CRITICAL ISSUES IN GLOBAL

HEALTH ON MATERNAL AND

CHILD HEALTH
SR. CHANSA
CUZ – 2020
MPH
WOMEN’S ROLE
AND HEALTH
STATUS
 GENDER
EQUALITY/
EQUITY
 GENDER EQUALITY

• INTRODUCTION
• The concept of gender equity refers to
“fairness of treatment for women and men,
according to their respective needs.
• This may include equal treatment and or
treatment according to individual needs, but
which is considered equivalent in terms of
rights, benefits, obligations and
opportunities” (ILO, 2000).
 GENDER EQUALITY

• INTRODUCTION
• It describe the characteristics of women and men which
are socially determined, in contrast to those which are
biologically determined.
• In relation to MCH, it aims at decrease MMR from 400
maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in 1990 to WHO’s
estimate of 260 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births in
2008 which represents only a 35% decline (WHO, 2010).
 GENDER EQUALITY
• INTRODUCTION
• MDG 4: aims to reduce by 2/3 the under-five
mortality rate from 1990 to 2015.
• The decline from 87 under-five deaths per 1000
live births in 1990 to (United Nations Children's
Fund, 2012) estimate of 51 under-five deaths per
1000 live births in 2011 represents only a 41%
decline.
• Africa accounts for 15% of the world’s population
(58% maternal deaths and under-five mortality
 GENDER EQUALITY

• INTRODUCTION
• The word ‘gender’ was used by Ann Oakley and others
in the 1970s to emphasize that everything women and
men do, and everything expected of them, with the
exception of their sexually distinct functions
(childbearing etc.) can change, and does change, over
time and according to changing and varied social,
economical, political, and cultural factors
 GENERAL OBJECTIVE

• At the end of this discussion student should be

able to acquire knowledge and apply it in the
management of women and men in the
different setups of the society.
 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

• Define terms related to Gender equality

 GENDER EQUALITY

Gender Definitions…………
Gender equality is a human right
1. Gender is defined as an analytical concept
which focuses on women’s roles and
responsibilities in relation to those of men
2. is the significance a society attaches to the
biological categories of female and male,
while sex is the biological distinction
between males and females.
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 GENDER EQUALITY

Gender Definitions…………
3. it refers to Cultural definitions of roles of
women and men that are constructed by
society translated from generation to
generation.
4. is also defined as a social - economic variable
that is used to analyse roles, responsibilities, and
constraints of women and men in society

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 GENDER EQUALITY
GENDER DEFINITIONS…………..
5. is unique because it is cross cutting. e.g.
religion, age, class etc.
It aims to make Women and men in to equal
partners in development
 GENDER EQUALITY

• Gender equality is achieved when women and

men enjoy the same rights and opportunities
• A view that both men and women should
receive equal treatment and not be
discriminated against based on gender
GENDER EQUALITY IMAGES
 GENDER EQUALITY

• Gender equity and equality is one of the

services offered under SRH
• The objective of this service is to reduce the
incidence of rape by 50% and to increase male
involvement and participation in SRH by 50%
 GENDER EQUALITY

Gender equality requires:

• Women to enter the labour force

• Marriage delayed

• Reduced number of children

• Ultimately there is decline in fertility rates

 GENDER EQUALITY
• Gender equality should reconcile existing
conflicting notions on gender roles
• Men are confined to gender roles while
women make choices for a life style which
demands little cost – main cause of delayed
marriages and low fertility and fewer children
 GENDER EQUALITY

• Industrialisation brings women into paid

workforce and dramatically reduces fertility
• There has been a shift towards gender equality
as women move into higher status, economic
roles, the professions and gain political
influence
 GENDER ROLES

Refers to social or behavioural norms

• Gender socialisation starts at birth
• Determine how males and females should
think, dress and interact in society
• Values are passed on from parents and society
to children and successive generations
• Agents of socialisation are family, education,
peer groups and the media
 GENDER ROLES - WOMEN

