Training of Gender Focal Points in Gender Mainstreaming: 10 JULY, 2020

Training of Gender Focal
Points in Gender
Mainstreaming
10TH JULY, 2020
Basic Gender Concepts
 What is Gender?
• Gender refers to the social attributes and opportunities associated with being
male and female and the relationships between women and men and girls and
boys.
• gender also refers to:
• Gender refers to the roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given
society at a given time considers appropriate for men and women
• the relations between women and those between men
Gender Cont.
 These attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and are learned
through socialization processes. It includes what boys and men, girls and women in a specific
society are expected to do or behave
 They are context/ time-specific and changeable.
 Gender determines what is expected, allowed and valued in a woman or a man in a given
context.
 In most societies there are differences and inequalities between women and men in
responsibilities assigned, activities undertaken, access to and control over resources, as well as
decision-making opportunities.
 Gender is part of the broader socio-cultural context, as are other important criteria for socio-
cultural analysis including class, race, poverty level, ethnic group, sexual orientation, age, etc.
Gender Cont.
 Gender (or sexual) division of labor

 This is an important concept in basic gender analysis that helps deepen
understanding about social relations as an entry point to sustainable change
through development.
 The division of labour refers to the way each society divides work among men and
women, boys and girls, according to socially-established gender roles or what is
considered suitable and valuable for each sex.
 Anyone planning a community intervention needs to know and understand the
division of labour and allocation of assets on a sex disaggregated basis for every
community affected by development interventions.
Gender Cont.
 Within the division of labor, there are several types of roles:

 Productive roles: Activities carried out by men and women in
order to produce goods and services either for sale, exchange, or
to meet the subsistence needs of the family.
 Reproductive roles: Activities needed to ensure the reproduction
of society’s labor force. This includes house work like cleaning,
cooking, childbearing, rearing, and caring for family members.
These tasks are done mostly by women.
Gender Cont.
 Community managing role: Activities undertaken primarily by women at the

community level, as an extension of their reproductive role, to ensure the provision and
maintenance of scarce resources of collective consumption such as water, health care and
education. This is voluntary unpaid work performed during “free” time.
 Community politics role: Activities undertaken primarily by men at the community
level, often within the framework of national politics. This officially-recognized
leadership role may be paid directly or result in increased power or status.
 Triple role: This refers to the fact that women tend to work longer and more fragmented
days than men as they are usually involved in three different roles: reproductive,
productive and community work.
Sex
Definition:
 The physical and biological characteristics that

distinguish males and females.
 Sex is biologically attributed
 It is what makes one as being either male or female
 It is determined by the spermatozoid of the father at
conception
Differences between Gender and Sex
 Gender  Sex
Refers to roles, responsibilities and relationships that are socially
ascribed to men, women, boys and girls. Refers to biological make up of men, women,
They are determined by:
boys and girls. They are determined by:
 What we are born with
 Physical characteristics
 age,  Physical appearance
 ethnicity,  Reproductive abilities
 culture
 religion,
 caste,
 physical location and
 politico-economic status.
Gender Analysis
 Is the study of policies and programmes in a bid to understand the

different manner in which they affect men and women
 Gender analysis also takes into account how class, race, ethnicity or
other factors interact with gender differences in conditions,
opportunities and sometimes also needs and interest, in respect of
access to and control over resources and access of other
development benefits and decision-making
Gender Bias
 Refers to discrimination, generally against women, ranging from the

exclusion from development programmes to overt discrimination and
systematic violence. Boys who prefer to be in a female dominated
domain – or fathers wanting to take their parental role seriously –
might also feel subjected to gender discrimination.
 In its most generic form, gender bias refers to the grossly unequal
allocation of resources and status – be it food, credit, education, jobs,
information or training.

Gender Blind
 Inability or refusal to perceive that there are gender differences and

needs Policies and programmes have different effects on men and
women because of gender-based differences.

 Refers to the inability that there might be different gender roles and
gender needs, - and interests in different situations
Gender Balance
 Equal or nearly equal male/female participation, access and control

over resources, power
Gender Empowerment
 Provides men and women with the necessary tools and skills in
order to enable them to realize their potential, control their lives,
make choices, and gain equal access to education, information and
remunerated work.
Gender Equality
 Implies the legal and social capacity of women and men to

mobilize and manage domestic, community, national and
international resources, and enjoy benefits on an equal basis.
 It exists when there is no discrimination on the grounds of sex in
the allocation of resources or benefits, In rights or in access to
services, gender equality may be measured in terms of whether
there is equality of opportunity and status, or equality of treatment.
Gender Equity
 Is an approach which aims at ensuring that women and men have a fair and
equal share of society’s benefits and responsibilities,
 Equal treatment before the law, equal access to social provisions (such as
education),
 Equal pay for work of the same value, etc.
 Gender equity, as a goal requires that specific measurements and monitoring
be used to ensure that programmes, policies and projects cater equally for
women and men.

Gender Mainstreaming
 The process of accessing the implication for women and men for any planned
action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in any area and at all levels
 It is a strategy for making women’s and men’s concern’s and experiences an
integral dimension in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of
policies and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that
women and men benefit equally, and inequality is not perpetuated.
 The ultimate goal is to achieve gender equality. It is a call to all governments
and other actors to promote an active and visible policy of mainstreaming a
gender perspective into all policies and programmes, so that before decisions are
taken, an analysis is made of the effects on women and men respectively.
Gender Relations
 Refer to the nature of relations acquired in the process of

socialization between men and women in terms of power sharing,
decision-making, division of labour and returns from labour within
the household and in society at large.
 It generally characterizes inequality favouring men to the
disadvantage of women.
Gender Sensitivity
 Is an approach that analyses and takes into

consideration the factors that structure the division
of labour and power between men and women?
This approach uses information like income and
influence to reveal who benefits and who does not
from development initiatives
Gender Sensitivity
 This is the implicit or explicit perpetuation of attitudes, behaviour

and perceptions within society, so that women and men are
expected to continue to perform particular activities and exhibit
particular characteristics that are considered to be distinctly
“masculine” or “feminine”.
STATEMENTS ABOUT MEN AND
WOMEN
 Women give birth to babies

 Women are passively receptive, men are hostile
 Little girls are gentile, boys are rough
 Amongst Indian agricultural workers, women are paid 40 – 60% of the male wage
 Women can breast-feed babies, men can bottle-feed babies
 Contractors are men
 Boys are better than girls in science
 An Ancient Egypt men stayed at home and did weaving. Women handled family business. Women inherited property and
men did not
 Men’s voices break at puberty, women’s do not
 In one study of 224 cultures, there were 5 in which men did all the cooking, and 36 in which women did all the house
building
THE END
 THANK YOU

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Training of Gender Focal

 Gender (or sexual) division of labor

 Within the division of labor, there are several types of roles:

 Community managing role: Activities undertaken primarily by women at the

 The physical and biological characteristics that

 Is the study of policies and programmes in a bid to understand the

 Refers to discrimination, generally against women, ranging from the

 Inability or refusal to perceive that there are gender differences and

 Equal or nearly equal male/female participation, access and control

 Implies the legal and social capacity of women and men to

 Refer to the nature of relations acquired in the process of

 Is an approach that analyses and takes into

 This is the implicit or explicit perpetuation of attitudes, behaviour

 Women give birth to babies

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