Sex and Gender

What is gender ?
What is sex?

Gender is very much related to sex and

many people are often confused about the
distinction between sex and gender
Gender
Refers to roles, attitudes and values assigned by
culture and society to women and men
Social, cultural and psychological
connotations
G
E What makes one feminine or
masculine
N
D Determined by society, defined
by culture
E
R Changes across time
Changes across places and
cultures, thus can be changed
What is Gender all about?

Gender – is not synonymous with women.

•Refers to the social, economic, and cultural roles and
relations between women and men.
•Takes into account the different responsibilities of
women and men in a given culture or location
International Bases for Gender and Reproductive Health Advocacy

U.N. Declaration of Human Rights

•All Human beings are entitled to human rights without

distinction
•All persons posses an inherent dignity and that regardless of
race, class, ethnicity, religion, sex and sexuality, they are equally
entitled to enjoy their rights.
•All human rights and fundamental freedoms are interrelated and
interdependent
•Equal attention and consideration should be given to their
implementation, promotion and protection.
•Human beings cannot be deprived of them under any
circumstance or condition.
Responsibilities of the Philippine
State
 Abide by the existing
human rights conventions
since these are legally
binding agreements
between states or
countries that provide
standards of conduct for
government to fulfill
 Create monitoring
mechanisms for state
compliance and redress of
individual grievances
The Ideology of Gender
• Determines:
• What is expected of us
• What is allowed of us
• What is valued in us
Gender Ideology
• widely disseminated beliefs, values and attributes
regarding gender enforced through a complex web
of social institutions such as family, education,
religion, mass media, economy and polity
• Gender roles – what women and men can do

• Gender relations – how women and men relate to

each other

• Gender identity – how women and men perceive

themselves
 Gender Gap – the gap between women and men in
terms of how they benefit from education, employment,
and other activities in society
• Gender Discrimination
refers to any distinction,
exclusion or restriction
made on the basis of socially
constructed gender roles
and norms which prevents a
person from enjoying full
human rights
Gender Inequality as social construction
• Summarize their responses by showing the
following slide/flipchart

Women Men
Private Sphere Public Sphere
Domestic & Technical & decision-
Nurturing functions making functions

Reproductive role Productive role

• Productive Roles – work done by both men and
women in return for payment in cash or in kind

• Reproductive roles – the child-bearing and

rearing responsibilities and domestic tasks
required to guarantee the maintenance and
well-being of household members
Gender role definitions
Gender Norms

Gender Stereotypes

Gender Bias

Gender Inequality

Gender Discrimination
Gender
FEMININE MASCULINE
Submissive Dominant
Gentle Aggressive
Emotional Not Emotional

Talkative Quiet
 Sex
•Refers to that natural distinguishing variable based on
biological characteristics of being a woman or man
•Refers to physical attributes pertaining to a person’s
body contours, features, genitals, hormones, genes,
chromosomes and reproductive organs
Biological and physiological determined
S What makes one male or female
E Determined by chromosomes
X Defined by hormones
Difference in sex organs: men with penis,
women with vagina
Constant across time
Constant across different societies and
cultures
DETERMINANTS OF SEX

FEMALE MALE

GENITALIA vagina, clitoris penis, scrotum

INTERNAL
REPRODUCTIVE uterus, ovaries testes
ORGANS

CHROMOSOMES XX XY

HORMONES estrogen, testosterone

progesterone
 SEX GENDER

What makes one What is masculine or

male or female feminine

Biologically- Socially-
determined determined;
culturally-defined

Refers to physical Refers to

characteristics learned
behavior
 SEX GENDER

Constant across time Changes over time

Constant/same across May vary in different

different societies and societies and cultures
cultures

Gender differences are created, produced, reproduced

& maintained by social institutions

Gender is multi-dimensional, influencing

economic, political & social interactions and
needs
• Society tends to assign roles, attitudes, behaviours, characteristics
and expectations to individuals based on their biological
differences.
• This tendency results in unequal relations between female and
male where male are often viewed as the superior sex mainly
because of their stronger physical characteristics
• It is imperative that we have a thorough understanding
• of the roles of both women and men
• the societal structures and processes that reinforce unequal gender
relations and relegate women’s contributions to society to a largely
invincible level
• and the changes that are taking place
• The first step in understanding is gender
awareness.
• Gender awareness is a way of seeing, a perspective-
insights which form our understanding of people and
society.
• It means looking at things with new eyes, which are
constantly open to learning more