Gender? What is it?

What do you think? Agree or disagree?

Women are beautiful like flowers.

What do you think? Agree or disagree?

Women can be as good engineers as men

What do you think? Agree or disagree?

Men can take care of babies as well as

women.
What do you think? Agree or disagree?

Men are the elephant’s front legs and women

are its hind legs.
What do you think? Agree or disagree?

What determines your views about the above

sentences?
 Your own value judgment?
 Your teachers’ and parents’ teaching?
 The cultural tradition?
Are women and men
born to be different?

Sex vs. Gender

What is Sex?

Biological differences between females and

males
What is Sex?
 Examples:
 Female have XX chromosome, while males
have XY chromosome
 Females have vagina, while males have penis
 Females could bear babies
What is Gender?
 Socio-cultural differences between women
and men
 the roles (mother/father, husband/wife)
 characteristics (values, personality traits,
behaviours, attitudes and interests)
 in different societal institutions (the family,
schools, workplaces and governments).
 What is Gender?
 When you say that you are a man/woman, what
are you actually implying?
 What should be your job?
 Should you be a nurse?
 What should be your hobbies?
 Should you go rock-climbing?
 What should be your character?
 Should you be emotional?
 What should your wear?
 Should you wear pink?
What is Gender?
 Gender roles and characteristics:
 learned and transmitted through
socialisation;
 changeable over time; and
 have wide variations both within and between
societies and cultures.
 Socialisation of Gender
 Socialisation is the process which an individual
acquire, through interaction with other people, the
knowledge about various attitudes, values,
behaviours, roles, social and cultural skills
 It is the process which we become self-conscious,
knowledgeable and skillful so that we could live
our lives under a specific environment.
 This process is at work continuously through all
phases of our lives, especially when we move in a
new environment.
 Socialisation of Gender
 During the socialisation process, the
following parties play an important part in
shaping your concepts about gender :-
 Family
 Friends
 School Education
 Working Environment
 Media
 Socialisation of Gender
 Think about the following:-
 What is the meaning of your name?
 Who tells you what kind of toys you should have for
your birthday?
 Why did you choose your major subject in
University?
 Why are you assigned your tasks at the Christmas
party at your workplace?
 Who tells you what body figure you should have?
 Myths and Facts about Gender
 Myth:
 Women are weaker than men.
 Fact:
 Leg strength relative to the individual’s lean body
weight is equal for men and women
 Men have faster neuro-muscular response time: great
force production
 Women have a greater portion of shored elastic energy
than men during activities in which muscle is pre-
stretched, e.g. counter movement prior to jumping.
 Myths and Facts about Gender
 Myth:
 After getting married, women do not need to work.
 Fact:
 In Hong Kong, women constitutes 44% of the labour
force. Their labour participation rate is 52%.
 Of those people who are heavily involved in
housework, 80% were women.
 Women homemakers spent 6.8 hours a day on
housework, women with dual role spent 3 hours,
while men spent 1.1 hours on average.
 Myths and Facts about Gender
 Myth:
 Women are worse in decision-maker than men.
 Fact:
 In the HKSAR Government, women constitutes 7 among the 17
Permanent Secretaries, the most senior officials in the civil
service,.
 In the administrative officers grade, which is a corps of multi-
skilled professional administrators who form the backbone of the
government's policy, 53.4 % were women.
 Of all the top/ senior management positions in private and non-
government sector in Hong Kong, women are now holding about
a quarter (26%) of them.
 What is Gender Stereotyping?
 Gender Stereotyping emerges when pre-
conceived ideas about one sex are applied
indiscriminately without considering any
personal, social and cultural factors.
 For example:
"Men are aggressive while women are
emotional".
 Proliferation of Gender Stereotyping in our daily life
 Have you ever:-
1. made use of women's body and /or portraying
women as sex objects to draw other people’s
attention?
2. made fun of women's body or their particular
parts?
3. associated certain ability, like analytical skills and
physical strength, to a specific sex?
4. confined certain family roles, like breadwinner
and housekeeper, and occupations, like nurse and
engineer, to a specific sex?