WATCH: Shannon Airport staff deliver lesson in gender diversity for International Women’s Day [Video]

Ahead of International Women’s Day 2024, The Shannon Airport Group paid a visit to some younger members of its local community to deliver an important message about gender diversity.

Students from St. John’s National School in Shannon were asked to draw three different job roles in Shannon Airport; a Firefighter, a Police Officer and an Engineer.

Research has shown that children start to form perceptions of gender roles from as early as two years, with such perceptions typically fully formed by the age of seven. During this lesson, over 70% of children in the classroom, aged between four and eight, depicted male representations of firefighters, police officers and engineers in their drawings.

At the end of the lesson, there was a surprise waiting for the children, when they were told that they were going to meet the people they had drawn working at the airport in real life. Much to …