1. Gender Sensitization and Role of
women
Muhammad Yaqoob
RN, BScN, MSN
Lecturer
Institute of Nursing
Dow University of Health Sciences
September 04, 2014
2. Objectives
At the end of today’s session students will able to:
1) Describe gender as a sociological construct
2) Analyze personal and cultural perceptions towards
gender
3) Discuss social perceptions and status regarding men
and women
4) Discuss the role and status of women in Pakistani
society
5) Evaluate societal attitudes towards factors enhancing
women’s status
4. "Sex"
Refers to the biological and
physiological characteristics that define
men and women.
5. "Gender"
Refers to the socially constructed roles,
behaviors, activities, and attributes that a
given society considers appropriate for men
and women.
6. Putting it another way:
Sex= “male" and "female“
Gender = "masculine" and "feminine”
7.
8. Gender or Sex?
1. Women give birth to babies, men do not.
2. Girls are gentle; boys are rough.
3. Women breastfeed babies; men can bottle-
feed babies
4. Doctors are men; nurses are women.
5. Boys don’t cry.
9. Gender or Sex?
6. Boys are good at math and science and girls
are good at language and history.
7. When one thinks of an engineer, one hardly
ever thinks of a woman.
8. Women work two-thirds of the world’s
working hours, produce half of the world’s food
and yet earn only 10% of the world’s income
and own less than 1% of the world’s property.
10. Gender or Sex?
9. Boys’ voices break at puberty, girls’ do
not.
10. Kindergarten teachers should be
women; men are not good at taking care
of young children.
11. Aspects of sex will not vary substantially
between different human societies, while
aspects of gender may vary greatly.
Some examples of sex characteristics :
Women menstruate while men do not
Men have testicles while women do not
Women have developed breasts that are usually capable of
lactating, while men have not
Men generally have more massive bones than women
12. Some examples of gender characteristics :
In the United States (and most other countries), women
earn significantly less money than men for similar work
In Viet Nam, many more men than women smoke, as
female smoking has not traditionally been considered
appropriate
In some countries men are allowed to drive cars while
women are not
In most of the world, women do more housework than
men
13. Gender role
The term gender role is used to signify all those
things that a person says or does to disclose
himself/herself as having the status of boy or
man, girl or woman, respectively.
14. Emotions
Culture impacts gender differences in the
expression of emotions. This may be
partly explained by the different social
roles men and women have in different
cultures, and by the status and power men
and women hold in different societies, as
well as the different cultural values various
societies hold.
15. Happinness
Overall, women claim to be far happier than
men with their lives, and reported more often
that they had made personal progress .
Women show greater concern about family
and home life issues, while men express
more concern about political issues. Men are
happier with their family life and more
optimistic about their personal future and that
of their children.
16. Working preferences
women are more likely than men to
consider factors other than pay when
looking for work, are less willing to
travel or relocate, and work fewer hours
per week.
This difference is due to women not
taking jobs due to marriage or
pregnancy.
17. Women are more likely than men to be
social workers, legal assistants,
teachers, nurses, speech pathologists,
dental hygienists, maids and
housekeeping cleaners, and childcare
workers.
18. More men than women work in the following
industries: construction, transportation and
utilities, farming, computer and mathematical
occupations, engineering, and architecture.
Men are more likely than women to be
firefighters, police and patrol officers,
electricians, dentists, and surgeons.
19. Many countries, including Mexico, India, Germany,
Brazil, and Australia require companies to grant 12-
week maternity leave for working women at full pay.
In Sweden there is equal rights to take
maternity/paternity leave. The duration is 18 months
per child with 80% of full pay. Each parent must be at
home minimum 60 days to qualify for the maximum
pay.
20. Education
Worldwide, men are more likely to be
literate, with 100 men considered
literate for every 88 women. In some
countries the difference is even greater;
for example, in Bangladesh only 62
women are literate for every 100 men
21. Suicide
Males are much more likely to die by suicide than
females (usually by a factor of 3–4:1); 69 out of 74
non-western countries found an excess male
mortality from suicide.
