GENDER

Gender is a basic organizing principle of societies, particularly in the division of labor in

families, communities and market place.

Although gender roles limit both women and men, they generally have had a more repressive
impact on women.

Gender is the state of being male or female in relation to

the social and cultural roles thatare considered appropriate for men and women.

GENDER ROLES

Gender roles in society means how we’re expected to act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct
ourselves based upon our assigned sex.

For example, girls and women are generally expected to dress in typically feminine ways and be
polite, accommodating, and nurturing. Men are generally expected to be strong, aggressive, and bold.

Every society, ethnic group, and culture has gender role expectations, but they can be very different
from group to group. They can also change in the same society over time.

For example, pink used to be considered a masculine color in the U.S. while blue was considered
feminine.

GENDER STEREOTYPES

How do gender stereotypes affect people?

A stereotype is a widely accepted judgment or bias about a person or group — even though
it’s overly simplified and not always accurate.

Stereotypes about gender can cause unequal and unfair treatment because of a person’s
gender.

There are four basic kinds of gender stereotypes:

Personality traits — For example, women are often expected to be accommodating and emotional,
while men are usually expected to be self-confident and aggressive.

Domestic behaviors — For example, some people expect that women will take care of the children,
cook, and clean the home, while men take care of finances, work on the car, and do the home
repairs.

Occupations — Some people are quick to assume that teachers and nurses are women, and that
pilots, doctors, and engineers are men.

Physical appearance — For example, women are expected to be thin and graceful, while men are
expected to be tall and muscular. Men and women are also expected to dress and groom in ways that
are stereotypical to their gender (men wearing pants and short hairstyles, women wearing dresses
and make-up
The four gender norms from traditional to progressive

Norm 1 (Childcare and Housework): Women’s primary role perceived as carer for children and family
members, home maker

Norm 2 (Breadwinning and Family Income): Men’s perceived role as primary income earner/provider
for the family

Norm 3 (Job segregation): Perceptions that certain job types are more suitable for women and others
for men, leading to occupational segregation

Norm 4 (Leadership): Perceptions of women as better in supportive roles and men as better leaders

GENDER ISSUES

Any issue or concern determined by gender-based and/or sex-based differences between

women and men.

Include all aspects and concerns related to women’s and men’s lives and situation in society,
to the way they interrelate, their differences in access to and use of resources, their activities,
and how they react to changes, interventions and policies.

GENDER INEQUITY IN ALL AREAS OF LIFE:

FAMILY – Women are overburdened with household and family responsibilities; some women who
worked outside the family have the same household duties than those who are purely housewives.
NORM 1 (Childcare and Housework)

WORKPLACE – women are discriminated when they are married; deprived of employment;
promotion; receive lower salary than men with the same responsibility; maybe subjected to sexual
harassment during hiring and promotion. Only 1 or 2% occupy executive position. Norm 3 (Job
segregation)

MORTALITY/MORBIDITY RATES – Women exceeds men in mortality/morbidity rates especially

during childhood and reproductive years. Norm 1 (Childcare and Housework)

GOVERNANCE – There are very few women in local and national governance; women themselves
lack the confidence on themselves to enter politics and may not have confidence on others to do the
same. Politics is associated with the macho culture of aggression and violence, which threatens most
women to enter the field. Women make up less than 5% of the world’s head of state. Norm 4
(Leadership)

FOOD AND MEDICAL CARE – due to parents’ bias towards boys who receive the best food and
medical care, female children age 1-4 have higher mortality rates in 17 of the world’s poorest
countries.

EDUCATION – female lags behind that of males out of the 129 million children of primary age not in
school 77 million or 60% are girls. Dropout rates for girls peak at about the 5 th grade and remains
high. Norm 3 (Job segregation)

Thelma Lee Mendoza defines socially disadvantaged women (or women n especially difficult
circumstances) to include women who are victims of gender based violence (domestic wife beating,
marital rape, incest rape, sexual harassment) prostituted women, solo parents.

Varied social legislation involving women:

RA 7192 – Women in development and nation building

RA 7877 – Anti-sexual harassment act of 1995

RA 8353 – Anti-Rape Law

RA 9262 – Violence against women and children

Key Insights

What you see in your social circles matters.

