GENDER

 Is the social cultural meaning that is given to maleness or femaleness?

 It is the social cultural category of the biological fact of human sex differentiation
 Is a social contract, a direct product of maturing, conditioning norm and expectations?
 It is an analytical to for understanding social process.

Sex

 Is a biological sate of being male or female?

 It is a fact of biology and anatomy.

Gender Sex
Leant (nurturing) Natural
Starts when one is born Inborn
It is socially constructed Universal
Is biological
Fixed or unchangeable

Sex and roles

 These are duties, activities, tasks or responsibilities that women and men perform that are
inevitable product of one’s biology e.g. females’ breastfeed and men impregnate.
 Like sex these roles are biologically determined, fixed universal and exclusive to a particular sex.

Gender and roles

 These are duties tasks responsibilities that a particular society consider appropriate for its males
or females on the bases of the meaning attached to their sexual identity
 These duties are leant vary among cultures dynamic interchangeable and can be affected by
factors like class race, age, religion, geographical location education and ethnicity
 For example looking for children is a female gender role and mending a type of punch is
normally done by men.

Gender equality

 It refers to equal value placed on women and men in the distribution of rights, power,
opportunity, control of resources as well as equal access and control of benefits from resources
between men and women.
 It is not only the absence of discrimination and bias but equal valuing by the society of the
similarities and difference between women and men and the varying roles that they play

Gender equity

 It is a process of achieving fairness and justice among women and men. The fairness and justice
is in relation to distribution of opportunities, responsibilities and resources as well as in accessing
controlling the benefits from the resources.
  To ensure fairness measures must often be made to compensate for social and historical that
prevent women and men from operating together
 Gender equity leads to gender equality.

Gender bias

 It is a tendency to be in favor/ against an individual/group as a result of individual/group`s sex

Gender discrimination

 It is an act of unfair treatment direct against an individual or group on the basis of sex, it can be
positive whereby it give prefential treatment to an individual on the ground of gender
 But also it can be negative

Gender neutrality

 It is assumed that they are affected by programs/policies in the same way. It refers to the claim
that some people make when they want to present themselves as not practicing gender based
discrimination.
 It is also premised on the assumption that all people or everyone are already equal therefore
treating them the same way

Gender blindness

 Is the failure to recognize the difference between males and females and therefore leads to failure
to provide for the differences.

Gender sensitivity

 It is the ability to recognize the gender issues. It is the beginning of gender awareness.

Gender awareness

 Is the ability to identify problems arising from gender discrimination and bias even if these are
not very evident on the surface or are hidden?

Gender responsiveness

 Refers to taking action to correct gender bias and discrimination so as to ensure gender equality
and equity.

Patriarchy

 Refers to a social system which prop gals males supremacy, power and control over women as
God gvn. It operates on the premise that men are biological superior than women. And that
woman has to be depended on men for protection, general, upkeep and general survival.
Gender main streaming

 It is a process of assessing the implication for women and men on any planned action such as
legislation, policies or programs in any area at all levels
 It is a strategy of integrating gender concerns and experience in the development or implication,
monitoring and evaluation of policies and program in all political, economical and societal so that
women and men benefit equality and inequality is no perpetuated

Gender femetive action

 Is a measure which deliberately accords a previous disadvantage or excluded group prefential

treatment to groups representation in employment, business, politics and education
 It is a corrective or a compensatory measure for past and justice

Gender stereotypes

 These are socially constructed beliefs or ideas about women and men which are not true but are
taken as truth by society; they are maintained, perpetuated and transmitted from generation to
another by social institutions such as families, schools, community, media, religion and culture
among others.
 Stereotypes on the positive or negative for can be based sex, personality, race, age, class or
occupation.

The social construction of gender

 Is the process by which an individual learns to be a member of his/ her society where they learn
patens of thought and behavior considered in their community
 In learning these patterns of thought and behavior gender is considered that is gender role,
identity/ behavior through the help of social forces such as the family, the media, the community,
the schools, and religion.
 There are two types of socialization namely social learning socialization were children learn sex
appropriate behavior through manipulation, canalization, verbal appellation for modeling and
imitations
 In precognitive development socialization society presence on image of what is femetive and
masculine and the children in turn put together a cluster of attributes which they label masculine
or femetive and try to copy to appropriate cluster the children self socialize

Canalization

 Is socialization through interaction which toys and objects were the children development
different sets of aptitudes and attitudes which aline them to the expected behavior expected when
they become men and women

Verbal applet ion

 These are differentials use of descriptions and levels among boys and girls e.g. what good boy or
nice girl or reprimands like boys don’t cry the children internalize the label and start to act and
cooperate according to it.
Manipulation

