GAD Topic 1.

Promoting gender responsive management and transformative leadership

The most significant essence of transformational leadership, is then the relationship between
leaders and followers. Transformational leaders have the ability to identify their own values, and
those of others in the organisation, to guide their actions, thus developing a shared, conscious
way of behaving and doing. Power is distributed because these leaders do not see power as
limited but expansive. Transformational leaders are concerned with substance and truly empower
others.
Gender responsive project management is a prerequisite for ensuring that a project addresses the
specific needs and interests of women and men. It requires that a gender perspective is applied to
the methodological approach, as well as the targets, objectives and activities of the project. This
includes formulating gender responsive results and indicators and establishing a gender
responsive monitoring system, budget and human resource policy.

GAD Topic 2. Enhancing gender sensitivity to school children

Boys and girls must feel welcome in a safe and secure learning environment. Governments,
schools, teachers and students all have a part to play in ensuring that schools are free of violence
and discrimination and provide a gender-sensitive, good-quality education (Figure 16). To
achieve this, governments can develop non-discriminatory curricula, facilitate teacher education
and make sure sanitation facilities are adequate. Schools are responsible for addressing school-
related violence and providing comprehensive health education. Teachers should follow
professional norms regarding appropriate disciplinary practices and provide unbiased instruction.
And students must behave in a non-violent, inclusive way.
Students are more likely to show positive social behaviours and reduce negative
behaviours after the implementation of
To facilitate gender-responsive instruction, curricula and textbooks should be free from
gender bias and promote equality in gender relations. How students perceive themselves
and how they project their role in society is shaped to some extent by what they
experience at school, including by how they are represented in textbooks.

GAD Topic 3. Addressing the issues of gender bullying inside and outside the school
Bullying that relates to gender or sexuality is the most common form of violence that students
encounter in schools.
This type of bullying includes any kind of threatening or harassing behaviours that are based on
gender role expectations. As such, it encompasses sexual harassment, coercion and assault;
insults, intimidation and assaults based on perceived or actual sexual orientation; and verbal or
physical harassment.
Violence of this kind can manifest in school environments when gender roles are clearly defined
by language and culture. Students (and in some cases teachers) subsequently discriminate against
those who may deviate from these expectations.

Some common examples of this include girls who are called “sluts” if they wear particular
clothes or makeup, or boys who are called “faggots” if they are not into sports or refuse to look
at pornography.

Similarly, transphobic bullying can happen when students do not fit neatly into binary gender
understandings.

These environments are particularly hostile for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning
(LGBTQ) students. They are likely to hear eight homophobic insults a day, with one-third of
these either perpetrated or condoned by school staff.

Programs that address aggression based on gender norms and associated sexualities enable a
more positive learning and social environment, with greater behavioural flexibility for all
students.

GAD Topic 4. Gender awareness and development

Gender awareness raising aims at increasing general sensitivity, understanding and knowledge
about gender (in)equality.

Awareness raising is a process which helps to facilitate the exchange of ideas, improve mutual
understanding and develop competencies and skills necessary for societal change [1]. Gender
awareness raising means providing reliable and accessible information to build a better
understanding of gender equality as a core value of democratic societies. As a gender-
mainstreaming method, gender awareness raising is crucial for integrating a gender perspective
into policies, programmes, projects and services that respond to the different needs of women
and men.

GAD Topic 5. Gender awareness and development

Gender roles in society means how we’re expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct
ourselves based upon our assigned sex. For example, girls and women are generally expected to
dress in typically feminine ways and be polite, accommodating, and nurturing. Men are generally
expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold.

Every society, ethnic group, and culture has gender role expectations, but they can be very
different from group to group. They can also change in the same society over time. 
 stereotype is a widely accepted judgment or bias about a person or group — even though it’s
overly simplified and not always accurate. Stereotypes about gender can cause unequal and
unfair treatment because of a person’s gender. This is called sexism.

There are four basic kinds of gender stereotypes:

 Personality traits — For example, women are often expected to be accommodating and
emotional, while men are usually expected to be self-confident and aggressive.
 Domestic behaviors — For example, some people expect that women will take care of
the children, cook, and clean the home, while men take care of finances, work on the car,
and do the home repairs.
 Occupations — Some people are quick to assume that teachers and nurses are women,
and that pilots, doctors, and engineers are men.
 Physical appearance — For example, women are expected to be thin and graceful, while
men are expected to be tall and muscular. Men and women are also expected to dress and
groom in ways that are stereotypical to their gender (men wearing pants and short
hairstyles, women wearing dresses and make-up.