DS 101

GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT

 Gender

• Gender refers to the relations between men and

women (FAO, 1997).
• Gender is socially constructed and perpetuated
at different levels by community, government
e.t.c
• There is a confusion between sex and gender.
• Gender makes us masculine or feminine while
sex makes us male or female.
 Cont…

• while gender is based social roles.

• Sex is biological -There are biological
characteristics which distinguish between male
and female i.e chromosomes, reproductive
systems, hormones e.t.c
• Is an ascribed status because a person is born
with it.
• Gender is an achieved status because it must
be learned through socialization.
 Cont…

• Socialization: People learn characteristics of

their groups, norms, values, attitude and
behaviours.
• Doing Gender: Gender emerges through a
socially constructed process.
• Children start to learn gender roles at birth.
• Gender, must be found in the meanings
attached by people which bring them at a point
of stand and being believed.
 Cont…

• Gender emerges in social interaction vs

individual.
• Gender roles
• Are different activities, attitudes and behavior of
women, men, girls and boys.
• Division of labour between men and women
• Are shaped by society.
• They are socially and culturally determined
Varying from one culture/society to another.
 Cont…

• Child rearing is classified as women role

• Mining is the role which is performed by men.
• Generally, gender roles are the roles which are
assigned to a particular sex as a result of
socialization and accepted within a given social
context.
 Productive Roles

• Productive roles are the outdoor daily

economic activities which are done by women
for the survival of their respective households.
• For example, in rural areas of Tanzania, women
engage in subsistence crop farming, harvesting
e.t.c. However, men perform these activities
occasionally.
 Reproductive Roles

• These are domestic activities performed by

women in the course of socialization.
• Child caring and other domestic activities e.g.
cooking, fetching water, washing utensils and
clothes, collecting firewood and ironing clothes.
 Community Managing roles

• Community managing roles refer to all activities

which are performed by women at the
community level in the course of socialization
and social cooperation.
• cleaning market places, digging wells e.t.c
 Gender Equality

• Equality is based on the idea that no individual

should be less equal in opportunity, access to
resources and benefits or in human rights than
others.
• Under gender equality therefore, women and
men have equal rights to access and
– control over resources and
– benefits participation in politics and
 Gender Equality cont…

-decision making as well as

-gainful employment and education.
• Gender equality does not mean that women and
men are or should become the same, but it
means that women and men should have equal
rights and equal opportunities in all spheres of
life (ILO, 2010).
 Gender Equity

• Is the quality of being fair, just and right to both

women and men.
• It includes fairness and justice in the distribution
between women and men, of responsibilities,
access to resources, control over resources and
access to benefits.
• Gender equity is a step towards gender equality.
• At least representation of women and men in
education, political issues e.t.c
 Gender Mainstreaming

• A process of assessing and bridging of gender

gaps/imbalances.
• It is a strategy for making women’s and men’s
concerns and experiences an integral part of
designing, implementing, monitoring and
evaluating programmes and activities in the
socio-economic and political spheres of the
society.
• Reducing gender stereotype –representation in
education e.g teachers, decision making e.t.c
 Cont…

• Gender mainstreaming plays a significance role

on development policies i.e addressing gender
equality and reduce poverty e.g MKUKUTA I
Tanzania.
 Gender stereotyping

• Having an idea which is not true.

• Negative opinions are formed between men and
women in the society. For example it is believed
that women can not perform certain kind of
activities e.g. electrical Engineering activities
e.t.c.
• Only men can do so
• Gender Stereotyping always put women in
inferior position
 Gender Sensitivity

• Be sensitive about how people think about

gender
• Awareness creation about gender
roles/treatment of groups e.g discrimination of
women in society
• Training of children by Parents – begin to learn
their gender identity – messages from parents
 Gender Sensitization

• Gender sensitization promotes equality for men

and women
• Gender sensitization tries to ensure that people
do not rely much on the held assumptions about
women and women roles
• Break societal stigma e.g among the students by
teachers.
 Gender Analysis

• Gender analysis is the process of identifying the

ways in which gender relations affect the
development
• Recognizing that cultural, social, political and
economic systems and institutions are not
gender-neutral
 Cont…
• Culture may affect proposed solutions for
example African societies traditionally men and
women are unequal situated in resource
ownership.
• Gender Roles Framework developed in 1984 by
Havard Institute for International Development in
collaboration with the Women in Development
office of USAID, concern of equal resource
allocation between men and women to foster
development.
 Cont…

• Moser Framework (1980): Concern among

others the resource allocation, decision making
in households
 Gender as a key to economic Development

