This 3-week course introduces students to gender concepts and analyses gender relations and inequalities in African societies. It aims to help students understand how African societies are gendered and examine the impacts of gender inequalities on development. The course also examines state and civil society responses to addressing gender issues, including policies, laws, and grassroots efforts. Progress has been made, but gender inequalities and stereotypes remain challenges.

1. Duration: 3 Weeks
INTRODUCTION TO GENDER

2. Course Objectives
To help students identify why and in what ways African
societies are gendered
To examine the impacts of gender relations and inequalities
on development
To critically examine state and civil society responses to
gender inequalities.

3. Learning Objectives
• By the end of the session you should:
– Distinguish the difference between gender and
sex
– Be familiar with key gender concepts
– Be able to identify gender issues in everyday life
– Provide a gender analysis of major social problems
in Africa
– Become familiar with state and civil society efforts
to address gender inequalities.

4. BOYS WILL BE BOYS AND GIRLS
“BOYS WILL BE BOYS AND GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS.”SUZANNE
WILL ROMAINE
BE GIRLS

5. ???
• GENDER Gender Gender
Women Gender
Sex Men Femininity
• GENDER SexGender
Women
GENDER Gender Gender Gender
Masculinity
GENDER Men GENDER
Gender Women

6. What is gender?
• Sex versus gender
Female versus woman
Male versus man
• Gender relations or social relations of gender
– Women and men
– Women and women
– Men and men
– Women/men and institutions, social phenomenon,
systems, etc.

7. Definition: Gender Vs. Sex
Unlike sex, which is a biological
concept, gender is a social construct
specifying the socially and culturally
prescribed ideas about the behaviour,
actions, and roles a particular sex
performs and follows.

8. Why is gender important?

9. Because…….life is gendered.

10. Brain Teaser
• The boy is the biological son of the
doctor, but the doctor is not the
father of the boy. What is the Doctor
to the boy?

11. Brain Storming Exercise
• What are some of the important events or
influences in your childhood that you feel
influenced your sense of being male or
female?
• Consider messages you received from
parents, teachers, peers, role models, pastors
• Consider messages about, region identity,
ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, age

12. Gender is a social construct…

13. …but there are commonalities.

14. Common features of gender relations
• Gendered divisions of labour
• Differential power  patriarchy
• Gender ideologies and myths

15. Common features of gender relations
• Gendered division of labour
–Productive and reproductive roles
–Male roles and responsibilities valued
more than women’s
–Women roles and responsibilities
undervalued
–‘private’ and ‘public’ dichotomy

16. Power
–Power as control of resources (land,
power, labour, education, training, etc.)
–Power as patriarchy -a social system in
which the role of the male as the
primary authority figure is central to
social organisation and where fathers
hold authority over women, children
and property.

17. Common features of gender relations
• Gender ideologies (natural, unchanging, etc.)
• Gender myths and stereotypes (“women
are……,” “men are……..”).

18. What is gender (in)equality?
• Gender equality involves ensuring that the
perceptions, interests, needs and priorities of
women and men (which can be very different
because of their differing roles and
responsibilities) will be given equal weight in
all aspects of life, including planning and
decision-making.

19. Why is gender equality important?
• Equal rights, opportunities and
responsibilities is a matter of human rights
and social justice.
• Societies and cultures are richer and more
diverse with gender equality.
• Greater equality between women and men
isaprecondition for sustainable people-
centred development.

20. Equal rights and citizenship
• Definition of Citizenship
– Sense of belonging
– Rights and responsibilities
– It is a status
– It is a process
– It is formal
– It is informal

21. Constitutional Guarantees
of Citizenship
• All persons shall be equal before the law (17.1)
• A person shall not be discriminated against on
grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic origin,
religion, creed or social or economic status
(17.2).
• For the purposes of this article, “discriminate”
means to give different treatment to different
persons attributable only or mainly to
their respective descriptions by race, place of
origin, political opinions, colour, gender,
occupation, religion or creed…(17.3)

22. International Agreements
• The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
– Addresses women human rights issues
• The Vienna Declaration Programme of Action (1993)
– Women’s rights are human rights
– The human rights of women and the girl-child are an inalienable
integral and indivisible part of universal human rights
• International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (ICESCR)
– Seeks to provide economic, social and cultural rights of individuals,
including labour rights and rights to health, education, and an
adequate standard of living

23. International Agreements, Ctd.
• The African Union Solemn Declaration on
Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
• The African Charter on Human and People’s
Rights
– Effective measures should be undertaken to
ensure that women have an active role in the
development process

