Why does he bring home more bacon than I do?

Have you ever wondered why women are paid less than men? This ESL lesson helps us understand the never-ending gender pay gap. You will find a topic-related video, vocabulary practice, and discussions, followed an explanation about adjective comparison and new skills exercises.

Introduction

The lesson starts with a discussion about a graph showing parents’ share of household responsibilities.

Reading: Gender pay gap

The student reads a passage explaining the gender pay gap and factors that affect it. Then, they answer reading comprehension questions. New words and phrases are extracted from the text for the student to match them with their meanings (come down to, shrink, gap, deadline, etc.). The student uses the new vocabulary to complete sentences.

Grammar: Adjective comparison

Adjective comparison is explained, including degrees of comparison and the suffixes used to make comparative and superlative forms. The student practices adjective comparison by filling in the gaps using correct adjective forms.

Video: Gender pay gap myths

After watching the video debunking gender pay gap myths, the student completes video comprehension practice.
New vocabulary is extracted from the video for the student to match it with the meanings.

Pick a card

The student picks a card and uses the clues (adjectives) on it to describe the final word to their teacher, in order to practice adjective comparison.

The lesson ends with a discussion about women in the workplace.

More on gender dynamics in the workplace in this lesson plan.