GENDER ISSUES IN DEVELOPMENT

Table of Content Introduction Unit Objectives Lecture One: The Concept of Gender 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Objectives 1.3 Definitions of Key terms in Gender and Development 1.3.1 1.3.2 1.3.3 1.3.4 1.3.5 1.3.6 1.3.7 1.3.8 1.3.9 Gender Gender Equality Gender Equity Gender Inequality Gender Discrimination Gender Sensitivity Gender Awareness Gender Analysis Gender Mainstreaming

1.4 Gender Equity versus Gender Equality 1.5 Relevance of Gender Differences 1.6 Theoretical Perspectives in Gender Issues

1.7 Summary

Lecture Two: Historical Background of Gender and Development (GAD) From 1960 to the present 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Objectives 2.3 Gender and Development 2.4 Historical Development of Gender and Development 2.5 Gender and the Millennium Development Goals 2.6 Importance of Gender Issues in Development 2.7 Summary Lecture Three: Social Construction of Gender 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Objectives 3.3 An Understanding of Socialization 3.4 Distinction between Gender and Sex 3.5 Social Constructionism vs Social Constructivism 3.6 The Social Construction of Gender 3.7 Summary Lecture Four: Gender Roles in Society 4.1 Introduction

4.2 Objectives 4.3 Gender Roles 4.4 Gender Division of Labor 4.5 Factors inhibiting women from performing certain jobs 4.6 Factors that justify womens inability to do certain jobs 4.7 Summary Lecture Five: Gender Approaches to Development 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Objectives 5.3 What is Development? 5.4 The Womens Challenge to Modernization and Development 5.5 The Origin of Women and Development 5.6 Summary Lecture Six: Gender Integration in Development Processes 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Objectives 6.3 What is Gender Integration? 6.4 Differences between Integration of Women in development and Integration of gender in Development 6.5 Theories of Gendered Socialization 6.6 Gender Integration Strategies 6.7 Summary

Lecture Seven: Gender Issues that Affect Development 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Objectives 7.3 Gender Equality and Development 7.4 The Situation in Kenya 7.5 Gender Issues that affect development 7.6 Summary Lecture Eight: Emerging Trends in Gender Issues 8.1 Introduction 8.2 Objectives 8.3 Gender and Violence 8.4 Gender in development and in HIV/AIDS 8.5 Bringing Women into Governance 8.6 The Need for Gender Empowerment for Development

Lecture Nine: Gender and Environment 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.4.1 Introduction Objectives The Genesis of Gender and Environment Key Issues in Gender and Environment Gender and Water

9.4.2 9.4.3

Gender, Poverty and Environment Gender, Security, Conflict and Environment

9.4.3.1 Gender, Security and Conflict 9.4.3.2 Impact of Conflict on Environment 9.5 9.5.1 9.5.2 9.6 Gender, Vulnerability and Environmental Change Livelihood Resilience Opportunities for Self- Protection Disaster Mitigation and Early Warning Systems

Lecture Ten: Challenges Facing Gender Mainstreaming in Development Agenda 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 Introduction Objectives Definition of Gender Mainstreaming Important factors to be considered before a mainstreaming policy Challenges facing gender mainstreaming Bridging the gaps to address gender inequalities Summary

COURSE OUTLINE: 1. Definition of Gender concepts; gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender balance, gender integration, gender development etc 2. The historical background of Gender and Development (GAD) from 1960 to the present 3. Social construction of gender: Applications and their implications on gender and development 4. Gender roles in Society and challenges (social/cultural problems) with respect to cross gender power and economic relations (in African context) 5. Gender Approaches to Development Gender and development

Women in Development Women and Development MDGs Vision 2030

6. Gender integration in development processes: Factors/policies that impede gender integration in development; women rights, education, training, leadership, economic services and labor convention on gender issues, religion, land tenancy system, culture 7. Gender issues that affect development in society 8. Emerging trends in gender issues, HIV/AIDs, women and empowerment (democratic governance), crisis prevention and recovery, gender and environment 9. Challenges facing gender mainstreaming in development agenda: A case look of Africa.

UNIT OBJECTIVES At the end of this course unit you should be able to: 1. Explain the concepts of gender 2. Explain the historical background of gender and development 3. Describe the social construction of gender 4. Identify gender roles in society 5. Discuss the gender approaches to development

6. Discuss gender integration in development 7. Discuss gender issues that affect societal development 8. Describe the emerging trends in gender and development 9. Explain the challenges facing gender mainstreaming in the development agenda

LECTURE ONE THE CONCEPT OF GENDER 1.1 Introduction

In this lecture, we shall define gender. In the process of doing so, we shall also look at the key concepts in gender and development. We shall then move on to discuss the importance of gender issues in development. Thereafter we shall look at gender mainstreaming. We shall go further and look at gender in project and policy cycles.

