GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT

Definition of terms
a) Sex
 Sex is a biological term; it describes physical differences between people. Biological
roles that are associated with women are: getting pregnant, giving birth and
breastfeeding.
 Sex is universal and unchanging.
b) Gender
 Gender is a sociological term; it describes differences in social behaviour. Gender is
what is socially constructed by men and women of a society as to how the two sexes
should behave.
 Gender is a product of culture. It is culture specific.
 Gender is dynamic. Gender roles and relations are not static, but keep changing.
c) Gender roles
 Are the social constructed responsibilities of men and women. They can be
influenced by class, caste, ethnicity, age and religion.
 They are acquired through the process of socialization which is performed by women.
b) Gender relations
 Gender relations are ways in which a culture or society defines rights,
responsibilities and identities of men and women in relation to one another.
 More equitable relationships will need to be based on a redefinition of the rights and
responsibilities of women and men in all spheres of life, including the family, the workplace
and the society at large.

Gender equity vs. Gender equality

 Gender equity is the process of being fair to women and men. To ensure fairness,
strategies and measures must often be available to compensate for women’s historical
and social disadvantages that prevent women and men from otherwise operating on a
level playing field. Equity leads to equality.
 Gender equality does not mean that men and women become the same; only that
access to opportunities and life changes is neither dependent on, nor constrained by,
their sex. Gender equality refers to equal enjoyment by women and men of socially-
valued goods, opportunities, resources and rewards.
 Achieving gender equality requires women’s empowerment to ensure that decision-
making at private and public levels, and access to resources are no longer weighted in
men’s favour, so that both women and men can fully participate as equal partners in
productive and reproductive life.

The socialization process

 The socialization process begins in early childhood.
 It prepares women and men to perform different roles in the society and to acquire
different attributes.
 Women are brought up to perceive their roles as subordinate to those of men rather
than complementary to them.
 Men cross culturally are socialized to be aggressive, outward oriented, leaders,
competitive whereas women learnt to be passive, inner oriented and submissive.

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  Development, which focuses on increasing freedoms and capabilities, should reflect
the true nature of the man and the woman.
 The role of the man and the woman is complementary. This demands a re-education
of society on the rightful roles, rights and duties of each person in society.
Partriachy
 Patriarchy: Literally it means the rule of fathers. The father figure has primary responsibility
over the rest of the family members and men take primary responsibility over the economic,
political and social welfare of the community as a whole.
 It is a system of social relations in which men as a class have power over women as a class.
These power relations are social constructs. They are not biologically given.
 Thus patriarchy can be economic (the right to be serviced), cultural (devaluation of women’s
work or achievements, or ideological (representations of women as creatures inherently
different from men).
a) Secular ideologies include taboos, myths which have been incorporated in African tradition
to justify why either women should not do some things or why some things should be done
by them without much questioning.
 Examples include food taboos, the sexual division of labour, myths and domestic
violence.

The impact of gender on development

 Women make up more than 50% of the world’s population and yet in every country, their
social position is inferior to that of men.
 What this means in practice is that they work longer hours, have poorer educational
opportunities, poorer health care and less control over their lives.

a) Gender and education

 In all provinces in Kenya, girl’s enrolment rates in primary and secondary schools are lower
than that of boys.
 Even where there is gender parity at lower classes in primary school, girls drop out, mainly
due to:
 The burden of household responsibilities (heavy domestic workload)
 Negative cultural practices
 Limited infrastructure and amenities (especially water and sanitation in
schools),
 Early pregnancies and marriages
 Gender-based violence within communities.
 Lack of formal education is a great disadvantage to girls as it keeps them in a subservient
position. It enhances productivity and health.

b) Gender and legislation

 A Kenyan woman married to a foreigner does not pass her citizenship to her husband and
children though this applies if a Kenyan man marries a foreign woman.
 Plural legal systems. Under statutory law, a man and woman should have attained the age of
18 years to contract marriage. Under customary law, the capacity to contract marriage is
linked to puberty and circumcision rites and is not regulated by statutory law. Thus early girl
marriages are sanctioned under customary law.

