GENDER & US

Dr. Saman Y. Khan

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Definitions
 Sex: biological concept
 Gender:
– It is widely held that while one's sex is determined by
anatomy, the concepts of "gender"--the traits that
constitute masculinity and femininity--are largely, if not
entirely, cultural constructs, effected by the omnipresent
patriarchal biases of our civilization.
– The masculine in this fashion has come to be identified
as active, dominating, adventurous, rational, creative; the
feminine, by systematic opposition to such traits, has
come to be identified as passive, acquiescent, timid,
emotional, and conventional
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Or GENDER
– is s social concept and it means the socially and
culturally prescribed roles that men and women
are expected to follow

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According to
Gerda Lerner in The Creation of Patriarchy (p.238),
gender is the

"costume, a mask, a straitjacket in which men

and women dance their unequal dance"

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Introduction
 Gender, the sex-role identity used by humans
to emphasize the distinctions between males
and females
 The words gender and sex are often used
interchangeably, but sex relates specifically
to the biological, physical characteristics
which make a person male or female at birth,
whereas gender refers to the behaviour
associated with members of that sex

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Role recognition
 By the age of three, children tend to be aware of
their gender; they are encouraged to prefer the
games, clothing, modes of speech, and other
aspects of culture usually assigned to their sex
 Even as babies, boys and girls are treated
differently from one another: boys are seldom
dressed in pink as it is considered to be a
"feminine" color
 So even at an age at which male and female
behaviour is indistinguishable it is seen as
important that the child's sex is not mistaken
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Typical roles
 Stereotypical sex-associated behaviour such as
male aggression and female passivity is derived at
least partly from roles which are taught during
childhood;
 males are told "boys don't cry" and are given guns
and cars as toys; girls are given dolls and
playhouses so they can mimic the traditional
female home-making role

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Socialization & Sexism
– Because gender roles vary from culture to
culture, it appears that many of the
behavioral differences between males and
females are caused by socialization
– Sexism is a set of attitudes and behaviors
towards people that judge or belittle them
on the basis of their gender, or
– that perpetuate stereotypical assumptions
about gender roles

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Traditional rights
 Traditionally, rights to property and
nationality pass through the male line,
with the result that women's legal status
is generally inferior to that of men:
 until the 20th century, women had no
voting rights, limited rights to property,
and were, in most respects, subject
entirely to their fathers or husbands

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Inequality resulting from gender
 Women have lower status than men, but the
extent of the gap between the sexes varies
across cultures and time
 In 1980, the United Nations summed up the
burden of this inequality: Women, who
comprise half the world's population, do
two thirds of the world's work, earn one
tenth of the world's income and own one
hundredth of the world's property

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Result of the inequality
 Personal Image
 Educational attainment
 Income generation
 Skills accumulation
 Family ties
 Resources
 Crime
 Ottheeerss………….

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Women’s struggle
 Women’s struggle, through out the world, has been
to remove this inequality and bring merit and
reward closer to each other – particularly in
WOMEN’S own lives

 The struggle for equal rights BEGINS here and

feminism is born

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History of feminist movement
 First discernibly arose in Europe in the late 18th
century
 In 1975 the United Nations launched a Decade for
Women programme, and major conferences were
held in 1975, 1980, and 1985, and again in 1995
 The 1995 conference, held in Beijing, China,
centered on human-rights issues relating
specifically to women

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The Feminist movement
 This was struggle by women all over the
world
 To campaign to obtain political, social, and
economic equality between women and men
 Among the equal rights campaigned for are
control of personal property, equality of
opportunity in education and employment,
equal suffrage (that is, the right to vote), and
equality of sexual freedom

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Gains – Women’s suffrage
 Gained is the right of women to share on equal
terms with men the political privileges afforded by
representative government and, more particularly,
to vote in elections and referendums and to hold
public office
 Women who attained national leadership posts in
modern times include prime ministers Golda Meir
(Israel), Indira Gandhi (India), and Benazir Bhutto
(Pakistan) and President Corazon Aquino of the
Philippines (all Asians)

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Gains – 2
 equal legal rights
 expanded access to jobs and other economic
resources
 a voice in government policies
 shared responsibility by men for household
work and child care

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GAINS/3
 Increasingly, girls take on games previously
associated with boys—but the reverse is still less
in evidence
 Similarly, many boys and girls tend to excel only
in the areas of study traditionally attributed to
their sex, and this may partly explain male
dominance in many fields such as science and
engineering

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Therefore
 Although most women throughout the world had
gained many rights according to law, in fact
complete political, economic, and social equality
with men remains to be achieved