1.2 Objectives At the end of the lecture, you should be able to: Define gender, gender equity, gender equality, gender balance and Gender integration Differentiate between Gender Equity versus Gender Equality Discuss the importance of gender issues in development Explain the relationship between gender and development

1.3

Definitions of Key Terms in Gender and Development

In this sub section we shall define key terms/concepts that will enhance our understanding of gender and development. 1.3.1 Gender According to Porter and Sweetman (2005), gender refers to the socially constructed roles of and relations between men and women. Let us differentiate gender from sex. Sex refers to biological characteristics which define humans as female or male. These biological characteristics are not mutually exclusive however, as there are individuals who possess both though rare. From our definition we can see that gender refers to roles that are created in our families, our culture, and our society. The concept of gender thus includes the characteristics, aptitudes and behavior held about men and women. Gender roles and expectations are learnt. They can change over time and they vary between cultures. The systems of social differentiation such as political status, ethnicity class, physical and mental disability, age and many more modify gender roles. . The concept of gender is vital because, applied to social analysis it reveals how womens insubordination (mens domination) is socially constructed. This can either be changed or ended.

However, it is important to note that there are some societies where there is male subordination and female dominance

Activity 1.1 Identify a society where men are subordinated. Identify other social factors that will modify gender roles in your community.

The term gender is often used to refer to the different roles of both men and women play in the society. According to World Bank, 2003, gender is defined as the varying roles and attributes of men and women in diverse social, cultural and political contexts. In order to engender national development, it is necessary not only to understand and indicate how womens roles and situations differ from those of men but to understand how men and women may be differently represented and affected by the project or program implementation (World Bank, 2003).

Generally women are under-represented in almost every area recognized as a development activity. Even in areas where women are well represented at lower and medium levels for instance they are under-represented at the higher levels of decisionmaking. It has also been shown that womens employment is heavily concentrated in a few occupations. They work typically at home and farm helpers, nurses, lower- school teachers, secretaries and so on.

1.3.2 Gender Equality Gender equality refers to equal opportunities and outcomes for women and men i.e. no discrimination on grounds of a person's sex in the allocation of resources or benefits, or in the access to service (Peter and Horn, 2005). This involves the removal of

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discrimination and structural inequalities in access to resources.

Opportunities and

services, and the promotion of equal rights Equality does not mean that women should be the same as men. Promoting equality recognizes that men and women have differences and needs, and takes these into account in development planning and program. Gender equality means women and men have equal opportunities to realize their individual potential to contribute to their countrys economic and social development and to benefit equally from their participation in society. economic growth. Gender equality may be measured in terms of whether there is equality of opportunity, or equality of results. The UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women can be understood as a statement on what the principle of gender equality of opportunity should mean in practice for all aspects of life, and all sectors of the economy. 1.3.3 Gender Equity Let us first understand the meaning of equity before we look at gender equity. Equity Gender inequality restricts a countrys

means fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits and responsibilities. Equity may also mean "having a stake in" or "having a share of"(Peter and Horn, 2005). There has been a debate as to whether equality or equity should be the goals of empowerment and change. It is therefore an important component of equality. Technically equality before the law could and often does exist without those deemed to be "equal" really "having a stake in". However, because the meaning of equity seems to depend on the definition of fairness and justice, it is often said to be a lesser term that equality. In addition, in its legal sense the term equity may suggest a limited notion of the concept of justice, since equity refers to justice within the existing law, rather than justice by changing the law. Gender equity requires equal enjoyment by women and men of socially valued goods, opportunities, resources and rewards. Gender equity does not mean that women and men become the same, but that their opportunities and life chances are equal. Gender equity is thus an approach directed towards ensuring that development policies and interventions

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leave women no worse off economically or in terms of social responsibility than before the intervention. This approach tries to make equity visible by using indicators which reveal the human cost of many activities, for example, provision of fuel and water and also ensure that women have a fair share of the benefits, as well as the responsibilities of the society, equal treatment before the law, equal access to social provisions; education; equal pay for work of the same value 1.3.4 Gender Inequality This exists where a system of gender discrimination is practiced by public or social institutions. Structural gender inequality is more entrenched if it is maintained by administrative rules and laws, rather than by only custom and traditions. 1.3.5 Gender Discrimination This means to give differential treatment to individuals on the grounds of their gender. In many societies, this involves systematic and structural discrimination against women in the distribution of income, access to resources and participation in decision making. 1.3.6 Gender Sensitivity This is the ability to recognize gender issues, and especially the ability to recognize women's different perceptions and interests arising from their different social location and different gender roles. Gender sensitivity is often used to mean the same as gender awareness, although gender awareness can also mean the extra ability to recognize gender issues which remain "hidden" from those with a more conventional point of view. But here we define gender sensitivity as the beginning of gender awareness.

