Gender

Sensitivity
Training System
Puerto

> Gender Stereotyping

> Gender Division of Labor
> Gender Analysis
 Session Objectives
At the end of the session, the participants will be
able to:
1. Differentiate between sex and gender,
2. Discuss the gender roles ascribed to women and
men and their implications,
3. Identify the manifestations of gender biases,
4. Appreciate one’s role in the promotion of gender
sensitivity.
Are men and
women
different?
Psychological Perspective
on Gender Equality
(Ranjith, 2013)
 Sex defined
• Sex is the biological characteristics which distinguish
human beings as female or male. (European Commission,
1998).

• Sex is biologically determined (external genitalia or sex

organ; chromosomal make-up; qualities of hormones);

• Sex is constant across time, across different societies and

cultures. (Philippine Commission on Women)
Source: Philippine Commission on Women
 Gender defined
• Gender refers to the differentiated social roles,
behaviors, capacities, intellectual, emotional and
social characteristics attributed by a given culture
to women and men. It is what makes one
masculine or feminine.
• Gender is socially determined and a learned
behavior.
• Gender changes across time, places and cultures.
Source: Philippine Commission on Women
 Sex Gender Defined
Gender
born with socially constructed

Cannot be changed Changeable

- only women can give birth - women can do traditionally
- only men can produce male jobs
sperm - men can take good care
of children

Source: Philippine Commission on Women

 The confusion
between sex and
gender gives rise to
stereotypes.
Stereotype
Something conforming to a fixed or general
pattern especially : a standardized mental
picture that is held in common by members
of a group and that represents an
oversimplified opinion, prejudiced attitude,
or uncritical judgment.
Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stereotype
“Our lives, our cultures, are composed of
many overlapping stories. The single
story creates stereotypes and the
problem with stereotypes is not that they
are untrue; but that they are incomplete.
They make the story become the only
story.”
– Chimamanda Adichie
 Gender Stereotypes
• It is the tendency or attitude, to ascribe
particular traits, characteristics and roles
distinctly to men and particular traits,
characteristics, roles distinctly to women.

• The assumption behind stereotyping is that

the ascribed attributes of men apply to
all men and that of women apply to all
women in a given society.
Source: Philippine Commission on Women
 Stereotypes:
Men:
Bravery, aggressiveness,
independence, and the ability to
control emotions are traits of men.

Women:
Timidity, passivity, while emotionally
dependent demonstrative, loving, self
sacrificing and being peaceful are traits
of women.
Men:
More fit to be leaders, head of families, business
enterprises, social and political organizations,
states, armies and communities

Women:
More fit to take secondary roles
Stereotypes play a big role in
shaping people’s idea of gender and
its norms.
Activity 1

Let’s try this…

 Differentiating SEX from GENDER QUIZ
STATEMENT G S
1. Women give birth to babies, men do not.

2. Little girls are gentle, boys are rough.

3. According to UN statistics, women do 67% of the

world’s work, yet their earnings amount only to 10%
of the world’s income.

4. In the rural areas, women are paid lower than the

wage for men.

5. Men can bath their children, and can bottle-feed

babies.

Source: Philippine Commission on Women

 Differentiating SEX from GENDER QUIZ
STATEMENT G S
6. Most-building site workers in the Philippines are men.

7. In Ancient Egypt, men stayed at home and did weaving.

Women handled family business. Women inherited
property and men did not.

8. Men’s voices break at puberty, women’s do not.

9. In one study of 224 cultures, there were 5 in which men

did all the cooking and 36 in which women did all the
house building.

10. In one documented case, a child who was brought up as

a girl, then learned that he was actually a boy, his school
marks improved dramatically.
Source: Philippine Commission on Women
 Sex Roles
A sex role is a function or role which a male or
female assumes because of the basic physiological
or anatomical differences between the sexes.

Female Male
Child-bearing Ovum Fertilization
Lactation Produces spermatozoa
which determines the
child’s sex
Gestation XY chromosomes
 Gender Roles
A gender role, as defined by Susan Basow,
refers to society's evaluation of behaviour as
masculine or feminine, e.g. cooking is feminine,
while fishing is a masculine role in most societies.

