Gender and Development

(made easy)
 OBJECTIVES
OBJECTIVES

1. To attain basic understanding

of gender and how it affects
development.

2. To generate appreciation of GAD

concepts and principles as tools
for development planning.
 COVERAGE
COVERAGE

I. WHAT is DEVELOPMENT?
II. WHAT is GENDER?
III. WHAT are GENDER ISSUES?
IV. WHAT is GAD?
 I. WHAT’S
DEVELOPMENT?
Development: What’s
Development: What’s the
the bottomline?
bottomline?

• Development is about attaining a full

and satisfying life for all
• Attaining a full and satisfying life for
all is a shared responsibility
- of everyone- regardless of age, sex, religion,
ethnicity or class
- of the government as duly mandated authority
- of all individuals and entities who benefit from
development or are affected by the lack of it
What underlies the performance
of this responsibility?
For individuals the performance of
this responsibility requires:

a) the capacity to do; and

b) the capacity to be
 The capacity to do means -
ability or power

• to do productive and satisfying work

• to have control over one’s income

and benefit from it
• to enjoy nature and the natural
environment
 • to procreate and rear children

• to care for others

• to travel in search for

opportunities
 The capacity to be means-
a right and opportunity

• to be knowledgeable and skillful

• to be well-nourished

• to be confident of own abilities

• to be comfortable with achievements,

independence and power
For governments, the responsibility
to promote the attainment of a
better life for all means -

a) helping people develop their

abilities and individual strengths

b) protecting people’s rights and

creating opportunities for the
development of people’s abilities
and individual strengths
II. WHAT’S GENDER?
Gender is very much related to sex
and many people are often confused
about the distinction between sex
and gender.
A good starting point is, therefore,
to conceptually differentiate SEX
and GENDER
SEX: a natural distinguishing variable

It is concerned with differentiating

people based on biological attributes,
such as:
• physical - body contour, features, genitals,
reproductive organs
• genetic - chromosomes, hormones
• label - female or male; man or woman
SEX is universal, fixed, and is a valid
distinguishing variable.
GENDER: a cultural, contrived
distinguishing variable

It is concerned with differentiating

people based on perceptions, roles,
and social expectations
 ItIt is
is learned
learned oror acquired,
acquired, and
and
changes from
changes from country
country to
to country
country
or through
or through time
time

ItIt is
is concerned
concerned about
about feminity
feminity
or masculinity
or masculinity
Problems begin when their confusion
find its way into decisions affecting:

• resource allocation
• assignment of roles and responsibilities
• transactional processes
• problem analysis
 Feminine
Feminine Masculine
Masculine

Weak, emotional, Strong, rational,

perception
perception secondary, can’t primary, can’t
think feel

No hard work, Hard work,

roles
roles no leadership, not leader, boss,
a boss, no care-giving
no decision-making

Stay at home, just Don’t make

obey, don’t assert, women do hard
expectations
expectations don’t participate work, always
in deciding be smart, get
the best, don’t
cry
Globally, women and men are boxed
into situations ---- which constrain
their

•• capacity
capacity to
to do
do and
and to
to be
be

And hinder their potential to attain

a full and satisfying life
Productive-Reproductive Divide

Productive Reproductive
• work • child birth/rearing
• home management
• politics • family care
• paid • unpaid
• visible • invisible
• valued • not valued
III. WHAT’S GENDER
ISSUES?
 Gender issues pertain to beliefs,
ideas, attitudes, behavior, systems
and other factors that block peoples’
capacity to do and to be
Gender issues affect everybody,
men or women, rich or poor,
young or old, etc. in all spheres
of life.

THEY
THEY AFFECT
AFFECT
MEN
MEN
GENDER
GENDER BIASES
BIASES AGAINST
AGAINST MEN
MEN

• Inherently aggressive and violent

• Don’t feel pain or incapable of

experiencing human emotions
• Inherently expressive in their
sexuality
• Don’t need closeness, reassurance,
and attention
 PERSONAL
PERSONAL

WOMEN’S
WOMEN’S GENDER
GENDER ISSUES
ISSUES
Gender issues are deterrents
to development. Thus, it is
important to address them in
development planning.
IV. WHAT’S GENDER
AND
DEVELOPMENT?
 Then, what
Then, what is
is GAD?
GAD?

1. GAD is about recognizing that

gender biases impede development
because:

• they prevent people from attaining

their full potentials (which will enable
them to become effective contribu-
tors to development)
• they exacerbate social inequity and
inequality which are the very end
goals of the MTPDP

• they distort understanding of

social realities and limit the impacts
of development inputs
 GAD is about removing explicit,
implicit, actual and potential
gender biases

• in the organizations; and

• PPAs

Of those who are concerned with

development
GAD is about being faithful to the
principle that

Fairness and equity demands that

everyone in society, whether male of
female, has the right to the same
opportunities to achieve a full and
satisfying life.
But
B ut why
why focus
focus more
more
on women?
on women?
 “Eliminating gender inequalities leads to
significant productivity gains, provides large
societal benefits and enhances poverty
reduction scheme”

-World Bank
 First, women are half of the
country’s population. As such, they

• are half of the producers of economic

goods and services

but
but
• they are in the invisible and
marginalized sector or the so-called
non-money economy
- bearing and raising children
- domestic and unpaid economic
labor
- subsistence agriculture
Second, they are already in the
money economy
• informal sector

• wage employment
• trading
but, in being so, they experience a
lot of hardships

• multiple roles
• violence and sexual harassment
• lack of protection

• exploitation
• poor skills

• discrimination
Third, women have unique stakes,
roles and insights to share in order to
attain development objectives,
such as in:
• sustaining the environment
• managing population growth
• imparting values that have
profound impacts on human
progress and economic
development
 And most importantly, because
resources and opportunities for
attaining a full and satisfying life are
NOT ALWAYS THE SAME for women
and men. These are determined by:

SEX - child bearing

GENDER - beliefs about what women
CAN’T DO OR SHOULD DO
 Why us?
Why us?

Everyone who believes in the vision of

attaining a full and satisfying life for all
has an obligation to help pursue GAD

We are custodians of peoples’ trust and

resources. We have the power,
knowledge, skills and resources to make
development work for everybody
We are mandated by international
treaties/commitments, laws and policies

Gender issues affect all of us. But

instead of solving them, we all
contribute to their perpetuation.
 Where do
Where do we
we go
go from
from here?
here?

A)
A) Personal
Personal

• check personal gender biases

• look at everyone and deal with
them as human,
human not as women/men,
male/female, girls/boys
• critique books of young children

• examine assignment of roles

at home and correct gendered
patterns
B)
B) Professional
Professional

• disaggregate data by sex

• attain balance in various positions
(esp. top and decision-making
positions)
• stop gender discrimination in
recruitment, hiring, training,
promotion
• make spaces for disadvantaged men
and women

• treat each one as equals; demolish

hierarchical social transactions
• adopt a GAD plan of action (review
content of training programs; develop
tools, conduct GRP, participate
in inter-agency activities on
GAD, etc.)