Presentation on

Gender as a
development
issue
Objectives of the
presentation:
Try to understand what is Gender & development
Gender discriminations & Inequalities in different
perspectives in the society
Understanding the importance of gender issues for
development & poverty.
Understanding the importance of MDG.
Introducing the worldwide situation of women in MDG as
well as in the context of Bangladesh.
Policy gaps, policy recommendation and Conclusion
Gender refers to the social construction of male &
female. Whereas biological sex is determined by
genetic & anatomical characteristics, gender is an
acquired identity based in socio – cultural sphere.
“It is not simply a question of economic growth,
food production, modern equipment or
technology transfer. Development is about
people. It is humanity in all its dimensions, in
full possession of dignity, and individual
rights…
Michael P. Todaro’s three Core Values of Development

Sustenance: The Ability to Meet Basic Needs

Self-Esteem: To Be a Person
Freedom from Servitude: To Be Able to Choose
Men Women

equal empowerment
equal basic needs
equal decision making power
equal right in property
equal opportunity to express their ability
Educational inequalities for women
Globally, 10 million more girls are out of school than boys (Calculated from data
contained in the UN’s The Millennium Development Goals report 2007, New York:
2007, p11)
•41 million girls worldwide are still denied a primary education. (UNESCO,
Education for all: Global monitoring report 2008, Oxford University Press, Oxford:
2007, p184.)
•Women account for nearly two thirds of the world’s 780 million people who cannot
read. (UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “Adult Literacy Rates and Illiterate
Population by Region and Gender,” 2006)

Gender Inequality in Health

•WHO studies in Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa show that women who have
experienced violence are three times more likely to be at risk from HIV
infection. (Source: World Health Organisation briefing)
•99% of maternal deaths occur in developing countries, with women continuing to die
of pregnancy-related causes at the rate of one a minute. (UNPF: Maternal mortality
figures show limited progress in making motherhood safer, October 2007)
•About 14 million adolescent girls become mothers every year. More than 90% of
them are in developing countries.
Economic inequality
 women of the north America get the highest opportunity to participate
in economic activities 80 % where middle east & north African women
are the worst less than 40%.

Political disparity of women

Globally, women make up just 17% of parliamentarians. Only 22 countries do women
represent 25 percent or more of elected legislators (UNICEF, The State of the World’s Children
2007, UNICEF, New York: 2006, p.56) The situation of Asia is also poor only 18.2 %
parliament seats for women.

Women and poverty

Women produce up to 80% of food in developing countries, but are more likely to be
hungry than men, and are often denied the right to own land (Food and Agriculture
Organization, The feminisation of hunger what do the surveys tell us? 2001, and The
state of food insecurity in the world 2005, Rome: 2005, p17)
 Violence against women worldwide perspective
•On average, 30% of women experienced some form of physical or
sexual violence by their partner.
•Globally, as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by an
intimate partner.
Source : WHO 2013

Religious violence against women world wide perspective

Jewish Community
■ An estimate by the organization Jewish Women International indicates
that 15 to 25% of all Jewish households experience domestic violence

Muslim Community
■ According to estimates by Muslim activists in the United States,
approximately ten percent of Muslim women are abused emotionally,
psychologically, and/or physically by their husbands. [Faizi, N. (2001).
Source : CEDAW Participation.svg
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Where is the female position
to the rung of the development
ladder in the context of
Bangladesh?
It is encouraging to note that Bangladesh has made remarkable progress
in reducing the prevalence of underweight children, increasing enrollment at
primary schools, lowering the infant mortality rate and maternal mortality
ratio, improving immunization coverage and reducing the incidence of
communicable diseases.
 primary school attainment secondary school attainment

female primary female secondary

school school
attainmen male attainment
male
t
0 20 40
40 60 80
Source : The World Bank, 2010 Source: BBS 2006 & 2011
students enrolled at university level ( public
university )

female students enrolled at

male university level (
public university )
BANBEIS 2011
0 50 100
In primary level of education there was always the dominance percentage of
female students than male students. You can see still their difference is more
than
But6% in 2010. education attainment the number of male is larger than female &
in secondary
the current difference is near about 9 % !!!!!!. In 2001 the number of the enrolled
students at university level was 75% male & 25 % female & now it is 70%
male & 30% female . Although the rate is increasing but in slow pace.
 Economic inequality
Women Empowerment: Women’s position in work force

labour force
participation

men
women

If we look at the figure, we can see that there is great inequality in labour
force participation of male and female. Female participation rate is much
lower whereas male participation is much higher than that of national
participation rate
Nutritional & health inequality Political disparity of women

the rate of under weight parliamentary seats of

children Bangladesh

male male
members
female
female
members

Source :BANBEIS 2012

Source: BDHS 2011

The rate of underweight children shows that the percentage of female child
were always more than the male . Still it is 42.1 % for female where 39.9 % for
male.

Again Our honorable prime minister, honorable opposite party leader &
former prime minister , our speaker of the parliament are women. But it doesn’t
show the real picture of the political participation & rights of the women in BD.
We have only 20% representative female members in the parliament which is
so poor according to the male members.
Source ;Bangladesh Protidin
Did you notice that although there are so many inequalities still exist between
male & female but this slow decreasing trend of the inequality is pushing our
development wheel with its full force.

Decreasing trend of inequalities in

Primary , secondary & tertiary education enrollment
Labour force participation
Political participation
Nutrition & health
Violence against women

Increasing GDP (Gross domestic products)

Increasing Contraceptive use
Decreasing TFR
Decreasing child & maternal death
increasing age at marriage
Increasing life expectancy specially of
women
Decreasing poverty gap ratio
 Still developing?

Only Developed ??

More developed???

Most developed !!!

Existing policy gaps
Inadequacy of policy guidance to incorporate gender issues in
development process.
Inadequate resources to undertake gender focused/ women
development program/project.
 Inadequate institutional measure to amend the relevant item of
allocation of business of sector ministries to include gender concern
into them.
Lack of awareness about international treaties or convention that
appreciate the need of integrating gender issues into sectoral
activities.
 Lack of partnership of the Government with the civil society
organizations
Policy Recommendation

•Foster awareness and confidence among women and to strengthen

women's outlook in favour of demanding equal rights.
•Women education should be given more priority. A special allocation
for women's education should kept in the budget.
Motivate women at all levels to acquire skills in order to participate in
the affairs of running the country.
Ensure women's participation in poverty alleviation and socio-
economic development programs.
Strengthen them in a way that they can play their roles in the socio-
economic development of the country through self-employment or
being employed in various positions.
Change their existing subordinate position and to empower them to
take strong steps to ensure equal rights and to resist dowry as well as
violence against women.
Gender inequality has been long recognized both as
the cause and as the effect of underdevelopment.
No development process can not ensured in isolated
way, so avoid and neglect discrimination against
women for better development for a better society,
community as well as a peaceful world.