesn't mean it's too late to correct those impressions — sometimes all it takes is them meeting one person doing one job that doesn't fit a stereotype to change the way they see the world.
Women demonstrating that all types of careers are open for exploration.
Photo from YouTube video
That's what happened when these kids get their minds blown when people who do the jobs they illustrated walk into the room and they aren't exactly who they expected to see.
Children appear excited and interested during the PSA.
If you'd like to see what happened for yourself, click on the link to the video below:
This article originally appeared on 09.01.16