The inequality or inequality of others’ attitudes are strongly linked to the equality or inequality of one’s
own attitudes. Observations of others’ behaviour are moderately linked to one’s own’s attitudes.

What you saw growing up matters

Urban millennials who witnessed their parents equally sharing childcare and breadwinning when they
were growing up were more likely to practice childcare and breadwinning equality in their own home.
For people from other countries, millennials who saw parents practice equality, they were not only
more likely to practice equality in their home but also in the way they viewed job segregation and
leadership.

What you see in media matters

Watching progressive media—that is, media where women and men are equally seen taking care of
children, doing housework and in leadership roles at work—correlates with more equal behavior for
men and women across all four gender norms and for men on childcare and breadwinning norms.

If urban millennial people in the Philippines are going to embrace gender equality, they will need to
see others – from their social circles and in the media – embracing gender equality too.

What is Gender Equality?

Gender equality is a state in which one’s gender does not determine one’s opportunities, freedoms, or
importance. Gender parity – a measure of gender balance in a given situation – and gender equity –
allocating resources and power evenly between men and women – are tools to achieve gender
equality.

According to the UN Development Programme Gender Inequality Index, there is no country where
women have equal or greater freedoms and resources than men. While many nations surveyed have
made progress towards equality, several have stagnated and a few notable cases. Data is not even
available for all countries, shrouding the issue in some mystery.

Gender equality cannot be fully understood without intersectionality. Women face barriers for a
number of reasons besides their sex – including their class, race, ability, sexual preference, gender
identity, and a host of other factors.

It requires that all women, regardless of these other factors, have equal opportunities. Intersectional
feminism is the term that describes seeking equality for all women of every background.

Why is Gender Equality Important?

Gender Equality is so essential to advancing human progress that it is the Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG) 5, as the UN explains:

“Advancing gender equality is critical to all areas of a healthy society, from reducing poverty to
promoting the health, education, protection and the well-being of girls and boys.”

Indeed, the World Bank reports that if women made as much as men the global economy would
benefit to the tune of $160.2 trillion loss. And an economic loss is not the only factor.

Movements like eco-feminism have connected gender equality to other issues, like the environment.

Elevating women to positions of leadership has many benefits for the world, women and men alike.
Despite these facts, progress on gender inequality is unacceptably slow, according to a report from
UN Women.

Not only is SDG 5 not on target, it is impeding the progress of the other SDGs.
How to Achieve Gender Equality

There are many ways that donors can make an impact on gender equality. The UN offers
suggestions oriented around SDG 5.

The Guardian shared these 12 steps to gender equality:

Talk to women and girls. Involving women in girls in decision-making at every level will empower
them to contribute valuable insights and lift up other women. Make sure that these women are heard,
understood, and truly included in the process.

Let girls use mobile phones. Around the world being connected is vital to safety and economic
mobility. Overcoming the infrastructure and cost challenges of expanding connectivity is essential to
this process.

Stop child marriage and sexual harassment. Children who marry instead of attending school have
few or no options to better their situation throughout their lives. Sexual harassment causes trauma
and excludes women from being full participants in important settings like school, work, politics, and
their communities.

Make education gender sensitive. Education systems that reinforce gender norms and stereotypes
hurt gender equality and impede girls’ attempts to grow into different roles.

Raise aspirations of girls and their parents. Girls and their families need to believe in and desire
great possibilities in order to achieve them.

Empower mothers. Mothers with resources and education send their daughters to school.

Give proper value to “women’s work.” Care work – like household chores, childcare, and care for
the elderly and sick – is important, unpaid, and disproportionately completed by women. The
expectation that this work should be completed for free, by women, severely limits their opportunities.

Get women into power. Women in power can break down barriers and allow for the success of other
women. This means in every sector and every industry, including global health.

Encourage women into non-traditional vocations. Breaking stereotypes offers women new
economic opportunity and freedom.

Work together. Massive, global undertakings like gender equality will not see progress if work is
completed in silos.

Stop the violence. Violence against women keeps them from achieving their goals. Properly
addressing domestic violence is essential.

Beware the backlash. It is important to remember that there are people who actively wish to
maintain or increase the current level of gender equality. Ensuring that these individuals do not undo
the progress that is made is crucial. One way to avoid this problem is to engage men for gender
equality.