Freshworks – breaking gender stereotypes creatively | Fusion - WeRIndia

From birth, every person is instantly immersed in age-old cultural biases and preconceptions, which carry into older-age mindsets and judgements.

While this may range from racism to sexism to any other preconceived judgement, all of them are collectively known as unconscious bias, the instantaneous judgement of people based on these imbedded notions.

However, more and more, people are coming to challenge these imbedded stereotypes and live more unconventional lives. These stereotypes are especially prevalent regarding gender, since men and women do have significant factual differences.

However, these differences lead to many instantly-assumed gender stereotypes, and people are beginning to challenge them more and more.

This week, Freshworks decided to join the increasing crowd of people who challenge and subvert gender stereotypes. Sindhija Parthasarathy, a person from the HR team at Freshworks, began a lighthearted activity to question these preconceived notions.

The activity was to take a picture of oneself or one’s peers, while holding a placard of a scenario that challenges a gender bias. The purpose of this activity was to make light of these stereotypes while also bringing these preconceptions to light. The most important factor about participating in this activity was becoming aware of those imbedded biases before challenging them.

The activity turned out to be quite fun, with both men and women stating unconventional facts about their lives, interests, and habits, followed either by the question “Is that a guy thing?” for women, or the question “Is that a girl thing?” for men.

Some of the notable highlights of this activity include a woman who enjoys drinking whiskey on the rocks, a man who gets pedicures for his feet, and another man who owns more shoes than his wife.

With this activity, Freshworks found a simple way to bring a lighthearted touch to the act of challenging gender stereotypes, while also making people more aware of their unconscious biases and encouraging them to subvert them.

Image Reference: YourStory