24. International Agreements Ctd.
• Beijing Platform for Action
– To advance the goals of equality, development and
peace for all women everywhere in the interest of
all humanity

25. Richer, more diverse cultures
• What is Culture?
–“The complex whole which includes
knowledge, belief, art, morals, law,
custom, and any other capabilities and
habits acquired by [a person] as a
member of society" (Tylor 1958 [1871]

26. Development Imperatives
• What is development?
– Movement from one level to another
– To enlarge opportunities and freedoms for people
– To expand, strengthen, evolve societies and
economies
– To exploit potentialities of resources to the benefit
of society/people

27. Development Imperatives
• Development is not neutral – there
are winners and losers -----
Development paths and outcomes
are gendered.

28. Week 2: State and Civil Society
Responses to Gender Inequalities
• Recap of Week 1
• At the end of today’s class, you should be able
to:
– Be familiar with the history of the feminist
movement
– Be familiar with arguments for affirmative action
and the forms affirmative action takes
– Identify the efforts that have been made globally,
regionally and locally to deal with gender
inequalities

29. History of efforts to address
gender inequalities
• Many efforts to deal with gender inequalities
over many centuries
• First Wave Feminism
– Women get the vote after long struggle by
suffragettes in U.S .and U.K.
• Second Wave Feminism
– Struggle for reproductive rights
– Right to work
– Equal pay for equal work

30. UN Processes
• Influence of second wave feminism on UN
– -Four world conferences – Mexico, Copenhagen,
Nairobi, Beijing
– Outcomes of world conferences
– CEDAW
– Millennium Development Goals (MDGs):
– Halving Poverty (MDG 1)
– Promote gender equality and empower women
(MDG 3)
– Improve Maternal Health (MDG 5)

31. International Development
Approaches
• Different approaches to addressing the impact
of development initiatives on women
• Women in Development (WID)
• Women and Development, (WAD)
• Gender and Development (GAD )
• Gender mainstreaming

32. National Level Processes
• Historical context to interventions in Ghana
• State policies and actions
• Civil society actions
• Group agency
• Individual agency

33. Historical Context to National
Interventions
• In colonial period no attempt made to address position and status
of women in traditional society.
• Colonialism gendered society further e.g. through discriminatory
education, jobs and preferential treatment introduced to traditional
occupations, e.g. cocoa farming.
• Post colonial history Nkrumah regime had social justice policies
which advantaged women, e.g. in job diversification for women,
women in public sector and politics, etc.
• Policies under other regimes, especially military, discriminatory
against women, e.g. early years of Armed Forces Revolution Council
(AFRC) and Provisional National Defence Council era (PNDC) when
young women and traders seen as cause of economic problems.
• PNDC period however also championed rights of women, especially
through 31st December Women’s Movement.

34. • Economic Recovery/Structural Adjustment of
1980s and ‘90s had negative effects on women,
e.g. taxes to informal sector, which is dominated
by women, promotion of cash crop farming and
neglect of food crop farming (where you find
most women)
• Economic recovery also introduced gender
differentials in access to services such as health
and education because of subsidy removals
• Mechanisms to redress through laws, policy and
other actions.

35. State Actions:
Legal Reform
• Intestate Succession Law, 1985 (PNDC
111): Protects the inheritance rights of
spouses and children
• Criminal code amendment act of 1994
section 69 (FGM)
• Criminal code amendment act of 1998
section 314.a (Trokosi)

36. State Actions:
Legal Reform
• The Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act
694)Domestic Violence Act, 2007 (Act
732): Seeks to protect the populace
against violence and abuse in homes
and institutions
• Property Rights of Spouses Bill (Before
Parliament)

37. State Action: Policy Reform
• Reproductive Health Policy and Strategy
• Gender Policy in Agriculture
• Girl-Child Education Policy
• Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy
• Maternity Leave policies
• Establishing of Women and Juvenile Unit
(WAJU) of Police service, now called Domestic
Violence Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU)

38. State Action:Affirmative Action

39. What is Affirmative Action?
A set of temporary measures adopted by
governments, public and private institutions
such as political parties, educational
establishments, corporations and companies
to address a history of systemic discrimination
and exclusion of particular social groups.