• Associated with passivity, nurturing and

subordination
• Home makers – cooking, taking care of
children
• Reproduction
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 Types of gender roles
• The Caroline Moser concept of gender roles
• Gender planning recognises that in most
societies low-income women have a triple role:
o Reproduction
o Production
o community managing activities
o while men primarily undertake
o productive and community politics activities
 Reproductive role - Women

• Childbearing/rearing responsibilities
• Domestic tasks include care, maintenance and
reproduction of the labour force
o male partner and working children
o infants and school-going children – future
workforce
 Productive role - Men /Women
• Work pay in cash or kind.
o market production with an exchange-
value, and
o subsistence/home production with actual
use-value,
• and also potential exchange-value.
• women produce food as they work as
independent farmers, peasant wives and
wage workers
 Community managing role - Women
• Activities undertaken primarily by women
at community level,
o as an extension of their reproductive role,
to ensure the provision and maintenance
of scarce resources of collective
consumption,
o such as water, health care and education.
• This is voluntary unpaid work, undertaken
in 'free' time.
 Community managing role - Women

o ensures the provision and maintenance of

scarce resources of collective
consumption,
o such as water, health care and education.
• This is voluntary unpaid work, undertaken in
'free' time.
 Community politics role - Men

• organising at the formal political level, often

within the framework of national politics.
• is usually paid work, either directly or
indirectly, through status or power
 Gender in Family, Parenthood

• Family is a concept used frequently which

denotes different meanings to different people
(Baker, 2010)
• Family is a basic social unit- the first social
group to have come into existence.
 GENDER versus SEX

Cultural Roles Biological Roles

 Learnt through  Given by birth

socialization
 Can be changed  Can not be changed

 Examples. Women/men  Only women can give

can work as teachers, birth.
engineers, and farmers.  Only men can
 Women/men can take impregnate.
care of the sick and  Only women can breast
children feed.

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 GENDER ROLES versus SEX ROLES
Differ from society to Universal Roles
society

 Change over time  Unchanging over time

 Vary within society  Do not vary in any society
 Affected by  Not affected by
environmental factors environmental factors

 Inter changeable  Not inter changeable

 Many and complex  Few & limited to human
reproduction.

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32
Application of Gender, Family and Health
• Gender determines what is expected, allowed and valued
in women and men and points to power imbalances
between them.
• Gender roles are not innate but are taught, learned and
governed by social norms.
• Importantly, gender roles are not universal, nor are they
fixed, but can vary within and between cultures and can
change over time.
 Application of Gender, Family and Health
• E.g. men’s role as active and participatory
fathers today represents a change from that of
previous generations.
• In addition, such external factors as war,
migration and economic downturns means
women have to undertake on “male” roles as
family breadwinners.
• This puts a strain on women’s health and well
being.
 Application of Gender and Health……
• F/P demographic studies and programmes have
kept men at the periphery though men are
equally responsible producing off springs.
• Most programmes focus e.g. birth control
decision making power in matters relating to
reproductive processes is biased towards women
• Males dominance is clearly felt at all stages of
the reproductive processes
 Gender in Family, Parenthood

• Most communities, societies, states and

nations are organized around the institution of
family in whatever form it takes (WiLSA1997)
• Family is a unit of production and
consumption
• Research has shown that family is a hotly
contested arena where problems of gender
exhibit themselves
 Marriage and Parenthood
• A family for the purpose of reproduction and geared
at perpetuating the species consists of two parents and
their off-spring.
• It is marriage that formalizes and regulates the
relationships between family members (WiLSA 1997)
• Therefore, decisions making in a home increases with
her level of education both husband’s wife’s level of
education
• younger women married to older men have less
power
 Gender Roles and Parenthood

• People reproduce for different reasons-

• Raising children to be socially responsible
adults is a difficult task that require vision,
commitment and years of hard work
• Research says most parents see children as a
natural outcome of adulthood and marriage
rather than a conscious choice (Baker 2010)
 Gender Roles and Parenthood
• childhood/parenthood has been altered by more
non parental care, increasing consumerism, new
communication technologies and the need for
prolonged education for youth.
• Disadvantages?- Amount of time, cost, loss of
freedom? Who bears the burden – the woman.
Parenthood and the Division of labour

Who does what at family/household?