1.3.7 Gender Awareness

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This means the ability to identify problems arising from gender inequality and discrimination. In other words, gender awareness means a high level of gender conscientisation. 1.3.8 Gender Analysis Gender Analysis takes into account social and economical differences between women and men at each stage of policy development for the purpose of:

Revealing potential different impact of policy, program and law on women and men; Ensuring equal results for women and men, boys and girls, in measures design and implementation

Gender Analysis is thus a close examination of a problem or situation in order to identify the gender issues. The Women's Equality & Empowerment Framework provides a way of unpacking the different aspects of gender issues in the development process, in order to make them more visible and easily recognizable. Gender analysis of a development program involves identifying the gender issues within the problem which is being addressed and in the obstacles to progress, so that these issues can be addressed in all aspects of the program - in project objectives, in the choice of intervention strategy and the methods of program implementation. 1.3.9 Gender Mainstreaming Gender Mainstreaming is a globally accepted strategy for promoting gender equality. Mainstreaming is not an end in itself but a strategy, an approach, a means to achieve the goal of gender equality. Mainstreaming involves ensuring that gender perspectives and attention to the goal of gender equality are central to all activities - policy development, research, advocacy/ dialogue, legislation, resource allocation, and planning, implementation and monitoring of programs and projects.

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Gender mainstreaming is the (re)organization, improvement, development and evaluation of policy processes, so that a gender equality perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy-making. Gender mainstreaming cannot replace specific policies which aim to redress situations resulting from gender inequality. Specific gender equality policies and gender mainstreaming are dual and complementary strategies and must go hand in hand to reach the goal of gender equality. So far we have looked at concepts that are relevant in our study of this course. Lets us differentiate two commonly used terms that are mistakenly used as synonymous. Take Note We shall discuss more on gender and mainstreaming in Lecture Nine.

1.4 Gender Equity versus Gender Equality There has been some debate about the objectives of gender mainstreaming; disagreement over when gender equality means for women and whether gender equity is a more appropriate objective of development policies. Equality is considered to mean that everyone receives the same benefit, share or treatment regardless of their situation and circumstances. However, formal equality originated as the principle of offering everyone equal opportunities and treatment before the law. While being treated the same as men might be what some women want and need, this only works if both are identically situated and face the same life conditions to take advantage of these opportunities.

However, most of the time men and women are not identically situated. Policies and actions must go far beyond ensuring equal access since failure to do nothing to address underlying social relations may reproduce the unequal distribution. The formal equality

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model often perpetuates discrimination because it approaches discrimination as an individual problem, not a systemic problem that results from someones unfounded intentional differential treatment of mother.

However, a gender equity approach may be needed to orient the mainstreaming initiative because it is suggested equality has not focused on the differences as a matter of dominance, subordination and material disparities between groups, as does gender equity.

Gender equality works toward ending discrimination by providing equal opportunities or ensuring equality of conditions, for men and women, whereas gender equity focuses on the differences between men and women and ensures that men and women benefit equitably from the results. Mainstreaming gender equity requires that the design of development policies and programs fully account for womens different roles priorities, needs, and constraints across all sectors. However unlike substantive equality, it does not assume that women want the same thing as men.

Equity is not about ensuring that women can achieve what men have. It is also not about achieving what the other gender has and merely reversing gender roles as could be the result of gender equality. Neither is an equity orientation about equal treatment or even attaining equal conditions because these are based on a measure of sameness. Rather equity is about fairness. Indeed, gender equity analysis recognizes that different approaches may be needed for equitable outcomes. Men and women, boys and girls should be treated the same when appropriate and treated differently when required. A development policy that promotes gender equity ensures fairness and compensates for historical and social disadvantages. The goal of achieving gender equity is for women and girls to get what they need whether or not they require the same opportunity or

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condition as boys and men. Achieving gender equity means that womens gender needs are met for women in a particular context.

1.5 Relevance of Gender Differences. The elements below could be taken as starting points to explore how and why gender differences and inequalities are relevant in a specific situation a) Inequalities in political power (access to decision-making, representation, etc.). Women are under-represented in political processes throughout the world. It is important to look at and understand gender differences in power within formal decision-making structures (such as governments, community, councils, and policy-making institutions). b) Inequalities within households. Inequalities in negotiating and decision-making potential and access to resources have been documented within households. This has prompted questions about both research and policy which is based on the assumption that households function as units where each member benefits equally. c) Differences in legal status and entitlements. Despite national constitutions and international instruments that proclaim equal rights for women and men, there are many instances in which equal rights to personal status, security, land, inheritance and employment opportunities are denied to women by law or practice. Action to secure womens rights is not just a concern of a small group of women activists, but rather the responsibility of the international community as a whole. d) Gender division of labor within the economy. In most countries, women and men are distributed differently across manufacturing sectors, between formal and informal sectors, within agriculture, and among occupations. Women are also
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more likely than men to be in low-paid jobs and non-standard work (part-time, temporary, home-based), and likely to have less access than men to productive assets such as education, skills, property and credit.

