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GENDER ISSUES
Gender Concepts Dictionary
(emerging from the Caribbean Community Special Meeting of Ministers Responsible for the Integration of Women in Development,
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, 24 November 1996 -
some definitions have been adapted further )
Gender | The term gender has
transcended its earlier "grammar-based" usage of classifying nouns as male,
female and neuter. It is not used to describe the biological sexual characteristics by
which we identify females and males but to encompass the socially defined roles, attitudes
and values which communities and societies ascribe as appropriate for one sex or the
other. In this specific sense, it was first used as a phrase, "the social relations of gender", for which gender has become a kind of shorthand. The social relations of gender seeks to make apparent and explain the asymmetry which appears in male/female relations in terms of power sharing, decision-making, the division of labour, and return on labour both within the household and in the society at large. The phrase directs our attention to all the attributes acquired in the process of socialization : our self and group definitions, our sense of appropriate roles, values and behaviours and, above all, expected and acceptable interactions in relationships between men and women.
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Gender Relations | These are
the socially constituted relations between men and women which are shaped by norms and
values held by members of a given society. Central to these relations and around these
notions are acceptable socially determined behaviours for each of the genders. They are
contextually specific and often change in response to altering economic, social or
political circumstances.
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Gender Roles | These are roles which are
classified by sex, where this classification is social, and not biological. For example,
if child-rearing is classified as a female role, it is a female gender role, not a female
sex role since child-rearing can be done by men or women.
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Sex Roles | These are therefore
contrasted with gender roles, since sex roles refer to an occupation or biological
function for which a necessary qualification is to belong to one particular sex category.
For example, pregnancy is a female sex role because only members of the female sex may
bear children.
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Gender Role Stereotyping | This is the constant
portrayal, such as in the media or in books, of women and men occupying social roles
according to the traditional gender division of labour in a particular society. Such
gender role stereotyping works to support and reinforce the traditional gender
division of labour by portraying it as "normal" and "natural". It may
not, however, reflect current societal realities.
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Gender Division of Labour | This refers to an overall
societal pattern where women are allotted one set of gender roles, and men allotted
another set. Unequal gender division of labour refers to a gender division of labour where
there is an unequal gender division of reward. Discrimination against women in this sense
means that women get most of the burden of labour, and most of the unpaid labour, but men
collect most of the income and rewards resulting from labour. In many countries, the most
obvious pattern in the gender division of labour is that women are mostly confined to
unpaid domestic work, unpaid food production and low paying/low status jobs, whereas men
dominate commercial agricultural production, public decision-making and higher status
jobs.
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Gender Equality | This means that there is
no discrimination on grounds of a person's sex in the allocation of resources or benefits,
or in the access to services. Gender equality may be measured in terms of whether there is
equality of opportunity, or equality of results. (Note : The Convention for the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, defines justice for women in
terms of gender equality).
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Gender Equity | An approach using gender
equity is directed towards ensuring that development policies and interventions leave
women no worse off economically or in terms of social rights and responsibilities than
before the intervention. This approach tries to make equity* visible by using indicators
which reveal the human cost of many activities : provision of fuel, water etc. This approach tries to ensure that women have a fair share of the benefits, as well as the responsibilities of the society, equal treatment before the law, equal access to social provisions; education; equal pay for work of the same value. *Equity : fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits and responsibilities, while recognizing the specific conditions and characteristics of each individual or group. It involves the recognition of diversity without discrimination. Equity also means "having a stake in" or "having a share of". It is, therefore, an important component of equality. Technically, equality before the law often does exist without those deemed to be "equal" really "having a stake in".
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Structural Gender Inequality | Exists where
a system of gender discrimination is practised by public or social institutions.
Structural gender inequality is more entrenched if it is maintained by administrative
rules and laws, rather than by only custom and tradition.
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Gender Discrimination | Means to give differential
treatment to individuals on the grounds of their gender. In many societies, this involves
systematic and structural discrimination against women in the distribution of income,
access to resources, and participation in decision making.
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Gender Sensitivity | This is the ability to
recognize gender issues, and especially the ability to recognize women's different
perceptions and interests arising from their different social location and different
gender roles. To be gender sensitive means to be open to, aware of, and responsive to
those issues which have to do with the social relations between women and men, within
specific societies. Gender sensitivity is the initial phase of gender awareness, which is more analytical, critical and "questioning" of gender disparities.
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Gender Awareness | This is the ability to
identify problems arising from gender inequality and discrimination, even if these are not
very evident on the surface, or are "hidden" - i.e. are not a part of the
commonly accepted explanation of what and where the problem lies.