• Patterns of paid and unpaid work tend
to change for both women and men
when they marry and become parents?
• Fathers usually increase commitment
to paid work to support their wife and
children
Parenthood and the Division of labour
Who does what at family/household?
• Mothers tend to reduce their hours of
paid work in order to spend more time on
domestic work and child care
• Are more mothers working full time
which increases household earning but
reduces time for household tasks, child
care and leasure
Parenthood and the Division of labour
Who does what at family/household?
• As Fathers pursue further education, retrain or
become umemployed or self employed, enabling
them to share some of the child care and domestic
work
• More time spend on paid work, less time spend on
household work
• Consequently employment maids to care for their
children, prepare *meals and clean and repair their
homes
 Male Engagement/ Involvement
• Male engagement in the process of gender
mainstreaming in development work is essential.
• Focus should be on increasing women’s role in
decision making
• Male need to support gender equality, the entire
process will be in jeopardy
• Reach out to them and include them so that
interventions for women and girls are not derailed
by male resistance.
 Male Engagement/ Involvement
• Involve males young and old in promotion of
gender mainstreaming and in the march for gender
equality.
• Stress that promoting gender equality is not
granting privileges to women while
disempowering men.
• It creating integrated approaches that benefit all.
• It is about creating a more just socially world.
Examples of Male engagement programmes

• Strong Fathers-Strong Families

• focused on strengthening children by strengthening
fathers and families. Through staff training,
consultation, and event facilitation, Strong Fathers-
Strong Families works with Head Starts, public
schools and churches as well as other
organizations.
• The goal is to improve the educational environment
in order that men may become more involved in the
lives of their children.
Examples of Male engagement programmes

• All Pro Dad’s Day — A one-hour monthly

breakfast held before school where
fathers/male role models and their kids can
meet, have fun and discuss family topics.
• Men Engage Alliance, a global network of
NGOs and UN agencies whose mission is to
engage boys and men to achieve gender
equality, is organized around two corollary
principles
Examples of Male engagement programmes

• All Pro Dad’s Day

• (1) gender is relational and therefore men,
along with women, should be engaged in
advancing gender equality and the rights of
women and girls; and (2) the specific gender
issues of men, their vulnerabilities, needs and
experiences also have a place in policy
development.
Male involvement programmes in Zambia

• He for she
• A good husband
• I care about her
• Men’s insaka
• Men’s network
• Male involvement in eMTC, maternal health, Anti
GBV
• Boys to men
• Working with traditional leaders
 Community Involvement
• All factors at the household level are
influenced by community level factors
• Community structure: stratification,
divisions , power distribution, resource bases,
and resource distribution within the
community
• Women’s status within the community
• Health services available
 GENDER AND FERTILITY
• Childbearing is valued less in working women
• Contraception provides women opportunity to
balance reproductive and non-reproductive
goals
The end
Presentation Topic: Factors in Gender Equity
Early Child Marriage
Presentation outline

Topic: Early age marriage

Introduction
General objective
Specific objectives
Definition
Incidences
Contributing Factors
Negative impacts
Solutions
Conclusion
List of references
Introduction
“Gender equity is the process of being fair to women and
men to ensure fairness, strategies and measures to
compensate for women's historical and social
disadvantages that prevent women and men operating
on a level playing field” (UNFPA, 2002-2020),
 In child marriage gender equity is not considered in
many societies, girls are treated unfairly comparing to
boys.
Child marriage robs girls of their childhood and threatens
their lives and health.
According to UNICEF (2018)“A child means every human
Picture of child marriage in India
Early age marriage

