Gender Mainstreaming and Equality Concepts, Theories and Practices

Gender Vs. Sex

Sex identifies biological differences between men and women. E.g. Women can
give birth and men provide sperm. Sex is universal (every nation, throughout
history)
Gender identifies social relations between men and women. Gender is
socially constructed. But gender roles are dynamic and change over time.
Then ,What is the problem?
What is the Problem?
• Of the 1.3 billion people living in poverty around the world, 70% are women.
(Source: World Revolution)
• Women do about 66% of the world's work in return for less than 5% of its income.
(Source: Women's International Network)
• In the least developed countries nearly twice as many women over age 15 are
illiterate compared to men. (Source: UNFPA)
• Two-thirds of children denied primary education are girls, and 75% of the world’s
876 million illiterate adults are women.
(Source: AskWoman)
• Women work two-thirds of the world's working hours, produce half of the world's
food, and yet earn only 10% of the world's income and own less than 1% of the

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 world's property. (Source :World Development Indicators, 1997, Womankind
Worldwide)
Source: http://www.endpoverty2015.org/en/goals/gender-equity

Gender Discrimination-1
Social construct
• Partriarchy positions men at superior postion and status
• Men’s superiority at household reflects in public sphere and influence position
and distribution of resources
Gender division of labour
• Men and women have different roles in society. Men’s roles are considered
productive and more important, while traditionally women’s roles are
considered passive and less important

Gender Discrimination - Access and control over resources

Access to resources: opportunity to make use of resource
Control over resources: ability to define resource’s use for others.
Women remain disadvantaged with less access to resources, benefits, information
and decision making
Economic resources : land or equipment
Political resources: representation, leadership, legal structures
Social: child care, family planning, education
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 Time: a scarce resource for women

Gender Roles
Productive roles : Activities carried out by men and women in order to produce goods
and services, 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 child bearing, rearing, and care for family members such as
children, elderly and workers. These tasks are done mostly by women.
Community Managing role: Activities undertaken primarily by women at the
community level, to ensure the provision and maintenance of scarce resources of
collective consumption such as water, health care and education. This is voluntary
unpaid work undertaken in ‘free’ time.
Community politics role Activities undertaken primarily by men at the community
level, organizing at the formal political level, often within the framework of
national politics. This work is usually undertaken by men and may be paid directly
or result in increased power and status.
Triple role: The term refers to the fact that women tend to work longer and
more than men as they are usually involved in three different gender roles
— reproductive, productive and community work.

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Gender Needs -1
Practical Gender Needs (PGN)
• PGNs are the immediate needs identified by women to assist their survival in
their socially accepted roles within existing power structures in society.
• PGNs do not challenge existing power structures or gender divisions of labor
• PGNs are related to inadequacies in women’s living conditions, health care,
safe water, sanitation, income earning opportunities etc.
Gender Needs -2
Strategic Gender Needs (SGN)
• SGNs are the needs women identify to change their status and position in
society in relation to men.
• SGNs challenge male dominance and privilege.
• Related to inequalities in gender division of labour, ownership and control of
resources, structural discriminations, etc. It may include issues such as legal
rights, domestic violence, equal wages etc.

Gender Equality vs. Gender Equity

Gender Equality
• Gender equality is based on the idea of equality of opportunities.
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Gender Equity
• Gender equity denotes equivalence of life outcomes of women and men
• Gender equity recognizes women and men have different needs, preferences
and interests and may require different treatment of men and women.
Women Empowerment
• Empowerment of women concerns women gaining power and control over their
lives.
• It involves awareness raising, building self confidence, increased access and
control over resources and transforming structures and institutions which
reinforce gender discrimination and inequality
• Empowerment cannot be achieved in vacuum; men must be brought along in the
process of change.
• It doesn’t refer to power over, rather it is power to, power with and power
within.
• It is a bottom up approach instead of a top down strategy

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 Shift in development approach: WID vs. GAD
Criteria Women in Development Gender and Development
(WID) (GAD
The Approach An approach which views An approach to people
women’s lack of centered development
participation as the
problem
Focus Women Relations between women
and men
The Problem The exclusion of women Unequal relations
(half of the productive (between women and men,
resource) from the rich and poor) that
development process prevents equitable
development and women’s
full participation
The Goal More efficient, effective Equitable, sustainable
development development with men and
women sharing
decisionmaking and power.

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Shift in development approach: WID vs. GAD-2
Criteria Women in Development Gender and Development
(WID) (GAD
The Solution Integrate women into Empower the
existing structures disadvantaged and
women Transform
unequal relations and
structures

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The Strategies Women only projects • Identify/address practical
Women’s component needs determined by
integrated projects • women and men to
Increase women’s improve their condition •
productivity At the same time address
• Increase women’s income strategic gender needs of
• Increase women’s ability women and men
to manage the household • Address strategic needs
of the poor through
people centered
development
 Gender Mainstreaming
It is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an
integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of
policies and programmes in all political, economic and social spheres so that women
and men benefit equally and inequality is not maintained. The ultimate goal is to
achieve gender equality. UNECOSOC Definition (1997)
Gender Mainstreaming Myths
Myth: “Good intentions [e.g., to involve women in project activities] are enough”
Reality: Specific design and monitoring features are needed to translate good
intentions into reality, and to monitor results
Myth: “Education, health and microfinance projects always benefit women/girls, so
they automatically mainstream gender”
Reality: Specific measures are usually needed to ensure that women/girls
actually use these services and that the project contributes to narrowing
gender gaps, and empowering women/girls
GM Myths, continued
Myth: “Women are 50% of road users, so any road project automatically
mainstreams gender”

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 Reality: did the road link women to market? Ensure that a development activity
actually narrows gender gaps or empowers women/girls (it’s not enough to
simply “add women and stir”)
Myth: “Gender mainstreaming is only possible in community-based projects”
Reality: International organizations are now trying to mainstreaming gender
concerns in macroeconomic policies, trade, value chain, policies etc.

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