 Is the differential attention and value given to the boys and girls for example mother pay attention
to girls hair the boy and girls learn at different things are expected to them through the different
treatment that they get which gives them sense of what is it to be a boy or a girl

Imitation

 Is when children observe their parents or elders and try to be like them

Theories of gender inequality

Feminist theory,

 Aims to understand the nature of inequality focuses on gender politics, power relation and
sexuality
 It provides a critic of social relations but much of it focus is on analysis gender inequality and the
promotion of women rights, interest and issues
 Feminism exploits discrimination, stereotyping, objectification(especially sexual objectification)
oppression and patriarchy

Difference between feminist theory and gender theory

Feminist theory gender theory

Feminist theories are women centered are women and men centered

Focus on experience of women focus on both experience of men and women

View issues from women perspective view issues from gender perspective

Are about fighting back are for co existence between men and women

View man as the enemy men viewed as the victim of social, cultural
institution created by the society

Reject assistance by men in their struggle accept assistance from gender sensitive men

 Both feminist and gender theory agree on the following

1. Gender differences are socially rather than biologically constructed
2. Gender differences can be deconstructed
3. Both question and challenges oppressive gender relations
4. Gender differences are imbedded in socio-economic structures such as capitalism,
sexism, racism, and social and cultural institutions
The liberal feminist theory

 Demanded equal opportunities and equal participation in the management of the society
 It was most popular in the 1950s and 60s when many civil rights movements were taking place
 The main view of the liberal feminist is that people are created equally by god and they deserve
equal treatment and rights
 They believe that oppression exist because of the way women and men are socialized whereby
patriarchy supports and keep men in power
 They believe that women have the same mental capacity as men and should be given same
opportunities in political economic and social institutions
 They also believe that women discrimination is based on prejudice, sexism, and socialization
 They support and create acts of legislation that remove barriers for women
 They proposed a number of solution to women problems
1. Give women equal opportunities to jobs, education to challenge patriarchy
2. Proportional representation
3. Legal reforms
4. Empowerment of women
5. Changing attitudes, stereotyping and barriers in textbooks in language and media
6. Advocate for women participation in the public sphere
7. Reorient women into crucial decision making positions
8. Providing legal accessible and affordable reproductive services

Application in Zimbabwe

 1980 education act declared education for all

 Changes in language and school curriculum
 Equal pay for both women and men
 Minimum wage
 Maternity leave
 No discrimination on recruitment
 Introduction of the quota system
 The legal age of majority
 Matrimonial causes act
 Domestic violence act
 Pension act

Limitations

 It ignores the power relations in the society

 It does not explain the causes of women subordination
 It does not offer strategy to counter traditional norms and values which constrain women
 It ignores class race , and ethnicity and treats women as a homogenious group
 It calls for access to education and ignores women in the lower class
Marxist feminist theory

 They apply Marxist theory to explain the oppression of women

 They were drawing from Carl max and it rose in the 1970s
 According to the Marxist theory in capitalist society the in individual society is shaped by class
relation ie people capacity interest and needs seem to be determined by the mode of production
that characterized the society the inhibit
 Marxist feminist see gender inequality as determined by the capitalist mode of production
 They have expended traditional analysis by working labour as well as wage work to support their
position
 They also argue that women enter wage labour as reserve pool whch can be recruited or replaced
at any time at any cost
 They view capitalist as dividing work into private and public sphere were women enter into wage
labour as subordinate position and also women do not own the means of production they produce
infactories and also produce future labourers at no cost
 Domesic work is not remunerated
 Women serve intrest of capitalism through management of families

Proposed solutions

 Marxist feminist strees the need to overthrow capitalist economic system

 Participation in the public sphere
 Household work should be paid for
 Women and men should struggle against capitalist oppresors
 Abolition of private property

Application in Zimbabwe

 Men still own private property than women

 Men still dominate the society
 Household work is not paid for and low wages given to maids
 Most women employed in the public sphere are in expert processing zones such as a textile were
they got low wages

Limitations

 Ignore patriarchy and makes control of women sexuality, culture, violence, race and ethnicity
 Economic factors is not enough to explain gender inequality
 They are gender blind they failed to focus on power relations of male and female as in depended
from the social class
 They did not explain why men exploited women socialist society

In Zimbabwe most women are in the informal sector or in rural areas

Socialist feminist theory

 Challenges the ideology of capitalism and patriarchy

 They believe there is a direct link between class structure and the oppression of women
 They believe that the way to end patriarchy is to put an end to class and gender
 They believe that women social status most change in the public and private sphere
 They believe that women in domestic and private sphere do not produce tangibles tradable goods
 Socialist feminist focuses on women quest and make demand for both women and their labour
 They criticize Marxist feminist for focusing on capital and ignoring relation of women and men
 Capitalist and patriarchy work hand in hand in the exploitation of women
 Women produce and reproduce and socialize families at low cost
 They reproduce workers for the capitalist as well as heir for their husbands
 Men have vested interest in the subordination of women because they benefit socially and
maternally