Activity

In groups of four, discuss ways in which economic trends and economic policies are likely to have different implications for women and men.

e) Inequalities in the domestic/unpaid sector. In many countries it is women who shoulder most of the responsibilities and tasks related to the care and nurturing of the family (including laundry, food preparation, child care, care of the sick and cleaning). In many countries, women also make an important contribution to family food production and water and firewood provision. These tasks add to womens workload and are often an obstacle to engaging in political action or expanding economic activities.

Activity Is there a relationship between reproductive work and the productive sector of the economy?

f) Violence against women. Gender inequality is also manifested in gender-based violence, either by a womans intimate partner (domestic violence), by an enemy or in sexual exploitation through trafficking of women and girls.

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There are discriminatory attitudes towards gender. Gender inequalities are not only economic, but are also reflected in other ways that are difficult to measure and change. Ideas about appropriate behavior, independence, and aptitudes are often grounded in gender stereotypes and vary for women and men. 1.7 Summary

This lecture has covered the key concepts that are relevant to gender and development. We have defined gender, gender equality, gender integration, and gender analysis and gender inequality. We have also differentiated between gender equity versus gender equality. The importance of gender issues in development has laid a foundation for the unit. Finally we have discussed how knowledge in gender contributes to development. References 1 Kathlene, Lyn. (1995), Position Power versus Gender Power: Who Holds the Floor? Gender Power, Leadership, and Governance. Ed. Georgia Duerst-Lahti and Rita Mae Kelly. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 2 Constantini, Edmond. (1990), Political Women and Political Ambition: Closing the Gender Gap. American Journal of Political Science. Volume 34, Issue 3 3 Norton, Noelle. (1995), Women, Its Not Enough to Be Elected: Committee Position Makes a Difference. Gender Power, Leadership, and Governance. Ed. Georgia Duerst-Lahti and Rita Mae Kelly. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press 4 Peter, K., and Horn, L. (2005). Gender Differences in Participation and Completion of Undergraduate Education and How They Have Changed Over Time (NCES 2005169). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC:
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U.S. Government Printing Office.

LECTURE TWO HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT (GAD) FROM 1960 TO THE PRESENT 2.1 Introduction This chapter introduces the concepts of gender and development and the factors that gave rise to their emergence. It also provides an explanation of the pre-colonial experience of so-called Third World people, especially with respect to gender relations and the experiences of women and men in social, political, and economic life. The discussion challenges simplistic characterizations and generalizations of pre-colonial societies and points to their rich diversity and difference. It also provides a framework for considering alternative ways of perceiving human social and cultural development and organizing social, economic, and political life. It also provides information that challenges traditional monolithic assumptions about women and the sexual division of labor. In this chapter, we shall look at the historical background of gender and development. In the previous chapter, we have discussed the concepts that are commonly used while referring to gender issues and this was to lay a base for our subsequent discussion.

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2.2 Objectives At the end of this Lecture, you should be able to: 1. Explore the evolution of the concepts of gender and development. 2. Explain the historical development of Gender and Development from 1960 to present. 3. Explain the importance of Gender issues in the Millennium Development Goals. 4. Describe the importance of Gender issues in Development.

2.3 What is Gender and Development? Let us begin this lecture by looking at what Gender and Development (GAD) is. Early approaches to women in development recognized that development had ignored the important role played by women in their communities and, as a result, largely excluded them from the design and implementation of development programs. The women in development (WID) approach recognize that more efficient and effective development requires the active participation of women as well as men. Seeking to remedy womens exclusion from the development process, the WID approach focuses mainly upon women.

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Intext Question 1: Why did this approach focus mainly on women? Because women comprise more than half of the human resources and are central to the economic as well as the social well-being of societies, development goals cannot be fully reached without their participation. Women, therefore, must have both the legal right and access to existing means for the improvement of oneself and of society.