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c) Gender and property rights
 Majority of agricultural societies and all pastoral societies are patrilineal where important
kinship relations are traced through the male line and property is owned and inherited
through the male line.
 In such situations, a woman’s economic security is precarious because a wife farms her
husband’s land and does not have land rights in her natal home.
 In principle it means, women without male children are dispossesed of their land.
 If a widow refuses to be inherited, and leaves her husband’s lineage it puts her sons
at risk of losing their rights to land.
 Women in conflict situations are pushed further into the margins of society thus
exarcebating their struggle to achieve health and wellbeing.

d) Gender division of labour

 Generally men’s work tends to be work that is more socially prestigious or pays higher cash
income.
 Women’s work tends to be in the domestic sphere, it is seasonal, part time, time intensive,
unpaid or low paying.
 In addition, the product of women’s work is often consumed therefore it is less likely to be
recognized in national accounting systems. as a result the value of women’s’ work is
assumed to be often low.
1) Reproductive roles: Work done by women. Involves child bearing/rearing responsibilities
and domestic tasks done by women. Required for the maintenance and reproduction of the
labour force. They also include the care and maintenance of the workforce (male partner and
working children and the future workforce (infants and school going children).
2) Productive roles: Work done by women and men for pay in cash or in kind. Includes market
production with an exchange value. For women in agriculture, it includes work as
independent farmers, peasant wives and wage workers.
3) Community management roles: Activities undertaken primarily by women at community
level as an extension of their reproductive roles to ensure provision and maintenance of
scarce resource of collective consumption i.e water, health care and education. It is voluntary
unpaid work undertaken in free time. Community political roles are activities primarily
taken by men at the community level, organizing at the formal political level often within the
framework of national politics. It is usually paid work either directly or indirectly through
status and power.
 Reduction of women’s work in the field by equity in division of labour to give them
more time to participate in societal development.

e) Gender and politics

 The level of participation of women in the public sphere and especially in politics is
not commensurate with their participation in other realms of life. This is due to the
high cost of campaigning, the gender division of labour but also because women are
interested in issues that affect their family and neighbourhood rather than national
affairs.
 Women are excluded from public life and decision making spheres. Even though they
make up 52% of the national population in Kenya and also over 60% of the voting
population, women constitute less than 9% of representation in elective political
offices

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f) Gender and the millenium development goals
Recognising women’s contributions and realising and protecting their rights impacts across all
eight of the MDGs.
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Targets
Target 1a: Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day

 1.1 Proportion of population below $1 (PPP) per day

 1.2 Poverty gap ratio
 1.3 Share of poorest quintile in national consumption

Target 1b: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including
women and young people
 1.4 Growth rate of GDP per person employed
 1.5 Employment-to-population ratio
 1.6 Proportion of employed people living below $1 (PPP) per day
 1.7 Proportion of own-account and contributing family workers in total
employment

Target 1c: Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger
 1.8 Prevalence of underweight children under-five years of age
 1.9 Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Targets
Target 2a: Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling
 2.1 Net enrolment ratio in primary education
 2.2 Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach last grade of primary
 2.3 Literacy rate of 15-24 year-olds, women and men

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Targets
Target 3a: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably
by 2005, and at all levels by 2015
 3.1 Ratios of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education
 3.2 Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector

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  3.3 Proportion of seats held by women in national parliament

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality

Targets
Target 4a: Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five
 4.1 Under-five mortality rate
 4.2 Infant mortality rate
 4.3 Proportion of 1 year-old children immunised against measles

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Indicators
Target 5a: Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio
 5.1 Maternal mortality ratio
 5.2 Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel

Target 5b: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health

 5.3 Contraceptive prevalence rate
 5.4 Adolescent birth rate
 5.5 Antenatal care coverage (at least one visit and at least four visits)
 5.6 Unmet need for family planning