Solutions suggested

 Women should work side by side with men

 Women should be united by their experiences despite race and classes
 Women struggle for liberation should focus on condition of production and reproduction,
reproductive rights, sexuality and new forms of family organization
 Capitalist and partriachy should be uprooted

Application of the theory

 Crafting of the national gender policy which looks at women and men access to land, education,
training, housing, water, healthy, natural resources, political decision making
 It encourages women to participate in all spheres
 Laws have been introduced which enables women access to property, healthy care and marriage
types
 The socialist feminist theory see women and men work side by side in political , economic and
social developmemt

Limitations

 Do not offer a theory of their own but critic of existing theories

 Do not explain the origin of patriarchy and do not give suggestion on how it can be uprooted
 Focuses on working class leaving out other classes
 Outline religion and socialization strength and support patriarchy
 Patriarchy can work in other modes of production besides capitalism

Historical development of gender

 During the women decade (1975-85) female experts and activists came together to recommend
solutions for the improvement of conditions of women in the third world countries
 The concept development can be defined in various ways
  General development is about change for the better continuing process, growth and prosperity,
collectives of people and interrelationships
 Modernization and dependency theories view development differently as the
 They argue that the third world countries under colonial economy were impoverished because the
colonialist exploited the raw materials and labuor for the benefit of the western
 For the modernization theories view development as economic growth and industrialization
 The models of development were heavily male biased and development planners assumed that
men are the most productive and women reproductive roles were ignored
 For most women beside being heavily involved in economic production they are also responsible
for human management, child bearing, and caring, looking after the sick and the elderly and as a
result they work more hours than man usually with fewer resources fewer opportunities and lower
rewards

Approaches to explain development of the concept of gender

1. Women in development (WID)

2. Women and development (WAD)
3. Gender and development (GAD)

Women in development

 Grew out of the work of female economics Esther Boserup who argued that woman contribution
were being left out and as a result development suffered
 The approach came into use during the women`s decade
 It is closely related to western liberal feminist which emphasis on gender equality and equal
rights
 It view women lack of participation as the lack of opportunity and therefore its goal was the
integration of women into existing development process
 The approach advance a number of strategies which are welfare, equality, antipoverty and
efficiency

Warfare strategy

 Assumptions is women are passive in development and developmental processes and that women
major role is that of social reproduction
 Therefore the concern is to meet the women`s practical gender need in hygiene literacy and child
care

Equality strategy

 There was demand for equal opportunities by women education , employment and positions of
power
 The aim was to integrate women and they were reforms in discriminating laws and practices
Antipoverty

 Targeted poor women to raise their standards through access to land and credit
 Income generating projects were introduced however these projects tended to confy women to
traditionally women spaves such as poutry

Efficiency strategy

 This approach sees education and training as important for women to be generated in the
economy
 Women empowerment will lead to women empowerment
 This approach will redress gender in education as well as facilitation affirmative in action

Criticism and limitation

 This approach does not challenge gender relations and assume these will change as women
become economic partners in development
 It views women as outside the process yet women are already playing a crucial role in domestic
and agricultural spheres
 It focuses on practical gender needs and tend to perpetuate gender inequalities
 Creates hostility and tension with men as it exclusively targets women

WAD

 Streses the distinctiveness of women knowledge, work, goals and responsibilities

 It argues that the work done by women inside and outside the women is important in the
maintenance of the society
 The main focus of this approach is on the interaction between women and development processes
rather than on strategies to integrate women
 It sees both women and men as not benefiting from global economic strategies because of the
disadvantage of class and the way wealthy is distributed

Limitations

 Sees women as a class and down plays difference among women

 Focuses on the production and income generating projects at the expense of women`s
reproductive work
 However the approach has raised concioussnesss and publicize concerns and help in introducing
policies which aim to improve the women legal rights and access to resources

GAD

 Emerged in the early 1990s

 It overlapped with WAD and combines less from WID and WAD
 The approach entails mare than acces to opportunity it is more of getting power and control
within decision making process
 It question the role that women and men play which turns to perpetuate relations
  It focuses on the social relation between men and women and seeks to address issues of access
and control over resources
 It calls for the intervention by the state through the provision of social services and legislation
 It also emphasize on the idea that men and women are different because of their biological and
socially determined roles
 It is this relationship that led to the division of labor which subordinates women
 It has two policies approach
1. Empowerment approach
2. Wisdom approach

Empowerment approach

 Both women and men must participate in them transformation of gender relations
 It question power relations in a broad framework
 It recognize a skewed power relationship between women and men and the need to embark o the
process that will enable women to deconstruct stereotyped images which will remove barriers of
accessing factors of production and barriers which limit them from participation in the decision
making
 Empowerment works with three dimensions personal, relational and collective

Personal

 One develops a sense of self and individual confidence and capacity and undoing the effects of
internalized oppression

Relations

 One develops the ability to negotiate and influence the nature of relationship and decision made
within it.

