Concept & Context of Gender

Context and concept: Gender & Sex, Socialization Dr. Sultan Muhammad Razzak Consultant, GNSP UNIT Gender, NGO and Stakeholders Participation Unit (GNSP) Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare 14/2 Topkhana Road (5th level), Dhaka 1000.

Meaning of Context Background Circumstance Situation Framework Milieu Perspective Environment

The word gender comes from the Middle English gendre The use of gender to refer to masculinity and femininity as types is attested throughout the history of Modern English (from about the 14th century).

F= genre Sp= genero Pg= genero It= genere L= gener G=genus Meanings:Kind, Sort, Class, Type and breed *Genus as opposed to species. In other languages

According to Aristotle, the Greek philosopher Protagoras used the terms "masculine", "feminine", and "neuter" to classify nouns, introducing the concept of grammatical gender.

Use of masculine and feminine At Linguistics Connectors, pipe fittings, and fasteners Music

The historical meaning of gender has three common applications in contemporary English. Most commonly it is applied to the general differences between men and women, without any assumptions regarding biology or sociology. Sometimes the usage is technical or assumes a particular human nature Finally the same word, gender , is also commonly applied to the independent concept of distinctive word categories in certain languages.

Concept Idea Notion Perception Thought Impression Theory Model

Gender Bias Initially mainstream development efforts tended to be gender blind Often women entered projects ‘passively rather than actively, as recipients rather than contributors, clients rather than agents, reproductive rather than productive (Kabeer, 1997:6) Since the UN Decade for Women began in 1975, development practice has been profoundly challenged and significant progress has been made with gender concept.

Gender refers to the differences between men and women. Encyclopædia Britannica notes that gender identity is "an individual's self-conception as being male or female, as distinguished from actual biological sex. Gender Refers to the social differences & relations between men And women. A person’s gender is learned through socialization and is heavily influenced by the culture of the society concerned. Gender: -is socially constructed and is therefore learned and can Be changed; -Differs and varies within and across cultures over time; -results in different roles, responsibilities, opportunities, needs & constraints for women, men, boys & girls

Sex Sex Refers to the biological differences & social relations The sex of a person is -Biologically defined; -Determined by birth; -Universal

Chronology of the gender concept and development

Women in Development (WID) The concept of WID was introduced in the 1970s The theoretical starting point of WID was to challenge the invisibility of Women in the development process It was argued that development projects had failed due to little consideration of women’s productive roles

Women in Development (WID) Strategy: Women’s practical needs were put in focus Specific women’s projects were established Women’s divisions were set up within ministries, NGOs and other organisations

Women in Development (WID) The challenges for WID: Reinforcing gender stereotypical behavior This strategy did little to change fundamental stereotypical behavior Focussing on women in isolation Women were considered as a homogeneous group - difference was not taken into account

Gender and Development (GAD) The theoretical starting point: Ensuring that women and men were integrated into the developing process Re-assessing different groups making up households, communities and consumers Thus, assessing unequal power relations between women and men at the level of the household, which affect and inform social relations beyond it

Gender and Development (GAD) The Strategy of GAD: Deconstructing the various discourses surrounding gender stereotypes Focussing on gender relations outside of formal structures A different focus on data collected

Gender and Development (GAD) The challenge of GAD: Not easy to ‘measure’ Gender being a ‘neutral’ term Adding on gender is not enough The challenge of going beyond ‘integration’ and ‘efficiency’

Gender Mainstreaming (GM) Gender mainstreaming was adopted as a new global strategy to promote gender equality and became part of the Platform for action outlined in Beijing in 1995 at the UN Conference on Women Gender mainstreaming is an alternative strategy to WID and GAD as it’s aimed at institutionalising gender sensitivity and equality The term has increasingly become part of the international language

Gender Mainstreaming (GM) The Objective of Gender Mainstreaming: The objective for governments and actors was to promote ‘an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a gender perspective in all policies and programmes. Thus, before decisions are taken, an analysis is made of the efforts on women and men respectively (UN, 1995: 116)

Gender Mainstreaming (GM) The strategy: To ensure that a gender perspective is part of policies and programmes at the planning stage as opposed to ‘adding’ it on. To institutionalize gender sensitivity within the broader management and decision making structures of any organisation Implicit in this strategy is the need for empowerment and participation of both genders

Gender Mainstreaming (GM) The challenge of gender mainstreaming is that it is a fairly new concept/strategy and there has been ‘confusion’ to how to apply it in practical terms. Different actors have different interpretations of gender Hard to ‘measure’ progress with regard to gender equality/equity Institutionalising ‘gender equality’ indicates the challenge of existing organisational structures

Socialization The process through which the individual learns and accepts roles is called socialization. Socialization works by encouraging wanted and discouraging unwanted behavior. These sanctions by agencies of socialization such as the family, schools, and the communication medium make it clear to the child what behavioral norm the child is expected to follow. The examples of the child's parents, siblings and teachers are typically followed. Mostly, accepted behavior is not produced by outright reforming coercion from an accepted social system. In some other cases, various forms of coercion have been used to acquire a desired response or function.

Conclusion Progress has been made since the Women’s decade started in 1975 Gender Equality is now firmly on the agenda world-wide Gender mainstreaming has been adopted as an official policy by various governments, NGOs and inter-governmental organizations This has been a long process and yet there is still a lot of room for improvement

Concept & Context of Gender

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