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Gender Issues | Arise where an instance of
gender inequality is recognized as undesirable, or unjust. Three aspects of gender issues
are gender gaps, gender-based discrimination and women's subordination. Some current examples of gender issues are : sexual harassment, gender-based (especially family and domestic) violence, and counting of unremunerated work.
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Gender Analysis | Means a
close examination of a problem or situation in order to identify the gender issues, that
is, it helps bring into focus the roles, resources, responsibilities and needs of women
and men within the system under analysis. It refers to a systematic way of looking at the
different impacts of development on women and men. Gender analysis of a development
program involves identifying the gender issues within the problem which is being addressed
and in the obstacles to progress, so that these issues can be addressed in all aspects of
the program - in project objectives, in the choice of interventions and in the methods of
program implementation and evaluation. As development programmes have actively sought to reach women, we have learned that gender has a lot to do with what work we do, how much time we have to do it, and how much money we have to do it with. Gender analysis therefore requires separating data by sex, and understanding how labour is divided and valued. Gender analysis must be done at all stages of the development process; one must always ask how a particular activity, decision or plan will affect men differently from women.
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Women in Development (WID) | This is an approach which
originated in the early 1970s and developed throughout the United Nations Decade for Women
(1975-1985). WID recognizes that women are active if often unacknowledged participants in
the development process, providing a critical contribution to economic growth. This
approach argues that women, as an untapped resource, must be integrated into the
development process. Initiatives emerging from this approach have tended to target women
specifically to increase their access to basic needs and social services, reduce their
work burdens, and enhance their productive capacity and economic independence.
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Gender and
Development (GAD) |
Emerged out of a growing
recognition of the limitations of focusing on women in isolation, and highlights the
importance of considering how the social relations between the genders, within the broader
socio-economic and political context in which they live, shapes both women's and men's
ability to participate in and benefit from the development process. GAD recognises that
both men and women are key actors in the development process and therefore should have
access to corresponding decisions, resources and benefits. This approach, therefore, calls
for overall development strategies which respond to the specific needs of men and women,
and support actions which ensure their access to and control over the resources and
benefits of development.
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Development | Is used here
to mean both the improved material well-being (welfare) of people and the process by which
this improved well-being is achieved. The concept of development also includes an element
of equality - that material benefits from the development process should be fairly
distributed, especially to benefit those most in need - the disadvantaged and the most
vulnerable. Therefore, the special interest in women's development arises because women
are a majority amongst the most disadvantaged.
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Empowerment | Is an important element of
development, being the process by which people take control an action in order to overcome
the obstacles of structural inequality which have previously put them in a disadvantaged
position. Empowerment is an essential process for women's advancement. it is the process
by which women mobilize to understand, identify and overcome gender discrimination, so as
to achieve equality of welfare, and equal access to resources.
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Equality of Opportunity | Means that everybody has
an equal chance, especially for equal access. In other words, equality of opportunity
means that there is no structural discrimination standing in the way of any individual or
social group. Equality of opportunity for women would mean ending all gender
discrimination.
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Mainstreaming | Used in connection with
women's development, this entails addressing gender issues in all development projects and
programmes, irrespective of sector or type of project. Mainstreaming is therefore the very
opposite of a strategy of segregating gender issues into separate "women's
projects". The term "mainstreaming" is currently used in two rather different ways, depending on the user's perspective. For those who interpret women's development as being merely concerned with improving women's access to resources and productivity, the strategy of mainstreaming may be interpreted by adding gender objectives to existing programmes. This involves some adaptation, but not transformation of the development process. By contrast, a stronger sense of the term mainstreaming is used by those who see women's development as being essentially concerned with women's participation and empowerment, to address issues of gender inequality. From this perspective, the mainstreaming of gender issues entails the transformation of the development process.
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Patriarchy | Is the male domination of
ownership and control, at all levels in society, which maintains and operates in the
system of gender discrimination. This system of control is justified in terms of
patriarchal ideology - a system of ideas based on a belief in male superiority, and
sometimes the claim that the gender division of labour is based on biology or even based
on scripture.
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Gender Planning | Means taking account of
gender issues in the planning process. In development planning, it means that gender
issues are recognized in the identification of the problem and addressed in development
objectives. Essentially, this means catering for, and involving women and men at levels of development : thinking, planning and implementation.
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Gender Training | Means providing people
with formal learning experiences in order to increase their gender awareness. The overall
purpose of training is to provide the knowledge and skills necessary to recognize and
address gender issues in the programming process. At the centre of this learning process
is conscientization, involving the ability to recognize the underlying issues of
gender inequality which form a pervasive obstacle to program/project progress.
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Gender Disaggregated Data | This is information collected - via questionnaires, observation or other techniques - that reveals the different roles and responsibilities of men and women. Having data disaggregated by gender is extremely important to being able to design is extremely to be to design gender-sensitive projects. |
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