Gender Sensitization

 Gender Sensitization refers to theories which claim

that modification of the behavior of teachers and
parents (etc.) towards children can have a causal
effect on gender equality.

 The dictionary meaning of gender is – the class in

which a noun or pronoun is placed in grammatical
grouping.
 The aim of gender sensitization is to make
people aware of the power relations between
men and women in society and to understand
the importance of affording women and men
equally opportunities and treatment.
 Gender equality should be a priority not only in the
organization’s mission statement, general objectives,
and policies, but also in its internal regulations
(recruitment procedures, terms and conditions for
workers, etc).
 Adequate resources should be devoted to putting
such policies into practice.
 Management-staff relations should be as non-
vertical as possible: open, consultative, listening.
 There should be greater parity in numbers and
distribution of staff, more – importantly, women on
the staff and especially in management must be
committed to gender equality.
 This means not feminine management, but feminist
management, understood as management (by both
sexes) that is committed to women’s empowerment.
 The organization should offer non-gender-
stereotyped roles and choices for both men and
women.
 There should be space for, and encouragement of,
bottom-up initiatives and informal, ‘horizontal’ for
ideas and dialogue.
 Decision-making access for women should be built into
the organization’s structures, not dependent on
informal agreements or arrangements, so that
women’s access to decision-making does not depend on
the personalities and efforts of individuals.
 Management should give unequivocal support to gender
teams and staff members with specific responsibility
for gender issues.
 There should be scope for different organizational
styles and cultures to coexist and be valued and for
men and women together to explore and utilize
difference without disempowering either side.
Sexual Harassment is Rare.
Sexual harassment is rampant extremely
widespread. It touches the lives of 40 to 60
percent of working women, and similar
proportions of female students in colleges and
universities.
If you ignore sexual harassment, it will stop.
It will not. Generally, simply ignoring
sexual harassment will not stop it. Ignoring
such behavior may be taken as a sign of
encouragement or tacit consent. Many
reports, that when they directly tell the
harasser to stop, the harassment often,
but not always ends. Ignoring such conduct
may even be perceived as complicity,
condoling and encouragement of the act.
Women enjoy attention from the other sex and
when they can’t handle they complain of sexual
harassment.
 Display of “Power” on the part of perpetrator
is the root cause of Sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment is form of harassment-
which is unwanted and unacceptable to the
victim. A.P. survey (Women Police Officers)
86% of Sexual harassment are true. In fact
most cases of Sexual Harassment go
unreported as
a) 48.2 % - embarrassed.
b) Fear of being blamed.
Many women make up and report stories of
sexual harassment to get back at their
employers or others who have angered them.
Research shows that less than one percent of
the complaints are false. Women rarely file
complaints even when they are justified in doing
so.
Only those women object who
have no sense of humour.
Sexual harassment is offensive, frightening and
insulting to women. It has an adverse effect on
their mental and physical health.
 Women usually keep quiet out of fear, to
protect the family honor, for children’s sake or
she thinks she is at fault.
 Many women think it is all normal and inevitable.
 It is a woman’s lot and there is seemingly little
she can do to escape her lot.
 UN declaration, 1993, on elimination of
violence against women defines violence as :
 Any gender based violence that results or is
likely to result in physical, sexual or
psychological harm or suffering to women.
 Includes threats of such acts, coercion or
arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether
occurring in public or private.
 A form of gender violence which is now defined as
sexual harassment.
 “Before sexual harassment was given a name women
just called it “life”.
 Lyn Farley’s 1978 book, Sexual Shakedown,
introduced the term.
 Further reinforced when in 1979, Catherine
MacKinnon published, The sexual harassment of the
working women
 Hospitals
Nurses - Doctors,
patients, even ward boys.
Patients- Doctors, ward
boys.
Government Offices
Employees - Superiors,
colleagues and
employees.
 Hotels
Employees-Hotel employees
other guests
professionals .
Theatres, Stage and Films
Artistes -Directors,
producers,
fellow workers.
Modeling
Models -employees,
sponsors.
 District Headquarters
The rule of gang that have political
support.
Press & Publishing
All these who go for publication
(writers, editors, sub-editors,
journalist publishers etc).
 CHANGE IN RECTT POLICY
 SEXUAL HARASSMENT AWARENESS TRAINING
 SENSING MECHANISMS
 COMMITMENT FROM TOP
 PRACTICES CONSISTENT WITH POLICIES
 On the platform of equality together we
can achieve the common goals of
organization not merely with legal changes but
definitely with attitudinal changes .