Gender product

1. Training Module 1:
Gender Concepts and Issues

2.  A driver does not know what to expect when
told to pick “Dr. Olawoye”
Questions to ask:
 What was the driver’s expectation?
 Why was the driver surprised to see I was a
woman?
 What does this tell us about our views of male
and female roles in the society?

3.  If we see “52% of the sample are male and
48% are female” in a report, it is not a correct
way of presenting data on gender, it is only
describing the sample by sex!
 Sex refers to biological/physiological
differences between males and females
 Gender refers to socially determined,
maintained, enforced and learned roles,
responsibilities, privileges, opportunities and
constraints for males and females

4.  Gender and sex are not synonymous
 Gender refers to the social constructions of
the roles for males and females, which often
give rise to unequal relations between women
and men
 Gender constructions are culture specific and
thereby differ by social group.
 Gender roles may change, but relatively
slowly as with any social change

5.  Gender Equality: Both men and women are
able to share the benefits of development
equally. In the workplace, males and females
enjoy the same work benefits, opportunities
for promotion, etc.
 Gender Equity: Both men and women have
access to the particular resources and
opportunities needed to improve their
circumstances to similar levels, but not
necessarily in the same way.

6.  A facilitated process of developing awareness
and capacity on gender issues to bring about
personal or organizational change for gender
equality.
 This is what we are trying to do for 2 days;
a. To develop awareness
b. To enhance capacity
c. To promote changes in individuals and
thereby the organization to promote greater
equality for male and female stakeholders

7.  Shared and prioritized needs identified by women
or men that arise from their common
experiences as a gender group.
 Projects, structures or policies should not only
address practical gender needs (those that relate
to the condition and immediate needs), for
instance, income, while not taking strategic
gender needs into account (related to person’s
position, access to resources or decision-
making, etc.).
 Unless the strategic gender needs are addressed,
no sustainable improvements will be attained.

8.  Difference in any area between women and
men in terms of their levels of education,
participation, access to resources or services,
rights, power and influence, remuneration
and benefits. Of particular relevance related
to women’s work is the ‘gender pay gap’,
describing the difference between the
earnings of men and women (ILO, 2007)

9.  Patriarchy is institutionalized dominance of
males over females in home and society:
promotes and legitimizes male privileges over
females in major social institutions from
family to education, religion, economy and
the political spheres.
 Sexism is the idea of male supremacy,
allowing men to believe that they are crucial
to the existence and protection of women
and that women have their identity through
men.
Source: UN Women/IPS Africa “Advocacy Toolkit for Women in Politics

10.  “The systematic, unfavorable treatment of individuals
on the basis of gender, which denies them rights,
opportunities or resources”*
 Gender imbalance is not just a theoretical idea, it
exists. In the case of gender discrimination, males or
females may be prevented from social participation
or opportunities due to their sex and the gender roles
associated with them.
 What are some possible ways that men or women
could be discriminated against in an organization on
the basis of their sex?
 * Source: Reeves and Badan (2000)

11.  “Widely held but oversimplified belief, image
or idea about a person or group” on the basis
of social construction of gender. For
example, stereotypes may be formed on the
general idea of what a ‘responsible’ man or a
‘good’ women should be.
 Often portrayed and reinforced by the media
 What are some commonly held gender
stereotypes about ‘working women’,
unmarried men or women, etc.

12.  As we progress in the workshop, several
additional gender concepts and issues will be
defined in the relevant sections, including:
 Gender roles
 Gender mainstreaming
 Gender budgeting
 Gender analysis,
 Gender blind
 Gender policy
Many of these concepts are defined and discussed in
some of the reading materials provided.

13.  Stage 1: Total Neglect of Women (pre-
1970’s)
 Stage 2: Awareness of important role played
by women in economic activities (beginning
in decade of 1970s)
 Stage 3: Sector analysis of women’s role in
economy, education, agriculture, etc (late
’70s – into 80’s) & going into identifying
gender-related, locality-specific differences
(from early ’80s on) with studies on Yoruba,
Hausa, etc.