Since the mid 1980s there has been a growing consensus that sustainable development requires an understanding of both womens and mens roles and responsibilities within the community and their relationship to each other. Improving the status of women is no longer seen as just a womens issue but as a goal that requires the active participation of men and women. This has come to be known as the gender and development (GAD) approach. The GAD approach, through gender analysis, seeks to understand the roles, responsibilities, resources and priorities of women and men within a specific context, examining the social, economic and environmental factors which influence their roles and decision-making capacity. Gender and Development is therefore an analytical approach which considers both womens and mens roles and responsibilities within the community and their relationship to each other in order to ensure that womens concerns and needs are addressed in design and implementation of activities. It is thus an approach that looks at women as an integral part of the family, community and the larger society. Through gender analysis techniques, the roles and rights of both women and men are studied to help planners and project managers design how development interventions may be made more effectively. Gender analysis helps in establishing more sustainable and effective development.
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2.4 Historical Background of Gender and Development The seeds of the women and development concept were planted during the 1950s and 1960s. During this time, 50 countries were freed from colonialism, and the women who had participated in independence movements acted on their convictions that they must join with men in building these new nations. For example, at the beginning of the 1960s, women of East African countries, led by Margaret Kenyatta, met at seminars to adopt strategies aimed at reaching their goals. Before that time, in 1947, just 2 years after the formation of the United Nations, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was established to monitor United Nations activities on behalf of women. To a large extent, however, its efforts were limited within the legalistic context of human rights. By the 1950s and 1960s, women of these newly independent countries began taking their delegations to the United Nations (though in small numbers) and were able to challenge the legalistic agenda of CSW by raising development-oriented issues. By 1970, when the United Nations General Assembly reviewed the results of the First Development Decade of the 1960s, three factors that would eventually converge to foster the various approaches to womens development had become evident: It was found that the industrialization strategies of the 1960s had been ineffective and had, in fact, worsened the lives of the poor and the women in Third World countries. The Second Development Decade was therefore designed to address this and bring about sustainable improvement in the well-being of individuals and bestow benefits on all. In 1970, Boserup, an agricultural economist, used research data from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America to highlight womens central positions in the economic life of these societies, and she described the disruptive effects of colonialism and modernization on the sexual division of labor through the introduction of the international market economy. Among other things, this process drew men away from production based on family labor and gave them near-exclusive access to economic and other resources. Boserup concluded that the economic survival and development of the Third World would depend heavily on efforts to reverse this trend and to more fully integrate women into the development process.

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The feminist movement reemerged in Western countries around 1968, alongside other social movements for civil rights. Although the movements energies were, for the most part, directed internally, some Western women used their position to pressure their governments foreign-aid offices to ensure that grants to recipient countries supported women as well as men. The central point of the original women and development approach was that both women and men must be lifted from poverty and both women and men must contribute to and benefit from development efforts. International Womens Year was declared by the United Nations in 1975, and the celebration of this at the First International Womens Conference in Mexico City marked the globalization of the movement. This unique intergovernmental conference and the nongovernmental International Womens Tribune Centre (IWTC), a networking and communications institution, brought together women from nearly all countries of the world under the theme Equality, Development and Peace and extended its work during the United Nations Decade for Women, 197685. This sparked the creation of institutions and networks worldwide as women and development became an area of specialization in the development field. The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Women (later called the United Nations Development Fund for Women) and the International Training and Research Centre for Women were soon established within the United Nations system. IWTC and the Womens World Bank, a loan-guaranteeing organization, came into existence as NGOs. At the national level, national machineries commissions on women, womens desks, and womens bureaus were soon established in most countries. New womens organizations and networks sprang up at the community and national levels. These contributed to the institutionalization of women and development as an internationally recognized set of concepts and did much to generalize knowledge and consciousness about womens issues internationally. In recent years gender equality has become the focus of the GAD approach, a focus which is reflected in the Platform for Action of the 1995 Fourth World Conference on

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Women held in Beijing. The Platform for Action places particular emphasis on twelve critical areas of concern: enabling women to overcome poverty ensuring womens equal access to quality education and training ensuring womens equal access to health care eliminating violence against women protecting women from armed and other conflicts promoting womens economic self-reliance promoting womens participation in decision-making integrating gender equality dimensions into policy and planning promoting womens human rights enhancing the medias role in promoting gender equality integrating women in the ecologically sustainable development process eliminating all forms of discrimination against the girl child

Activity Visit a womens desk, a womens bureau, or a ministry of womens affairs in your district. Write a short history of its emergence and analyze its interpretation of the term women and development. 2.5 Gender and the Millennium Development Goals In September 2000, the United Nations Millennium Summit of 192 governments and at least 23 international organizations made a joint commitment to halve world poverty by the year 2015. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were developed out of the eight chapters of the United Nations Millennium Declaration signed in September 2000. There are eight goals with 21 targets, and a series of measurable indicators for each target. The goals aim to stimulate real progress by 2015 in tackling the most pressing