Collective

 Is where individuals work together to achieve a more extensive impact than each could have done
on their own
 This includes involvement in political structure, groups activate village or neighborhood level

 Empowerment does not entail disempowerment of other social groups but depends on the
individual identifying their own inert potential and it to make new choice in life

The wisdom approach

 This approach emanates from 3rd world feminist who believe that the experience of people should
inform policies
 They wanted the development process to be addressed hostillically, integrations the social,
political cultural and economic dimensions
  They are in favour of the model which does not separate the personal from the political,
household from the economy, the private from the public spheres

Gender analysis framework

 Is a tool to better understand the relations of women and men, boys and girls whose lives are
important by planned development
 It also examines the differences in women and men lives and the underlying assumptions for the
inequality
 It also uncovers the dynamic of gender differences across and variety of issues eg access to
resources, income, maintanancy, political influence
 It also identifies how policies affects women and men differently
 It also provides an understanding of gende relations and show how women experience are
disticnct from those of men

Why do gender analysis

 Gender based analysis should be common threat even from the begginging to the end troughout
an entire policy and not na additional heading or section iin brief notes
 The informationis essecntial for mainstreaming gender at all levels
 It gives information on who does what and at what levels
 It is also important to correct unfairness. The information collected can be used to raise awareness
of gender isues as well as to inform policy makers and provide materials fro gender training
 As well as monitor the defferentials impact of policy, project and budget committees on women
and men

Tools of gender analysis

1. The Harvard analytical framework

2. Moser (GAD)
3. Women empowerment (Longwe)

Harvard analytical framework

 Is one of the earlist gender analysis and planning framework

 It was developed by the Harvard institute for development in 1995
 It is based on the WID efficiency approach
 The framework has four interrelated components , the activity approach, the access and control
profile, influencing factors, project cycle approach

The activity profile

 The answers who does what and does all relevant productive and reproductive tasks
 It analysis the differences rolesand responsibilies of women and men based on adiscription of
their daily tasks
 It may also indicate the time allocated to aech activity
Access and control profile

 Identifies the resources available to carry out the task identified I the activity profile
 It identifies whether it is women/ men who have access to resources and who control their use
and the benefits that arise from their use
 According to march et al (1999, 34) access means that you are able to use a resource but this says
nothing about you having control over it
 Eg in rural partriachal Zimbabwe the land in controlled by the menand only women have access
to it

Influencing factors

 Shows the differences in the gender division of labour as wel as access and control
 It helps to identify constrains and opportunities as well as past and present influences which can
give an indication of future trends
 The identification of external customer and opportunities assists in anticipating what inputs one
would need to make the intervention successful
 Influencing factors indicate those which are cultural such as early marriages, poverty and
polygamy
 Infleuncing factors can be educational, economic, eniviromental, and religious

Project analysis approach

 This consists of a series of questions which assist in the examining of a project, proposal or
intervention from a gender perspective using gender disaggregated data are capturing the different
effects of sociacharge on men and women

Uses of the framework

 The identification, design, implimantation and evaluation

 A number of question are asked
1. It is used as a gender neutral entry when raising gender issues
2. It is used for baseline data collection
3. The framework gives a clear picture of who dooes what, when and with what resources.
It makes women roles and work visible
4. It distinguishes between access and control of resources

Limitations

 It tends to oversimplify based on the tick the boxes approach

 Ignores complexities in the community
 Ignores such inequalities such as class, ethnicity and race
 It yields a somewhat static view of the community nad makes no references to changes over time
in gender relations
The women empowerment framework (sarah longwe, Robert clarckson)

 The framework was developed by sarah longwe and Robert Clarkson in 1994 in Zambia as a
response to development workers, perceived ability to understand the issues and concerns of
women in the 3rd world
 Longwe argued that women had been left out of the development process because most of the
development work concentrated on equality in education and employment
 She identified a framework which has been heirachacal levels in the empowering process
Empowerment /control
Mobilization/ participation
Counciountisation
Access
Welfare (food, water, ect)