Feminine Masculine
Cooking Fishing
Childcare Hunting
Housecare Repair work in the house
Gender Role Socialization

The process of learning and

internalizing culturally approved ways
of thinking, feeling and behaving
according to one’s gender.
A pattern of appearance, personality, and
behavior that, in a given culture, is associated
with being a boy/man/male or being a
girl/woman/female.
A person’s gender role may or may not conform
to what is expected based on a person’s sex
assigned at birth.
 Gender Roles
• Gender roles are learned behaviors in a given community or
society or other social group that condition which activities,
tasks and responsibilities are perceived as male or female (ILO).
• Factors that may shape and change gender roles:
- age
- class
- race
- ethnicity
- religion and other ideologies
- geographical environment
- economic environment
- political environment
PATRIARC
HY
-the system that supports power imbalance and
male domination.

-deeply rooted in culture and traditions, THAT

exists within all levels of society and is closely
linked to the violation of women’s human rights,
including their experiences with violence.
“The struggle against misogyny and for
equality led to a broad array of social
concerns: Social hierarchy, racism,
warfare, violence (sports, domestic
violence, pornography, and rape)
environmental destruction were seen to be
the effects of men’s psychological need for
domination and the social organization of
patriarchy”(Abercrombie, Hill, & Turner, 1994, pp. 162-163).
“The Impossible Dream”
A video clip
Gender Division of Labor

Productive Roles

Reproductive Roles

Community Level
Roles
• Community Managing
Reproductive role

Childbearing and rearing responsibilities,

and domestic tasks done by women, required
to guarantee the maintenance and
reproduction of the labor force.
It includes not only the biological
reproduction but also the care and
maintenance of the work force (male partners
and working children) and the future work
force (infants and school-going children).
Productive role

Work done by both men and women for pay

in cash or kind.
It includes both market production with an
exchange-value, and subsistence home
production with actual use-value, and also
potential exchange-value.
For women in agricultural production, this
includes work as independent farmers,
peasant wives and wage workers.
Community managing roles

Work done by both men and women for pay

in cash or kind.
It includes both market production with an
exchange-value, and subsistence home
production with actual use-value, and also
potential exchange-value.
For women in agricultural production, this
includes work as independent farmers,
peasant wives and wage workers.
Community politics role

Activities undertaken primarily by men at

the community level, organizing at the
formal political level, often within the
framework of national politics.
This is usually paid work, either directly or
indirectly, through status or power.
The ‘major’ difference?
Men: typically play roles sequentially,
focusing on a single productive role

vs.

Women: must usually play their roles

simultaneously, balancing the demands of
each within their limited time constraints
Gender Division of Labor
Productive Role Reproductive Role
Job Household Chores

Income-generating Child-rearing
Activities

Paid Unpaid

Visible Invisible

Valued Not Valued

Community Level Roles

Gender Analysis

Systematic collection and examination of information

on gender gaps and social relations in order to:
>identify, understand and address inequities
and inequalities based on gender

>determine the impact (possible or actual) of

a development intervention on women and
men, girls and boys, and on the economic and
social relations between them
Workshop: 24-Hour Activity Profile

Instruction:
In 20 minutes, write all what Juan/Juana (government employee and farmer) does on
Saturday from the moment he/she wakes up until he/she sleeps.
Inclusive Total Hours Activities Activities Activities Amount
Time (Productive) (Reproductive) (Community
Roles)

       

       
GROUP 1
Juan A: Government employee

GROUP 2
Juan B: Farmer

GROUP 3
Juana A: Government employee

GROUP 4 
Juana B: Farmer
The primacy of reproduction: invisible

• Other reproductive work that women do is

widely viewed as unproductive. Growing and
processing food, nurturing, educating , and
running a household – all part of the
complex process of reproduction – are
unacknowledged as part of the production
system.
• A woman who supplies such labor is not seen
by economists as performing work of value.
 Productive vs. nonproductive
• Housework is “productive” when
performed by a paid domestic servant and
“nonproductive” when no payment is
involved.
• Those who care for children in an
orphanage are “occupied”; mothers who
care for their children at home are
“unoccupied.”
A Call to the Duty Bearer (1)

• The delivery of services is especially

important for women because their
primary gender roles as mothers,
housekeepers and caregivers are more
dependent on basic services such as health
care, water supply, sanitation and
education for children than are men’s
roles.
Gender Issues:
Manifestations of inequality in gender
relations or discriminations against women in
a given society or community.
• Gender stereotyping
• Women’s multiple burden
• Marginalization of women
• Women’s subordination
• Violence against women
 Gender stereotyping

The inappropriate attribution of

characteristics, roles and traits to members of
a social group because of their sex.
Gender Representation in Filipino
Storybooks for Children

• Sixty award winning and non-award

winning books published between 2006 to
2017 were analyzed. Overall, the results
reveal that the male characters continue to
be assigned more active roles in the
stories; however, they can also be assigned
to roles that were traditionally given to
female characters.
Gender Representation and Stereotypes
in the K-12 English Learner's Materials