General objective

The main objective of this

presentation is to equip MPH
students with knowledge and better
understanding of early age marriage
in the society and how to prevent it.
Early age marriage
Specific objectives
• Definition of early age marriage.
• State the incidences of early age marriage
worldwide and in African countries
• Identify the predisposing factors to early age
marriage
• Describe the negative impacts of early age
marriage
• State the solutions to prevent early age
marriage
Early age marriage definition
Definition of early age marriage
 Early age marriage is defined as “one or both
spouses married are under 18 years old” forced in
marriage without their consent (UNFPA, 2020).
 It applies to both sexes but more common among
young girls, that violet the girl’s rights and no
gender equity.
 It is also called child marriage.
 Girls are more at risk of child marriage comparing
to boys.
 Girls who marry before 18 are more likely to experience
domestic violence and less likely to remain in school
Parent forcing his child to get
married to an older man in Namibia.
Incidences of early age marriage
Incidences of early age marriage (Report 2002-2020)
“31% of Zambian girls are married before their 18th
birthday
6% are married before the age of 15”.
Rates of child marriage vary from one region to
another and are highest in the eastern and northern
provinces,
“7% of girls in Namibia married < 18 and
2% are married < 15th birthday” ( MOHSS,2018).
While laws are in place to prevent child marriage, it is
still practiced under traditional arrangements with
little documentation.
Incidences of early age marriage
1 in 5 girls in the world are said to
be married before 18 years old.
Over 650 Million women alive today
were married as children.
12 Million girls are married before the age of
18 each years.
Picture of child marriage
Factors associated to early age marriage
According to (WHO, 2018)
Poverty: parents selling girls to be married by
rich men in exchange of money, cattle, land
and other expensive properties.
Insecurity: best interest of the girls to
prevent sexual intercourse before marriage.
Political and financial reasons: parents
allow their girls to get marriage to rich men to
pay debt, pay school fees and so on.
Factors associated to early age marriage
According to (WHO, 2018)
Lack of education: young girls and boys get
married early due to lack of knowledge to
avoid it.
Patriarchy and gender inequalities: girls
are considered as family property and have no
right to refuse marriage comparing to boys.
Inadequate implementation of the law:
governments failed to implement law that
prevent early age marriage.
Negative impact of early age marriage
Sexual abuse
Risk of sexual transmitted diseases
e.g. HIV/AIDS and other STDs
Obstetric fistula and complicated
deliveries
Pregnancy complications e.g. death
during child birth
Premature births
Negative impact of early age marriage
Premature births
Neonates deaths
School drop out results in little access to
education and unemployment
Cervical cancer due to early sexual activities
Lack of personal development and wellbeing
They risk domestic violence due to rights
violation and scared to express their feelings
Child marriage & early pregnancy
Solutions to early age marriage
 All nations require to take urgent action to achieve gender
equality and empower all women and girls as per SDG 5
(sustainable development goal).
 Mobilizing girls, boys, parents and leaders to change
practices that discriminate against girls.
 Create social, economic, and civic opportunities for girls
and young women.
Solutions to early age marriage
 Create social, economic, and civic opportunities for girls
and young women.
 Addressing the root causes of child marriage, including
poverty, gender inequality and discrimination.
 Including dangers sessions of early age marriage in
primary school curriculum.
 International programs, NGOs and Faith-based
organizations to advocate for girls' rights.
Awareness to stop child marriage
Conclusion
Early age marriage is one of the international and
nations concerns, which is a critical issue factors in
terms of gender equity. Gender equity is a process of
treating and practicing fairness to both men and
women.
Women and girls are treated differently when it
comes to marriage comparing to boys.
one married under the age of 18 years.
In most countries, girls are getting married early
than boys, due to factors such as poverty, lack of
education.
Need for policy to solve involving the communities.
 Girls need to know their rights
List References
Girls not Brides.2002-2020.Child Marriage rates.
girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/zambia. Available
online. Accessed 20.11.2020.
Ministry of Health. 2016. Sexual transmitted infections
and gender. Nampress. Windhoek. Namibia.
UNICEF. 2018. Child Marriage. Child marriage threatens
the lives, well-being and futures of girls around the world
United Nations Population Fund.2002-2020. Child
Marriage. Frequently asked questions. Available online.
Accessed 20.11.2020
 THANK YOU SO MUCH!
End of presentation on early age marriage