The wordplay on “Rack”, dress in Luxembourgish, alludes to the role of women in our society and in the workplace. The awareness day is organised by the Ministry for Equality. In workshops organised by the army, Luxembourg university or science.lu among others, school classes could discuss career choices, clichés and inequalities.
A total of nine workshops were offered and each class could choose two. A disappointment for some students, who would have wished to take part in more. One workshop spent time analysing films, applying the famous Bechdel test: does it feature at least two women having a conversation about something other than a man. A shocking number of films don’t pass the test. Ads, too, still play on clichés today.
Rock de Rack wants to teach students to recognise and break stereotypes, and to show them many different professional sectors, so that they’ll have more options for their career later, says Minister for Equality Taina Bofferding.
“Rocking Robots” was the name of a workshop allowing the kids to build a small robot in a team. For students of the LTPES, this is something they could imagine doing at school, too. STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) are often very dry and theoretical at school, which can discourage kids from pursuing them later.
Events such as Rock de Rack an help them get a feel for these jobs and orient them towards a career free of stereotypes and clichés.
Video report in Luxembourgish.