• Female characters were attached with

negative traits (e.g. quiet, shy, and weak).
Positive behaviors, on the other hand,
were given to male characters (e.g. strong,
independent, and high-and-mighty).  
Human rights
A gender stereotype is harmful when it
limits women’s and men’s capacity to
develop their personal abilities, pursue their
professional careers and make choices about
their lives (United Nations).
Women’s
Multiple
burdens

Women are expected to carry out multiple

roles: most domestic chores, paid labor,
volunteer community activities…
Marginalization of Women

Male workers get

more training, enjoy
more fringe benefits,
Women’s contributions to the and are promoted
economy tend to be undervalued or more frequently.
remain invisible or accurate
because economic statements
fail to take women’s labor into
account.
 Women’s Subordination =
women’s position in society is inferior to that of
the men.

• Unequal rights to property,

credit, marital rights.
• Women are generally expected
to submit to the decisions and
wishes of husband or father.
• Women workers are more
numerous at low-paying jobs;
• Women are portrayed by
media as objects and
commodities for men’s
pleasure.
 Violence
against women

VAWC includes any act or a series of acts

committed by any person against a woman or
against her child which may result in physical,
sexual, psychological harm or suffering and
economic abuse.
SOURCE:
http://pcw.gov.ph/statistics/201405/statistics-
violence-against-filipino-women
A woman who benefits from her husband's resources may
have a harder time deciding to leave, even if she wants to. 
Studies show that wives who feel below average satisfaction
in their marriage are more likely to leave if they are
employed and that women were less likely to leave their
breadwinner husbands than women who were the
breadwinners themselves. For a woman who is financially
reliant on her husband, the alternative to staying may, she
imagines, be worse. For a host of reasons, men are less likely
to think this way.
SOURCE:
http://socialprotection-humanrights.org/framework/principles/gender-perspective/
 Domestic Violence: Effect on
mothering and fathering
 Domestic violence directed at the child’s mother is a direct and
indirect attack on the mother-child relationship, effectively disabling
the mother (Humphreys et al., 2006; Radford and Hester, 2006).

 The more severe the violence towards the child’s mother, the higher
the risk of domestic violence offender physically abusing the child
(Hartley, 2004; O’Keefe, 1995).

 When women are traumatized by their own abuse, suffering from

depression and post-traumatic stress, they may be less available to
their children and attachment relationships may be compromised,
particularly with infants and toddlers (Levendosky et al., 2003;
Osofsky, 2003).
 Co-occurrence of Abuse

 Children’s experiences of living with domestic violence are

compounded by the increased vulnerability to many forms of abuse
which heighten the concerns about the risks for children living with
domestic violence.

 It is not only men who are more physically abusive of the children, but
the more severely victimized mother may be more prone to physically
abusing children as well (Hartley 2004; Kelleher et al., 2008).

 Shaming women (e.g., with heavy handed warnings about the effects
of domestic violence on children) is likely to exacerbate the self-blame
that has been encouraged by the perpetrator and inhibit further help-
seeking.
 Domestic Violence:
Severe impact on children’s health and well-being

 Poly-victimization shows a linear relationship between the number of

childhood adversities (domestic violence, peer bullying, property crime,
child physical and sexual abuse) and the level of adverse outcomes for
children (Finkelhor et al., 2009b:404)

 Babies living with domestic abuse are subject to high levels of ill health,
poor sleeping habits and excessive screaming (Jaffe et al., 1990) and
disrupted attachment patterns (Quinlivan and Evans, 2005).

 Children of pre-school age tend to be the group who show the most
behavioral disturbance (McFarlane et al., 2003), older children and
young people are more likely to show the effects of disruption in their
school and social environments, particularly if they are the ones who are
constantly ‘on the move’ (Mullender et al., 2002).
Commodification of women

 There is a constant abuse of a woman’s appeal

and attractiveness to sell all kind of products. Its
detrimental effects are so adverse that they are
capable of completely misrepresenting human
understanding of femininity and gender-
roles misrepresentation and how it reinforces
sexism in the society.

SOURCE: https://www.omicsonline.org
5 Ways how Stereotyping in the Judiciary
Undermines Justice for Women

1.It compromises judges’ impartiality.

