Hi Anna,
I think our classrooms are microcosms of the society we live in and so are heavily influenced by the engrained gender stereotypes we all experience from birth. By the time children reach the senior end of the school these stereotypes are well and truly internalised and your classroom experience as you’ve outlined is very much the norm. You also reference how you as the teacher are influenced despite being fully conscious of the biases. This again is natural considering the broader societal impact. I agree that the Plan lessons will provide you with the platform to start challenging preconceptions but realistically nothing is going to change overnight. It’s about taking small steps, challenging misconceptions one by one to gradually affect change in attitudes.