• Women and men are central to economic

development.
• Gender roles have impact regarding
participation of women in economic development
activities.
• Women are essential to economic growth-
helping improve the well-being of their children,
families and communities.
Gender as a key to economic Development cont…

• There is gender inequality Education

Decision
making
Property
ownership
• This calls to focus specific attention on ensuring
that women are fully able to engage in
development activities and benefits.
 Gender as a key to economic Development

• Women are central to wage earners- Productive

activities provide vital income to many
households.
• Women face social barrier and inequalities that
prevent them from realizing their fully economic
potential.
- This is shaped by masculinity behavior.
 Culture and Gender

• Culture is simply defined as the totality of the

lifestyle of people in a particular society and it is
associated with customs and traditions which
contain the norms and beliefs to be cherished by
such a society.
• A totality peoples’ way of life including the
customs, art, beliefs of a particular group of
people.
 Culture and Gender cont…

• Culture differs from one society to another and

there are socio-cultural practices that hinder
equal participation between men and women.
• Culture determines gender issues at level of
each society.
• There are various cultural practices against
women. These include;
 Cultural practices against women

• Wife inheritance;
• Widow inheritance is a wide spread cultural
practice In some societies e.g in Tanzania,
women are regarded as a property that can be
inherited following the death of her husband. In
these societies, when a woman’s husband dies,
another man who is a member of her husband’s
family can inherit her.
 Cultural practices against women cont…

- This practice is against human rights because

women are not in a position to make decision on
a way of life they want to live after death of their
husbands.
- This violation of human rights also results into
violation of children's, rights to education.
 Cultural practices against women cont…

- In some societies widows are associated with

death of their husbands which results into
mistreatments.
- This practice contributes to the spread of
diseases such as HIV/AIDS and other sexual
transmitted diseases.
 Cultural practices against women cont…

• Female genital mutilation

-Some communities in Africa in general and
Tanzania in specific still practice female
circumcision as an initiation process in which
girls are trained to become responsible women.
-This practice has a severe negative impact to
women. It has no any health benefit but
damaging the health of women.
 Cultural practices against women cont…

• It interferes girls/women bodies-cause

immediate bleeding and pain and associated
risk of infection.
• A WHO recently led a study of 28,000 pregnant
women in Six African countries and discovered
that for those who undergone FGM had a
significant higher risk of childbirth complications
such as caesarian section, death of babies.
 Cultural practices against women cont…

• Socially FGM has impact where there is

discrimination by peers, exclusion from
social networks.
• Many girls drop out of school after the
initiation because they consider
themselves mature women.
 Cultural practices against women cont…

• Violence against women – Some Tanzanian

communities have traditions and customs
which give men power to oppress women.
• Domestic violence is becoming a major
problem in many families whereby some
husbands beat their wives because their
traditions and customs encourage this
practice.
 Cultural practices against women cont…

• Women are forced to endure this mistreatment

because they are dependent on their husbands.
• Bride price –Amount of money/wealth paid by
the groom/his family.
Price agreed prior marriage i.e woman becomes
a commodity and this facilitates domestic
violence
 Cultural practices against women cont…

• Regarding women as sex objects

• Some societies in Tanzania, a woman has to
remain at home so as to refresh a man when he
comes from work. She is not allowed to work
outside the home.
• Girls are resticted from getting higher education,
with the belief that it is a waste time and money
because girls are married off to serve their
husbands.
 Cultural practices against women cont…

• Cultural practices result into discrimination

against women where women are treated badly
compared to men. In Tanzania for example, men
are the heads of families and are also decision
makers, women have no rights to land, property,
education and employment opportunities.
 cont…

• This discrimination creates gender inequality

• But in general men have greater access to the
social requirements than women.
 Discrimination against women
Institutional Dimension

• Cultural practices which lead to gender

inequality resulting into gender discrimination
are as follows;
• Customary Laws on inheriting properties
including land.
-Under customary land law, women generally
have relatively low access of land and their
access is indirect and insecure.
 Discrimination against women cont…

• Women are discriminated from inhering family or

clan properties including land.
-Moreover, in allocating land, village councils
have been inclined to customary laws.
 Discrimination against women cont…

• Education.
• male-parents in some societies favour boys
rather than girls.
• - Therefore, many boys are more likely to
benefit the fruits of education than girls. 
• -In Tanzania, wage salary employment was
introduced during the colonial era.
 Discrimination against women cont…

• Due to their low levels of education, the

proportion of women employed in formal sectors
is low compared to that of men.
 Discrimination against women cont…

• women are maily employed in female stereotype

occupations such as nursing midwifery, typing
e.t.c. There are a few women who occupy high
positions in public services.
• In Tanzania, the manpower survey of 1980
shows that only 20.1 percent of high and middle
level posts were occupied by females.
 Discrimination against women cont…