14.  Stage 4: Application of gender issues,
particularly for women, to program design,
such as WIA.
 Stage 5: Move toward changing gender
relations for more effective development
impact while giving females more control
over resource, decision-making, etc.

15.  Also known as Welfare Approach
 Focused on Econ. Growth Dev. Model
 Time (1950-1970)
 Emphasized capital-intensive infrastructural
development, creation of employment
opportunities (in formal sector), increased
household income, increase consumption
level

16.  Impact / Problems included increased
poverty
 Increased gender inequality with women
seen as passive recipients
 Promoted gender-blind policies & planning
– meeting only reproductive role needs of
women (nutrition, child care, family
planning)
 However, also succeeded in bringing
women’s conditions into national /
international agenda

17.  1st WID Approach focused on equity –
adopted during women’s decade (1975-85)
 Triple roles of women recognized –
productive, reproductive & community
 Criticized as top-down and being too
Western – thereby inappropriate
 Government & men felt threatened by
approach

18.  2nd WID Approach focused on anti-poverty
(1970s onward)
 Focused on women’s productive role and
overcoming poverty through enhanced
income-generation with micro-enterprises,
etc.
 Problems arose from focusing only on
females’ productive roles, women treated as
a homogeneous groups, official reluctance
to empower women’s groups

19.  3rd WID Approach – Efficiency Model (post 1980s)
 Recognized importance of women’s productivity –
viewing incorporation of female’s participation in
economic activities to be efficient for development
 Considered significance of econ. policy upon
producers’ capacity, including women
 Problems included that women seen only as
producers, traditional norms & values that
promoted female powerlessness not challenged,
increased women’s burden without compensating
for time constraints.

20.  4th Approach – Empowerment Model (1975
onward, popularized in 80s)
 Purpose to empower women through
greater self-reliance and considered
women’s subordination as the problem
 Approach was bottom-up
 Focused on women’s triple roles
 Problem was that largely unsupported by
Government or international agencies
(considered as being critical of Western
feminists

21.  Men and women considered co-partners in
development
 Gender-related roles, needs, control over
resources, etc., recognized as being different
 Development should purposively target these
gender differences
 No longer separate programmes for women,
but both men and women as component parts
 Gender seen as cross-cutting issue
 Multiple roles seen for both males and females

22.  At one time, females working in the formal
sector, including universities, suffered many
disadvantages because they were women.
Things have gotten better.
 We owe a debt of gratitude to the pioneer
women who forged ahead in a ‘man’s world’
to make their own impact, despite gender
discrimination

23.  Gender relationships are socially engineered and
maintained in a complex web of social norms and
values, manifesting in institutional and interaction
opportunities and / or restrictions for males and
females.
 It is important to approach gender-related issues
holistically, to see the whole picture of
opportunities and constraints, activities and values,
personal characteristics of age, education, status
and so on to plan a strategy that will truly be
beneficial for both the society or organizations at
large, but also the at the level of the individual.

24.  Understanding the social diversity of women’s
conditions, activities and potential
 Recognizing that not all women are gender-
sensitive: at times it is women that are making
it more difficult for other women to progress!
 Importance of good information on both men
and women, not women alone
 Install mechanisms for women to retain
benefits
 Evaluation of long-term impact of policy or
operational changes

25.  Gender-specific data should not be for
knowledge only, but for application
 While there has been progress in knowledge
of gender relations, this has sometimes been
used to overgeneralize to all males or females
which can be inappropriate
 Need to use gender information as an input
into policy formation and program
implementation;
 Workshops like this show that awareness is
growing.

26.  There are several gender-related dimensions for
developing strategies to enhance well-being of
both males and females. There are no perfect
solutions that will work in every situation, but
knowledge of conditions for both will be a major
step toward tangible improvements for all
members of the organization that will be long-
lasting. This should be our goal.