While there are more completed male suicides than
female, females are more likely to attempt suicide.
One possible explanation is that males tend to use
more immediately lethal methods than females, who
use less violent methods while attempting suicide.
Another theory is that females are more likely to use
self-harm as a cry for help or attention while males
are more likely to genuinely want to end their lives.
22. Crime
Males are more likely than females to
commit murder. Men are also far more
likely than women to be the victims of
violent crime
23. Internet use
Men log on more often, spend more time
online, and for recreation such as
downloading music and videos
24. Marriage and sexuality
Marriage customs are dependent on culture and differ
greatly across countries and even in subcultures within
the same country.
For example, many marriages in India/Pakistan are
arranged, whereas in the Western World most people
choose their own partners
25. Clothing
In most cultures, different sorts of clothing are considered
In Western societies, skirts and dresses and high-heeled shoes are
usually seen as women's clothing, while neckties are generally worn
by men. Trousers were once seen as exclusively male clothing, but
are nowadays worn by both sexes. Male clothes are often more
practical (that is, they can function well under a wide variety of
situations), but a wider range of clothing styles is available for
females appropriate for men and women.
26. Islam requires both sexes to wear modest
clothing. What qualifies as "modest" varies
in different Muslim societies; however,
women are usually required to cover more
of their bodies than men are. Articles of
clothing worn by Muslim women for
purposes of modesty range from the
headscarf to the burqa.
27. Role and status of women in
Pakistani society
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of
the person. Men and women of full age without any
limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the
right to marry or to have a family. They are entitled to
equal rights as to marriage and its dissolution.
Marriage shall be entered in to only with the free and
full consent of the attending spouses. The family is
the natural and fundamental group, unit of society
and is entitled to protection by society and state."
(Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3 & 16)
28. All these beautifully constructed sentences
take a180 degrees turn while considering the
status of specifically 'women' in Pakistan.
Our women still seem to be living in the dark
ages.
It is a matter of deep sorrow that being
Muslims we have completely forgotten the
status of women given by Islam
29. In Pakistan the story of a woman's deprivations start even
before her birth, because the girl-child is not a
particularly 'wanted' child. Her life is a journey of
subordination. When she is young her father decides for
her on matters ranging from whether she will get any
education, to the all important matters of whom she
would marry. After marriage, her husband and her in-
laws get hold of her reins and decide matters on her
behalf; like shall she or shall she not have a child every
year, or whether she would produce only boys, or
whether she can seek independent employment and so
on.
30. Women in Pakistan face all kinds of gross violence and
abuse at the hands of the male perpetuators, family
members and state agents. Multiple forms of violence
include rape; domestic abuse as spousal murder,
mutilation, burning and disfiguring faces by acid,
beatings; ritual honour-killings and custodial abuse and
torture.
31. The role of media in Pakistan has also been lethargic in
terms of improving the status of women.
Pakistan television (PTV) plays have a crosscutting
viewership, especially among women. However, plays
mostly revolve around formula-based story lines, which
cast women in either submissive roles or at the other
extreme as westernized glamour girls.
A recently conducted survey by a United Nations
Development Programme on 'Portrayal of women in
media' indicates that the viewers' preferences are now
tilting in favour of more gender-balanced portraying of
women. The respondents of the survey feel that the
negative stereotypical images of highly emotional and
suppressed women should be reduced and downplayed
32. The two ways through which this target can be achieved is firstly
through proper commitment of our home media (TV, Radio
Newspapers and Films) that has the power to mould public opinion
and here the government's support has to be unconditional.
The second way is the evolutionary process through which the
mothers by being independent of religion, caste or creed can instill
in their children from the very beginning that both the genders are
important and 'honourable' and have a key role to play in the
society. But the problem is that this is only possible when women
are educated and supported by the government as equal and
feeling beings to benefit from the latest technology and contribute
efficiently to the country's uplift