• There are provisions in the statutory books

which restrict and discourage employment of
women which denies women their basic rights
and privileges as employees.
• Employment in Tanzania (mainland) has for a
long time governed by two pieces of legislation:
(i)The employment ordinance and (ii) Security of
employment act.
 Discrimination against women cont…

• Section 86 of the employment ordinance

stipulates that no female shall be employed on
underground work in any mine except those
women holding positions of management who
do not perform manual work or women who may
for any reason occasionally enter the
underground parts of a mine e.g those engaged
in health or welfare services.
 Discrimination against women cont…

• Women are facing sexual harassment to acquire

formal employment.
 Discrimination against women cont…

• Male domination in decision making at family

level etc.
• According to the report provided by FAO and
IFAD (2000) points out that decision making
from household to national levels are male-
dominated as over 80 percent of Tanzanian
communities are guided by a patriarchal system.
 Discrimination against women cont…

• For example, women provide substantial labour

for cultivation of cash crops but are seldom in
control of the cash output of such crops (Kessy,
2006).
 Discrimination against women cont…

• In some households, men (husbands) had

restricted women (wives) from doing outdoor
economic activities (including paid jobs in public
and private sectors) as the result women have
become economically dependent upon men
(husbands).
• Women living under this system have in the
most cases been the major victims e.g. in the
case of divorce, death of husbands.
 Discrimination against women cont…

• In religious leadership especially the highest

positions are held by men rather than women.
 Feminist Theories

• ‘Feminism’ originated from the Latin word

‘femina’ which represents women’s issues
• Feminist theories first emerged as early as 1792
in the works of Marry Wollstone Craft in Europe
• Other popular feminists are Elizabeth Cady
Stanton, John Stuart Mill and Helen Taylor
• It is a movement to achieve gender equality.
Feminists’ advocate that men and women are
unequal situated
 Cont…

• Men and women should be equal

politically, economically and socially.
• The proponents of feminism theory pay
little attention on involving and/or
addressing the problems facing Black
women in Africa and other parts of the
world.
 Radical Feminism

• Radical Feminism emerged during the second-

wave Feminism in the 1960s
• Patriarchy is an enemy of gender equality.
-/All societies/institutions are characterized with
oppression and there are some people who
dominate others ,therefore women are ones’
who are dominated/oppressed.
• Suggestion: Reconstruction of society through
abolishing patriarchy and empower women to establish
their own institutions.
 Liberal Feminism

• Liberal feminists believe that gender inequality is

a learned behavior from socialization process
where women are considered less capable than
men.
• society holds the false belief that women are, by
nature - less intellectually and physically capable
than men.
• Call for career of women, equal parenting, need
for gender free school for young children.
 Marxian Feminism

• Marxian Feminism addresses gender inequality

on context relations in capitalist system
• Social class oppression (dominated workers and
ruling class).
• Women subordination is not a result of biological
aspect but rather social arrangements.
• Patrilineal system is the source of women
subordination since depend on men
economically.
 Cont…

• Marxian Feminists viewed women's entry into

the paid labor force as the first step toward
liberating women from stifling dependence on
men, though it does not free them from the class
oppression they share with male workers.
 Socialism Feminism

• socialist feminism" was increasingly adopted

during the 1970s .
• Describes a mixed theoretical and practical
approach to achieving women's equality.
• Socialists had fought for decades to create a
more equal society that did not exploit the poor
and powerless as capitalism did.
 Cont…

• Like Marxism, socialist feminism recognized the

oppressive structure of capitalist society. Like
radical feminism, socialist feminism recognized
the fundamental oppression of women in
patriarchal society.
 Black Feminism

• The National Black Feminist Organization was

found in 1973 in New York.
• The most prominent scholar of Black Feminism
is Anna Julia Cooper
• This movement addressed black women rights
in America and their fellow in Africa.
• Black Feminism Believes that black women are
more oppressed than white women , yet they are
ignored in liberation movement
 Womanism Theory

• A gender neutral movement originated from

North America focusing on discrimination .
• Womanism has been coined by Alice Walker
through her artistic work called In Search of Our
Mothers’ Gardens: Womanist Prose (1983).
• Womanism emerged as the result of
weaknesses encountered in feminism
movement.
 Cont…

• While the Feminist Movement focused on ending

gender-based oppression, it largely ignored race
and class-based oppression
• Is a social theory deeply rooted in the racial and
gender oppression of black women.
 Cont…

• Not only women are discriminated, there are

men who face discrimination because of race,
status e.t.c