Transcript Gender equality, equity and mainstreaming

GENDER
Presentation prepared for PDG in Social Work
Presented by: Anjam Singh
Sanjeev Dahal
August, 2010
Sex and Gender
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Sex refers to the biological differences between
men and women
Gender refers to the socially constructed roles and
responsibilities of women and men in a given culture
or location
SEX AND GENDER DISTINCTIONS
SEX
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Biological
Universal
Born With
Generally Unchanging
Male/Female
GENDER
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Exercise
Socially constructed roles,
responsibilities &
behaviors
Culture Specific
Learned Behaviour
Varies within and
between Cultures
Masculine/Feminine
Sex Roles and Gender Roles
Sex Roles
 The only roles related to sex are those associated
with reproduction- male and female contribute to
the transfer of genetic material. Further, women give
birth and breastfeed.
Gender Roles
 Activities assigned to individuals on the basis of
socially determined characteristics, such as
stereotypes, ideologies, values, attitudes, beliefs,
and practices.
Gender construction in society
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Construction of gender through gestures, behaviours
and symbolic ideologies
Gender roles: Ruth Hartley (1966)
Manipulation
Canalization
Verbal Appellation
Activity exposure
Gender Relations
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Gender relations are relations of dominance and
subordination with elements of co-operation, force
and violence sustaining them.
Gender relations are socially constructed and
hence, variable in time and place and amenable to
change.
Gender relations follow the rules of patriarchy- an
ideology and social system whereby men are
considered superior to women
History of gender construction
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Religion differentiates sexes
Hindu Religion: Prakriti and Purus
Christianity: Adam and Eve
It is difficult to point out a specific period in time
when segregation of gender roles started
Traditionally there was no differentiation of work:
hunting, fishing, gathering
Agricultural period: women held high; miracle of
reproduction, matrilineal societies
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With risktaking nature and physical strength, men
began to conquer individuals and groups
With the advent of privatization, the first thing to
be privatized were women: control of women’s
mobility, behaviour and access
Gender roles and relations became more distinct
and hierarchal
Gender roles/relations in social institutions
All societies follow gender based social values and identities; maintained from social institutions
and their mechanisms.
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Family and Community: matriarchal and patriarchal
Lerner (1986) “The family not merely mirrors the order in the state and educates its children to
follow it, it also creates and constantly reinforces that order”.
Marx and Engels believe that women represent the proletariat class within the family and men
gain power making women dependent.
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Marriage
Encyclopedia of Social Science (1973) describes marriage as “ a culturally approved relationship
of one man and one woman (monogamy)or one man and two or more women (polygyny) or
one women and two or more men (polyandry) in which there is cultural endorsement for sexual
intercourse between the married partners of opposite sex with the expectation of children
from that relationship”
“Maare paap pale punya”
“bacha datta twaya kanya putratha swikrita maya”
Daughter in law still ranks the lowest position in her married home (Bista, 1992)
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Caste and Kin
Collins dictionary states caste is a “ social stratification which involves a system
of hierarchically ranked, closed, endogamous strata the membership of
which is ascribed and between which contact is restricted and mobility
theoretically impossible”
Caste system does not classify women- they are given the caste of the men
they are associated with: anuloma & pratiloma
Structure of kinship: Matriarchal or patriarchal
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Market and State
Invisibility of women’s work
Exploitation of female labour- paid less as compared to male
counterparts
Nature of jobs: Male doctor, engineer; Female: nurse, caretaker
Cash flow in the hands of males (70% in agriculture) [Agarwal, 1994]
Global scenario
Of the world’s one billion poorest people, three-fifths are women and girls.
Of the 960 million adults in the world who cannot read, two-thirds are women.
Seventy percent of the 130 million children who are out of school are girls.
With notable exceptions, such as Rwanda and the Nordic countries, women are
conspicuously absent from parliaments, making up, on average, only 16
percent of parliamentarians worldwide.
