Defining Gender; Demystifying Gender

Defining Gender

Key concepts

Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics and attitudes that affect the relationships between women, men, girls, and boys that include the norms, roles etc. Gender determines ‘right’ from ‘wrong’ in a society; it influences career choices, employment opportunities that women and men decide to venture into and their relationships with society. The gender norms vary from one society to another.

Gender has always been misunderstood to be the promotion of women only, however, we should always remember that gender is both women and men and their access and control over resources.

Sex is the biological difference between women and men. This is mainly the physical factors that include the reproductive conditions or hormonal changes.

Gender equality; is the opportunities that are available for both women and men to have access to and control of social, economic and political resources.

Gender equity; is realizing the different needs of women and men, girls and boys and putting their preferences and interests into consideration in access to opportunities and resources. It puts into consideration the reality of women and men’s lives and ensures they have equal opportunities.

Gender mainstreaming; is the assessing the impacts of any projects, planned actions including legislation and programmes on women and men through all process from the planning stage to the implementation and reporting. Gender mainstreaming ensures the participation of women and men in all process of program implementation to ensure that all their needs are put into considerations and that inequality is not perpetuated.

Gender norms are beliefs and attitudes about women and men, girls and boys that are learned and passed from one generation to another. They vary from one society to another.

Gender roles are responsibilities that are ascribed to women and men at the household, community, and workplace of any given society.

Social Institutions that construct gender

Gender is constructed from the family to schools, religious institutions, state, and media. Gender construction emanates from our day to day interactions which defines what is expected, allowed, valued and culturally correct in the society which trickles down to gender relations and power.

Family and kinship is the first agent of socialization that greatly constructs gender. Children get ascribed to the different gender roles; a girl is expected to spend more time with the mother and the female relatives in the kitchen, cooking, fetching water and farming and venture into clerical work, customer care and cleaning services as their career options. They are to be timid, weak, and emotional and avoid any activities that place them in the public arena. Women being in private spaces limits their potential to participate in programs that benefit them. They believe they cannot hold any leadership positions nor are they allowed to participate in decision-making forum, the result is a big gap in women empowerment. Boys, on the other hand, are expected to be tough, not to express their feelings, act as warriors, and be out with their father and male relatives to provide for the family. There is a lot of pressure in men to provide for the family in our day of economic struggle, they are forced to engage in illegal activities just to provide for the family. Men have a shorter lifespan than women also due to the societal expectations for the provision of the family even when they are not capable.

Children spend more time in school with their teachers than their guardian and parents. School defines the gender roles and identity of children from playing and interacting with other children and care providers. Taking an example, when children are playing, it is deemed appropriate when the girls play together same with the boys, when the paradigm shift, there is an ‘excitement’ or ‘concern’ that will be directed to the girl reminding them to maintain their ascribed space. As children transit to higher learning institutions; boys are encouraged to take up mathematics and science-related courses, while girls are encouraged to take languages, social sciences, and humanities.

The state and political sphere construct gender by maintaining the status quo, the internal and external peace of the boundaries of the society. Most political parties will nominate men over women to represent them as flag bearers. Women get associated with the success of their marriages for them to be considered fit for political candidacy as compared to men. The lack of understanding of what gender is has made many politicians who are women to take up the roles with the notion that they have to be aggressive.

Media plays a key role in influencing gender roles and identities. The advertisements always have the men being the hero and venturing into careers that relate to sciences; a pilot, banker while women appear in advertisements on household items; kitchenware, acting as caregivers, not forgetting being depicted as sex tools in different movies or songs. This ends up shaping the reality, behavior, and expectation of their gender roles and career options they decide to venture into.

Religious and cultural institutions have also contributed to defining gender roles. Different churches have women serving as ushers as compared to men being pastors and priests. At Sunday school, a majority of the teachers are women as compared to men. Other institutions women are not allowed to worship together with the men, as they are seen to be ‘unclean’ due to their menstrual period.

Patriarchal systems develop from the gender roles that the children grow up into. The women tend to see themselves as inferior and not be able to participate in leadership roles or any decision-making sessions while on the other hand, boys pick up on roles that put them at the power level.

Mechanisms used for promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment

To achieve gender equality, we must recognize that gender is often SITUATIONAL, this means, and that anyone can be vulnerable depending on situations.

The different mechanism that has been used to promote gender include:

National and international legislation; these are policies that focus on the gaps that affect the vulnerable groups. They include; the Beijing Platform of Action, Convection on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the African Union Gender Policy National Gender Policies.

Affirmative action; it is the protection of a vulnerable group from discrimination within a society. Women, youths, persons with special needs and refugees have benefited from affirmative action, by having more opportunities made accessible to them.

Gender platforms; that gives the vulnerable groups a voice, which leads to actions and enjoyment of their rights.

Note: Gender is women, men, boys and girls; refugees and persons with special needs. The Key is to move from a focus on DIFFERENCE to a focus on RELATIONS.

By: Nyabena Susan