Professional Documents
Culture Documents
GS 201 Notes
GS 201 Notes
Sex
Gender Sex
Leant (nurturing) Natural
Starts when one is born Inborn
It is socially constructed Universal
Is biological
Fixed or unchangeable
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.
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
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 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.
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
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
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
Feminist theories are women centered are women and men centered
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
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
Limitations
Proposed solutions
Application in Zimbabwe
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
Solutions suggested
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
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
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
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
Limitations
GAD
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
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
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
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
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
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
Limitations
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)