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issues facing developing countries poverty, hunger, inadequate education, gender inequality, child and maternal mortality, HIV/AIDS and environmental degradation. In most developing countries, gender inequality is a major obstacle to meeting the MDG targets. According to UNDP (2009), achieving the goals will be impossible without closing the gaps between women and men in terms of capacities, access to resources and opportunities, and vulnerability to violence and conflicts. MDG 3 is to promote equality and empower women. The goal has one target: to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005 and to all levels of education no later than 2015. Four indicators are used to measure progress towards the goal: the ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and tertiary education the ratio of literate women to men in the 15 to 24 year old age group the share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sector and the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments

The existence of a separate goal on gender equality is the result of decades of advocacy, research and coalition-building by the international womens movement as we have seen in the historical development. Its very existence demonstrates that the global community has accepted the centrality of gender equality and womens empowerment to the development paradigm.

Activity Discuss the extent to which the above indicators are realized in a country of your choice. Use current statistics to support your argument

2.6 Importance of Gender Issues in Development

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In order to achieve any meaningful development deliberate efforts have to be made to address gender issues. Notably, large gender disparities in basic human rights in resources and economic opportunities, and in political voice are evident in Kenya. Since the mid 1980s there has been a growing consensus that sustainable development requires an understanding of both womens and mens roles and responsibilities within the community and their relations to each other. This has come to be known as the Gender and Development (GAD) approach as we have discussed above. The main objective of GAD is mainstreaming womens needs and perspectives into all activities. Mainstreaming acknowledges that all development operations have a gender impact and do not automatically benefit men and women equally. Thus it is necessary to adopt GAD approach for development programs to benefit men and women, boys and girls for sustainable development. Thus integrating gender issues in development programs will benefit men and women, boys and girls for sustainable development.

Gender inequalities hinder development. What types of policies and strategies promote gender equality and foster more effective development. Policymakers have a number of policy instruments to promote gender equality and development effectiveness. But effective action requires also that policymakers take account of local realities when designing and implementing development policies and programs. There can be no onesize-fits-all formula for promoting gender equality. Identifying what works requires consultations with stakeholders both women and men on key issues and actions. Therefore to enhance development effectiveness, gender issues must be an integral part of policy analysis, design and implementation.

Engendering Development provides policy makers, development specialists, and civil society members many valuable lessons and tools for integrating gender into development work. This helps policymakers and members of the development community to realize their commitment to sustainable development.

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Equal Opportunities for Men and Women Gender equality means women and men have equal opportunities to realize their individual potential, to contribute to their countrys economic and social development and to benefit equally from their participation in society. Gender equality restricts a countrys economic growth. Removing inequalities gives societies a better chance to develop. When women and men have relative equality, economies grow faster, childrens health improves and there is less corruption. Achieving gender equality means access to economic resources, participation and leadership in decision making, respect for the human rights of women, and an increased capacity to tackle gender inequalities. These are the four interrelated factors that development investments need to address and advance gender equality: Improving the economic status of women, men, girls and boys Promoting equal participation of all in decision making and leadership Improving equitable health and education outcomes for women, men, girls and boys Ensuring gender equality is advanced in regional co operation efforts

Development results cannot be maximized without attending to the different needs, interests, priorities and roles of women, men, boys and girls and the relations between them. Development programs cannot succeed without the participation and cooperation of all members of the community.

2.7 Summary

This lecture has covered the historical development of Gender and Development. We have also tried to place the role of Gender in the Millennium Development Goals. Finally we have discussed how
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knowledge in gender contributes to development.

References Bhasin, K. (1993), Some thoughts on development and sustainable development. Women in Action, 1, 1018. Blackden, M. (1993), Paradigm postponed: gender and economic adjustment in sub-Saharan Africa. Human Resources and Poverty Division, World Bank, Washington, DC, USA. AFTHR Technical Note 13. Boserup, E. (1970), Womens role in economic development. Allen & Unwin, London, UK.

LECTURE THREE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF GENDER

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3.1 Introduction In the previous lecture we discussed looked at the historical background of gender and development. In this lecture we shall define socialization, distinguish gender and sex and discuss social constructionism and social constructivism theory. We shall then look at the social construction of gender. 3.2 Objectives 1. Definition of the concept socialization 2. Distinguish between gender and sex 3. Explain the social constructionism and social constructivism theory 4. Describe the social construction of gender

3.3 An Understanding of Socialization We need to explain what socialization is, we can begin by saying that social construction is a social constructivism and it is a sociological theory of knowledge that considers how social phenomena develops in social contexts. Within constructionist thought, a social construction (social construct) is a concept or practice that is the creation (or artifact) of a particular group. Social constructs are generally understood to be the by-products of countless human choices rather than laws resulting from divine will or nature. A major focus of social construction is to uncover the ways in which individuals and groups participate in the

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creation of their perceived social reality. It involves looking at the ways social phenomena are created, institutionalized, and made into tradition by humans. A socially constructed reality is one that is seen as an ongoing, dynamic process that is reproduced by people acting on their interpretations and their knowledge of it. Socialization is therefore the attributes that one acquires through exposure to the environment and interaction with other members of the society. Socialization can further be viewed as determination of ideas and practices which people socially define and determine. These ideas and practices can be changed in relation to feminine and masculine characteristics, activities, and ways of relating to one another. Question Explain the concept socialization and describe how members of a community acquire certain gender related traits.