40. Background to Affirmative Action
• Origins in the USA used to address racial
discrimination
• South Africa used to address racial and gender
disparities after Apartheid
• Different kinds of affirmative action.
– Direct (qualitative or quantitative, i.e. quotas).
– Indirect (e.g. science clinics for girls and school
lunches for poor children )

41. Examples of affirmative action….?

42. Examples of Affirmative
Action
• Scholarship schemes (Northern Ghana
scholarships; cocoa marketing board
scholarships)
• Fee free education; Free textbooks and uniforms
• Targeted investments in infrastructure, education
and health in some Regions
• Reservations of seats for women (10 women in
parliament)
• Measures to promote participation of women in
certain professions

43. Examples, Ctd.
• School meals in certain districts
• Reserved places in state universities for students
from deprived districts
• Girl Child Education Policies
• Lower cut-off point for girls in tertiary education
• Science clinics for girls
• 50% of appointed district assembly members are
women

44. Affirmative Action Quotas
Quotas are only effective when backed by law
and when policies such as electoral reform,
political education, the mobilisation of citizens
and the removal of obstacles to women’s
ability to utilise the quotas are removed

45. Value of affirmative Action?

46. Value of affirmative Action
• Discrimination of any form does not self correct.
Instead, it perpetuates itself
• Improves representation of women
• Ensures a critical mass which can make a difference
(e.g. 30% of women in decision making bodies)
• Provides more female role models and improves
awareness of the issues.
• Guarantees gender balanced policy making at all levels
of government.
• Allows considerable skills to be brought into decision
making structures.

47. Civil Society Action
Civil Society is composed of civic and social
organizations and institutions that are
distinct from the state.

48. Civil Society Action, Ctd.
• Since colonial period women’s organisations
important part of civil society organising:
• Market women active in anti-colonial struggles
• Women’s associations
• Women’s NGOs
• Women’s coalitions, e.g. NETRIGHT
• Women’s coalitions to demand specific actions, e.g.
Domestic Violence Coalition, Women’s Manifesto
Coalition

49. Examples: Civil Society Actions
• Getting the vote
• Getting access to reproductive freedom (birth
control)
• Women’s action in anti-apartheid struggle
• Women’s action to end war in Liberia
• Getting Domestic Violence Law passed
• Improving women’s participation in politics
• Queenmothers associations supporting different
causes (HIV, girl’s skills training, etc.)

50. Group Agency
• Agency refers to:
– The means or mode of acting; instrumentality.
– Conveys the idea that people are not passive and can
change their situations through self conscious action
• The role of women’s self-help groups
– Micro-finance groups , e.g. susu
– Women’s cooperative, e.g. shea butter, beading,
pottery, bread making, etc.
– Widows support group
– HIV social network groups

51. Individual Agency
• Instances where people have triggered change by
their actions:
– Taking legal action (e.g. Women who petitioned
CHRAJ on workplace sexual harassment: FanAir,
NADMO)
– Taking a stand against gender discriminatory practices
(e.g. Swaziland where mother of Reed Dance Bride
protested)
– Leaving abusive relationships,
– Learning new skills to improve lives
– Helping others

52. Progress toward gender equality ?

53. Progress
• More consciousness of the importance of
gender equality
• Some issues being addressed, e.g. narrowing
gap between boys and girls in education
• In some countries strong representation of
women in politics, e.g. Rwanda, South Africa

54. • Important legislation, e.g. Domestic violence
law has been passed.
• Increased number of women in professional
careers and in decision-making
• Improved maternal health coverage
• More access to credit for women

55. Remaining Problems ?

56. Remaining Problems
• Women still disproportionately poor
• Political representation of women low. In Ghana
only about 8 percent women in Parliament
• Incidents of violence against women high despite
the law
• Gender stereotyping and attitudes towards
women reflect male privilege

57. Why is progress slow?

58. Why Progress is slow
• Enormity of the challenge
• Cultures evolve slowly
• Attitudinal and behavioural change difficult to
achieve
• Weak political will
• Poor implementation of policies
• Not enough resources devoted to resolving
issues

59. Consciousness-Raising Activity
– Identify a positive action toward women and/or
men that you may not have done before this
course
– Describe a liberating act that is positive and
consciousness raising that could help change the
quality of people’s lives
– Your action must be non-violent and legal

60. Week 3: Film
• The CEGENSA Resource Centre has a number
of films that can be shown to illustrate some
of the issues discussed in the introductory
class.
• We recommend for example:
– The Witches of Gambaga
– Pray the Devil Back to Hell
– Fat Kine
– Molade

61. Questions Following Film
• What gender issues did the film illustrate for
you?