Project “Punane Pill” addresses extreme gender roles and attitudes spreading on social media and helps young people critically reflect on them. Under Greta’s leadership, the project’s training network will expand, bringing workshops on extreme attitudes to even more schools and students.
In recent years, Greta has primarily worked on equality and diversity topics and served as a gender equality expert at Feministeerium. She has also worked with young people and education professionals, including as a teacher for upper-secondary school students.
As an expert on equality and diversity, Greta sees the spread of extreme gender roles among young people as a reflection of wider concerns in society. “For example, young people may not feel that they belong anywhere. Or they may not have a trusted adult around them or a safe space in which to explore the world. Extreme gender roles in young people’s attitudes are often a sign that something has been wrong for a long time,” she said.
We tried to get to know Greta better and asked why she believes it is important to have open conversations with young people about extreme gender roles.
Why did you join the President Kaljulaid Foundation? What speaks to you most about this social media and education project addressing extreme gender norms?
I had already worked with members of the Foundation’s team through various collaborations and immediately felt that there were so many smart people with big hearts here, working on something extremely important. I have been involved with this project as an expert from the very beginning, and I’m pleased to now have the opportunity to contribute on a larger scale.
What speaks to me about the project is that when working with young people, I often feel that their concerns are addressed from the top down, as if by wiser adults – a perspective that forgets that young people themselves are very capable and often wiser than us older people. It seems to me that this project is very much rooted in young people themselves: it listens to them and gives them the opportunity to make the world a better place themselves, rather than doing it for them.
How does your previous experience and expertise support you in leading this project?
Training people on equality inevitably means opening up big, systemic issues while also discussing deeply personal and sensitive topics with complete strangers. I believe I have had plenty of practice in talking about difficult subjects while still leaving room for other people’s personalities and life experiences.
Working as a teacher makes it very clear how many different worlds come together in a school environment every day. It has also taught me how to give young people space to be themselves while bringing them together in a shared conversation in a way that preserves curiosity and creates a safe space for learning.
Why do you think it is important to talk to young people about extreme gender roles?
I think it is important to talk about extreme gender roles with everyone. When it comes to young people in particular, I believe that an emphasis on extreme gender roles often points to an entirely different concern. For example, a young person may not feel that they belong anywhere. Or they may not have a trusted adult around them or a safe space in which to explore the world. Extreme gender roles in young people’s attitudes are often a sign that something has been wrong for a long time.
At the same time, extreme views are to some extent a logical outcome of the environment created by adults. That is why I believe adults should work to reshape that environment.
What kind of change do you hope this project will create?
I hope this project will give young people an impulse to explore themselves and the world without feeling that they need to use violence or put someone else down to do so. And I hope that young people who do not feel safe today because of the spread of extreme gender roles will come to understand through this project that someone is thinking about these issues and working towards creating a safer space.