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

Targets
Target 6a: Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS
 6.1 HIV prevalence among population aged 15-24 years
 6.2 Condom use at last high-risk sex
 6.3 Proportion of population aged 15-24 years with comprehensive correct
knowledge of HIV/AIDS
 6.4 Ratio of school attendance of orphans to school attendance of non-orphans
aged 10-14 years

Target 6b: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those
who need it
 6.5 Proportion of population with advanced HIV infection with access to
antiretroviral drugs

Target 6c: Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
 6.6 Incidence and death rates associated with malaria
 6.7 Proportion of children under 5 sleeping under insecticide-treated bednets
 6.8 Proportion of children under 5 with fever who are treated with appropriate anti-
malarial drugs
 6.9 Incidence, prevalence and death rates associated with tuberculosis
 6.10 Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected and cured under directly observed
treatment short course
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Targets

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 Target 7a: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and
programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources
Target 7b: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the
rate of loss

Target 7a and 7b Indicators:

 7.1 Proportion of land area covered by forest
 7.2 CO2 emissions, total, per capita and per $1 GDP (PPP)
 7.3 Consumption of ozone-depleting substances
 7.4 Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limits
 7.5 Proportion of total water resources used
 7.6 Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protected
 7.7 Proportion of species threatened with extinction

Target 7c: Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe
drinking water and basic sanitation
 7.8 Proportion of population using an improved drinking water source
7.9 Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facility

Target 7d: Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum
dwellers, by 2020
 7.10 Proportion of urban population living in slums

Goal 8: A global partnership for development

Targets
Target 8a: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory
trading and financial system
Includes a commitment to good governance, development and poverty reduction; both
nationally and internationally

Target 8b: Address the special needs of the least developed countries
Includes tariff and quota free access for the least developed countries' exports; enhanced
programme of debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) and cancellation of
official bilateral debt; and more generous ODA for countries committed to poverty reduction

Target 8c: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small
island developing States through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development
of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of
the General Assembly

Target 8d: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries
through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long
term.

Indicators for Targets 8a, 8b, 8c and 8d:

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Some of the indicators listed below are monitored separately for the least developed
countries (LDCs), Africa, landlocked developing countries and small island developing
States.

Official development assistance (ODA)

 8.1 Net ODA, total and to the least developed countries, as percentage of
OECD(organization of economic cooperation and development)/DAC donors;
gross national income
 8.2 Proportion of total bilateral, sector-allocable ODA of OECD/DAC donors to
basic social services (basic education, primary health care, nutrition, safe water
and sanitation
 8.3 Proportion of bilateral official development assistance of OECD/DAC donors
that is untied
 8.4 ODA received in landlocked developing countries as a proportion of their gross
national income
 8.5 ODA received in small island developing States as a proportion of their gross
national incomes
Market access
 8.6 Proportion of total developed country imports (by value and excluding arms)
from developing countries and least developed countries, admitted free of duty
 8.7 Average tariffs imposed by developed countries on agricultural products and
textiles and clothing from developing countries
 8.8 Agricultural support estimate for OECD countries as a percentage of their
gross domestic product
 8.9 Proportion of ODA provided to help build trade capacity

Debt sustainability
 8.10 Total number of countries that have reached their HIPC decision points and
number that have reached their HIPC completion points (cumulative)
 8.11 Debt relief committed under HIPC (Highly indebted poor countries) and
MDRI (multilateral debt relief intitiative) Initiatives
 8.12 Debt service as a percentage of exports of goods and services

Target 8e: In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable

essential drugs in developing countries
 8.13 Proportion of population with access to affordable essential drugs on a
sustainable basis

Target 8f: In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new
technologies, especially information and communications
 8.14 Telephone lines per 100 population
 8.15 Cellular subscribers per 100 population
 8.16 Internet users per 100 population