3.4 Distinction between Gender and Sex

The English-language distinction between the words sex and gender was first developed in the 1950s and1960s by British and American psychiatrists and other medical personnel working with intersex and transsexual patients. Since then, the term gender has been increasingly used to distinguish between sex as biological and gender as socially and culturally constructed. Sex marks the distinction between women and men as a result of their biological, physical and genetic difference. Gender roles are set by convention and other social,

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economic, political and cultural forces(One World Action Glossary: http://owa.netxtra.net/indepth/project.jsp?project=206). From this perspective, sex is fixed and based in nature while gender is fluid and based in culture, this distinction constitutes progress compared with biology is destiny. However, it ignores the existence of persons who do not fit neatly into the biological or social categories of women and men, such as intersex, transgender and transsexual people. Furthermore, for many people the sex categories of female and male are neither fixed nor universal, but vary over time and across cultures. Accordingly, sex, like gender, is seen as a social and cultural construct. Gender refers to the array of socially constructed roles and relationships, personality traits, attitudes, behaviors, values, relative power and influence that society ascribes to the two sexes on a differential basis. Whereas biological sex is determined by genetic and anatomical characteristics, gender is an acquired identity that is learned, changes over time, and varies widely within and across cultures. Gender is relational and refers not simply to women or men but to the relationship between them. (INSTRAW, Glossary of Gender-related Terms and Concepts www.un-instraw.org). Gender also refers to the economic, social and cultural attributes and opportunities associated with being male or female at a particular point in time on the other hand, sex refers to the biological characteristics that define humans as female or male. While these sets of biological characteristics are not mutually exclusive, as there are individuals who possess both, they tend to differentiate humans as males and females. (World Health Organization 2002: Jolly and Esplen 2006.)

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3.5 Social constructionism vs. social constructivism

Although both social constructionism and social constructivism deal with ways in which social phenomena develop, they are distinct. Social constructionism refers to the development of phenomena relative to social contexts while social constructivism refers to an individual's making meaning of knowledge within a social context (Vygotsky 1978). For this reason, social constructionism is typically described as a sociological construct whereas social constructivism is typically described as a psychological construct. Social constructivism has been studied by many educational psychologists, who are concerned with its implications for teaching and learning. For more on the psychological dimensions of social constructivism, see the work of Ernst von Glasersfeld and A. Sullivan Palincsar[2]. Constructionism became prominent in the U.S. with Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann's 1966 book, The Social Construction of Reality. Berger and Luckmann argue that all knowledge, including the most basic, taken-for-granted common sense knowledge of everyday reality, is derived from and maintained by social interactions. When people interact, they do so with the understanding that their respective perceptions of reality are related, and as they act upon this understanding their common knowledge of reality becomes reinforced. Since this common sense knowledge is negotiated by people, human typifications, significations and institutions come to be presented as part of an objective

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reality. It is in this sense that it can be said that reality is socially constructed. The specific mechanisms underlying Berger and Luckmann's notion of social construction are discussed further in social construction. Berger and Luckmann's social constructionism has its roots in phenomenology. It links to Heidegger and Edmund Husserl through the teaching of Alfred Schutz.
Question Explain how social constructionism and social constructivism influence gender construction.

3.6 The Social Construction of Gender

Having discusses about social constructionism and social constructivism, you now need to think about how gender is constructed. Gender is so much the routine ground of everyday activities that questioning it is taken-for-granted. Gender is so pervasive that in our society we assume it is bred into our genes. Most people find it hard to believe that gender is constantly created and re-created out of human interaction, out of social life, and is the texture and order of that social life. Gender, like culture, is a human production that depends on everyone constantly "doing gender" (West and Zimmerman 1987).And everyone "does gender" without thinking about it. Gender is such a familiar part of daily life that it usually takes a deliberate disruption of our expectations of how women and men are supposed to act to pay attention to how it is produced. Gender signs and signals are so ubiquitous that we usually fail to note them unless they are missing or ambiguous. Then we are uncomfortable until we have