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Current Movement’s focus
 The movement falls broadly into three strands:
– exploration of solidarity and consciousness-raising,
which facilitates the assessment of political and social
position;
– campaigning on public issues, such as abortion, equal
pay, childcare, and domestic violence; and
– the academic discipline of women's studies, which
attempts to provide a theoretical analysis of the
movement

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WID VERSUS GAD
 The philosophical debate in the movement
 Its practical push
 Its link to sustainable development
 Link to Millennium Development goals

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Women in Development (WID)
 Fulfilling practical needs and
 Part of the initial women’s movement
 Practical needs are identifiable by:
• Tend to be immediate and short-term
• Are unique to particular women and men
• Involve women and men as beneficiaries rather than
active participants.
• Are easily identifiable by women and men
• Can generally be addresses without changing
traditional gender role

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But argued by WID advocates
that
 The benefits of development had not
reached women;
 In some economic sectors women’s position
was undermined;
 So women MUST be integrated into the
design and implementation of development
programs through legal and administrative
change

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So …
 Although WID improved opportunities for
women but not the power sharing
 So for gender and development to move
further
 And link with sustainable development
 Empowerment is needed

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Strategic needs are
– Are long-term
– Are common to almost all women and men
– Involve women as agents, or enable women to become
agents
– Relate to women’s disadvantaged position in society,
subordination, lack of resources and education,
vulnerability to poverty and violence.
– Are not easily identified by women and men
– Can empower women and transform gender relation

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Empowerment
 Empowerment may be defined as:
– A process through which women and
men in disadvantaged positions increase
their access to knowledge, resources,
decision-making power, and raise their
awareness of participation in their
communities, in order to reach a level of
control over their own environment

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Gender analysis
 In order to insure that both practical needs and
strategic interests are being met for all people in a
community it is important to gather information.
 This information is commonly referred to as a
Gender Analysis
 The information collected should come from the
first person
 Information gathered second or third hand
becomes less and less valuable

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3 steps
 Who does what
 Who has access to resources
 Who has control over the resources
 If practical needs and strategic interests are not
being met one can usually determine why not after
answering the above 3 questions

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Or
The
– Activity Profile
– Access and Control Profile
– Influencing Factors Profile

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Emphasis
 In development programmes, the effort is
for bring women out of the women and
children category (social welfare) into that
of productive workers whose contribution is
regained formally
 There is global overwork of women (2/3 rd
of all)
 And global under rewards (10% of income
and 1 % of property)

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Millennium development goals
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and women’s
empowerment
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

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Enough ?
 For women advocates, the MDGs are a set of
minimal goals that are necessary, but not
sufficient, for human development
 They do not represent full vision of gender equity,
equality and women’s empowerment or poverty
eradication and structural transformation
envisaged in UN conferences and human rights
instruments
 Nor do they reflect the broad, universal reach of
these commitments but only the most basic
requirements of the Least Developed Countries

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Nonetheless…
 The time-bound targets offer an avenue of
engagement to women advocates monitoring the
implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action
and other key international policy agreements of
the 1990s

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Accountability
 Advocates for gender equality and women’s
empowerment can play an important role in
holding their governments accountable for
reaching the Millennium Development
Goals. Make gender equality central, not
only to goals 1, 3, and 7 on poverty
eradication, gender equality, and
environmental sustainability, but to all eight
goals

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Black feminism
 Gender related to race
 Men are not the enemy …
 Paid work – site of contradiction rather then
freedom
 Family is not the primary place of oppression
 Black feminist have highlighted the phrase
personal is political

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 In the IMF and World Bank, the Board of Governors is made up of senior economic government officials, such as Ministers of Finance and Central Bank
heads, with each member country represented. The Board of Directors is the chief decision-making body within each of the IMF and World Bank. In
practice, the Board of Directors’ delegated powers make it the primary policy-making body in each organization.

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Change
 Conflict is inevitable whenever a change is being
promoted. Men will invariable feel as though
power is being taken away from them when
women start to be included in the upper levels of
the Women’s Empowerment Framework
 Women may be resistant to change due to the
conflict it will bring. They may be afraid of
violence in the home as a result of the change

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Backlash
 In the 1990s, the women's movement has been
examining the possibility that Western society
is demonstrating a so-called post-feminist
backlash against legal and social gains made
by women. … on how gains previously made
as a result of the feminist movement are now
being eroded.
 This is thought to be exemplified by recent
opposition, especially in the United States, to,
for example, abortion

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Conclusion
 From search engines, some key search words to
use to get more information on this topic are:
*gender and development
*women and health
*sustainable human development
*women in development
*human rights
*United Nations
*OXFAM
*CEDPA
*UNICEF

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 Thank you

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