2.It influences their understanding of criminal offenses and their
perception on whether violence has occurred (e.g. rape of sex
workers, married women by their husbands, or domestic violence
in same-sex relationships).
3.It affects judges’ views about witness credibility or legal capacity
i.e., when victims accordingly do not behave in a stereotypical
manner.
4.It can also stop judges from holding perpetrators accountable or
even cause them to blame the victim.
5.It can impede access to legal rights and protection for victims of
violence.
SOURCE:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/GenderStereotyping.aspx
Case in point

• R.P.B. v. Philippines case presented to CEDAW

under the individual complaint procedure

• The rapist of a deaf and mute 17-year old girl

was acquitted by the court because the judge
expected the victim to fight her aggressor in
order to protect her purity.
Gender Statistics
https://psa.gov.ph/tags/gender-statistics
 Core message

Gender role stereotyping and the

consequent subordination of women to
men is a deterrent to development.
“Start with the Boys”
A video clip
A Call to the Duty Bearer (2)

Gender is an issue of development

effectiveness, not just a matter of political
correctness or kindness to women. Evidence
demonstrates that when women and men are
relatively equal, economies tend to grow
faster, the poor move more quickly out of
poverty, and the well-being of men, women
and children is enhanced.
World Bank (2001)
Sex stereotypes hampers quality

In many cases, the unconscious or implied

principle in curricula, materials and methods is
to portray men as breadwinners and women as
household servants. The significant contribution
that women make to the economy and to the
wellbeing of their families is all too often
ignored (Michel, 1985).
Teacher’s attitudes

• Their interpretation of the contents of learning

materials, their attention to and interaction with
learners, the way they assign duties and
homework are all determined by the broad
patriarchal vision of the universe that keeps intact
the hierarchy of the sexes (Wamahiu, 1997).
• In a UNESCO Seminar in Bangkok, Korean teachers
believe that boys are naturally superior to girls in
math and science (Niger Country Report, 1996).
Positive role models

• The presentation of role models needs to be

done in a balanced way.
• The message of activities and materials that
use role models must be, that women and
men are equally capable of accomplishments
far beyond the thresholds imposed by
traditional stereoypes.
Key elements of gender-sensitive learning
materials

1. Realistic portrayal of the life/environment of women

and men, including recognition of the uneven share
of responsibilities in the home;
2. The importance of and emphasis on practical
methods for enhancing women’s economic
productivity on par with men;
3. The promotion of women’s status in society;
4. The focus on fairer sharing of domestic work among
family members regardless of their sex (Aksornkool,
2001).
Androcentism

• Male-dominated and culturally specific

theorizing and knowledge have generally
resulted in the exclusion of women and other
groups for the process of formal theorizing and
knowledge-building. When applied in research,
policy and action, such theories and knowledge
not only ignore women’s contributions in all
spheres of activity but also exclude consideration
of issues particularly relevant to women.
 Gender Sensitivity

 The act of being aware of the ways people

think about gender, so that individuals rely less

on assumptions about traditional and outdated

views on the roles of men and women.

 Gender Responsive

 Taking action to correct gender bias

and discrimination to ensure gender

equality and equity.

Forum for African Women Educationalists – Gender Pedagogy

 How can you say that one is
gender sensitive?
You are gender sensitive if/ when:
 You respect every person/ individual regardless
of age, ability,(physical or mental),
belief/religion, educational attainment, race,
ethnic group, status in society, marital status,
region of origin, color, sexual orientation and
gender identity.
 You recognize that there is inequality between men and
women that can be passed on from one generation to
the next.

 You recognize that this inequality in the home, in the

community and institutions should be changed.

 You work towards the transformation of such inequality

in the home, in the community and institutions.
We want you!
References:
1. Gender sensitivity, A Training Manual for sensitizing education managers, curriculum and material
developers and media professionals to gender concerns (2004). UNESCO
2. Mante-Estacio, M. J., Dumalay, F. K., & Rentillo, P. (2018). Gender representation in Filipino storybooks for
children. Indonesian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 8(1), 208-216.
https://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJAL/article/view/11460
3. Manalo, A. S. D. (2018). Gender Representation and Stereotypes in the K-12 English Learner’s
Materials. International Journal of Scientific Research and Management, 6(08), EL-2018. https://
doi.org/10.18535/ijsrm/v6i8.el02
4. A Gender Sensitivity Manual, National Commission for the Promotion of Equality, Gattard House, National
Road Blata l-Bajda HMR 9010, Malta
5. A User’s Guide to Measuring Gender-Sensitive Basic Service Delivery (2009), United Nations Development
Fund for Women Manual
6. Gender Analysis: Tools and Praxis , Resources from Webinar No. 03 by Gichelle A. Cruz and Marriane
Kristine Delgado (Philippine Commission on Women)
Thank you!