Women everywhere typically earn less than men, both because they are
concentrated in low-paying jobs and because they earn less for the same
work.
Systematic sexual violence against women has characterized almost all
recent armed conflicts and is used as a tool of terror and ‘ethnic cleansing’.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 57 percent of those living with HIV are women, and
young women aged 15-24 are at least three times more likely to be
infected than men of the same age.
Each year, half a million women die and 18 million more suffer chronic
disability
Although women spend about 70 percent of their unpaid time caring for
family members, that contribution to the global economy remains invisible.
Up to half of all adult women have experienced violence at the hands of
their intimate partners.
NLSS –Gender Review
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Gender review of the Nepal Living Standard
Survey (NLSS)
Pdf file..
Gender as a development issue
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In the areas of reproduction, production and community,
women have been adversely affected by the
development process.
Wide gap between high yet unrecognized economic
participation and their low political and social power
Development strategies have taken the needs of the
most vocal and politically active
Reproductive, productive and social roles played by
women must be looked as well as the economic and
social roles played by men
WID, WAD & GAD
WID
WAD
GAD
Origin
Early 1970s
Post WW II phenomena
Term articulated by
American Liberal Feminists
Mid 70s as a
critique of
modernization
theory and WID
In the 1980s
Theoretical
base
Linked with Modernization
Theory-Targets individuals
as the catalyst for social
change, no structural
change
Dependency theory
Socialist Feminist
thinking
Approach
Seeks to integrate women
into the development
process
Seeks to involve
women as active
participants of
development
Seeks to empower
women and
transform unequal
relations between
women and men
Focus
Women
Women
Men
WID
WAD
GAD
The
problem
Exclusion of women from the
mainstream development
process
Women have always
been part of
development process
but their contribution
not recognized ,
development had
negative impact on
women
Unequal relations of
power that prevent
equitable
development and
women’s full
participation
Strategies
Equality before law, education,
increase women’s productivity
and income, increase women’s
ability to manage their
households
Women focused
development, women
as economic actors in
both public and
private domain
Analysis of women’s
contribution inside
and outside
household, looks at
total social structure
Critique
Accepted existing social
structure
Did not question source of
women’s oppression and
subordination
Treated women as homogeneous
category
Focus only on women’s
productive aspect
ignoring the
reproductive aspect
Doesn’t question the
relations between
gender roles
Gender equality, equity and
mainstreaming
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Gender equality is defined as
the absence of
discrimination, on the basis of a person’s sex, in
opportunities and the allocation of resources or benefits or
in access to services.
The concept of gender equality has evolved over time:
initially, gender equality was concerned with treating
everyone the same. Treating everybody the same,
however,
perpetuates
existing
inequalities.
By
acknowledging and addressing different needs, interests
and values, health services and professional can work to
overcome these inequalities and arrive at equitable
outcomes.
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Equity is generally regarded as a state of fairness
and justness. It requires that the specific needs of
particular groups are considered separately and
acted upon accordingly
Gender equity recognizes that the playing field is
not even due to social and historical disadvantages
which prevent one sex, often women, to access and
benefit from society's resources
Men
Needs
Power
Life experiences
Access to decision making
Expectations from others
Social, economic and
political opportunities
Women
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The concept recognizes that women and men have
different needs and power structures and that these
differences should be identified and addressed in a
manner that rectifies imbalance between the sexes
Gender equity strategies seek to achieve fairness
and justice in the distribution of benefits and
responsibilities between women and men, and
recognize that different approaches may be
required to produce equitable outcome
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Gender mainstreaming is an important global strategy
for achieving gender equality.
It is a strategy for making the concerns and
experiences of women as well as of men an integral
part of the design, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation of policies and programs in all political,
economic and societal spheres, so that women and men
benefit equally, and inequality is not perpetuated. The
ultimate goal of mainstreaming is to achieve gender
equality.” – United Nations Economic and Social Council,
1997