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successfully placed the other person in a gender status; otherwise, we feel socially dislocated. In our society, in addition to man and woman, the status can be transvestite (a person who dresses in opposite-gender clothes) and transsexual (a person who has had sex-change surgery). Transvestites and transsexuals carefully construct their gender status by dressing, speaking, walking, gesturing in the ways prescribed for women or men whichever they want to be taken for - and so does any "normal" person. For the individual, gender construction starts with assignment to a sex category on the basis of what the genitalia look like at birth. Then babies are dressed or adorned in a way that displays the category because parents don't want to be constantly asked whether their baby is a girl or a boy. A sex category becomes a gender status through naming, dress, and the use of other gender markers. Once a child's gender is evident, others treat those in one gender differently from those in the other, and the children respond to the different treatment by feeling different and behaving differently. As soon as they can talk, they start to refer to themselves as members of their gender. Sex doesn't come into play again until puberty, but by that time, sexual feelings and desires and practices have been shaped by gendered norms and expectations. Adolescent boys and girls approach and avoid each other in an elaborately scripted and gendered mating dance (Lorber, 1994). Parenting is gendered, with different expectations for mothers and for fathers, and people of different genders work at different kinds of jobs. The work adults do as mothers and fathers and as low-level workers and high-level bosses, shapes women's and men's life experiences, and these experiences produce different feelings, consciousness, relationships, skills - ways of being that we call feminine or masculine. All these processes constitute the social construction of gender. Gendered roles change - today

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fathers are taking care of little children, girls and boys are wearing unisex clothing and getting the same education, women and men are working at the same jobs. Many traditional social groups are quite strict about maintaining gender differences, in social groups. This is the reason communities have defined activities for males and females, for example circumcision of boys, going to the market for ladies and construction of houses for men. To explain further why gendering is done from birth, constantly and by everyone, we have to look not only at the way individuals experience gender but at gender as a social institution. As a social institution, gender is one of the major ways that human beings organize their lives. Human society depends on a predictable division of labor, a designated allocation of scarce goods, assigned responsibility for children and others who cannot care for themselves, common values and their systematic transmission to new members, legitimate leadership, music, art, stories, games, and other symbolic productions. One way of choosing people for the different tasks of society is on the basis of their talents, motivations, and competence, that is, their demonstrated achievements. The other way is on the basis of gender, race, and ethnicity - ascribed membership in a category of people. However, societies vary in the extent to which they use one or the other of these ways of allocating people to work and to carry out other responsibilities, every society uses gender and age grades. Every society classifies people as "girl and boy children," "girls and boys ready to be married," and "fully adult women and men," constructs similarities among them and differences between them, and assigns them to different roles and responsibilities. Personality characteristics, feelings, motivations, and ambitions flow from these different life experiences so that the members of these different groups

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become different kinds of people. Lorber (1994) argues that the process of gendering and its outcome are legitimated by religion, law, science, and the society's entire set of values. Societies value legitimate gendering by claiming that it all comes from physiology, that is, female and male procreative differences. But gender and sex are not equivalent, and gender as a construction does not flow automatically from genitalia and reproductive organs, the main physiological differences of females and males. In the construction of ascribed social statuses, physiological differences such as sex, stage of development, color of skin, and size are crude markers. They are not the source of the social statuses of gender, age grade, and race. Social statuses are carefully constructed through prescribed processes of teaching, learning, emulation, and enforcement. Whatever genes, hormones, and biological evolution contribute to human social institutions is materially as well as qualitatively transformed by social practices. Every social institution has a material base, but culture and social practices transform that base into something with qualitatively different patterns and constraints. Gender cannot be equated with biological and physiological differences between human females and males. The building blocks of gender are socially constructed statuses. Western societies have only two genders, "man" and "woman." Some societies have three-men, women, and berdaches or hijras or xaniths. Berdaches, hijras, and xaniths are biological males who behave, dress, work, and are treated in most respects as social women; they are therefore not men, nor are they female women; they are, in our language, "male women. There are African and American Indian societies that have a gender status called manly hearted women - biological females who work, marry, and

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parent as men; their social status is "female men" (Amadiume 1987; Blackwood 1984). They do not have to behave or dress as men to have the social responsibilities and prerogatives of husbands and fathers, what makes them men is enough wealth to buy a wife. A gender therefore, is not attached to a biological substratum. Gender boundaries are breachable, and individual and socially organized shifts from one gender to another call attention to "cultural, social, or aesthetic dissonances" (Garber 1992, 16). These odd or deviant or third genders show us what we ordinarily take for granted - that people have to learn to be women and men. Men who cross-dress for performances or for pleasure often learn from women's magazines how to "do" femininity convincingly (Garber 1992, 4151). Because transvestism is direct evidence of how gender is constructed, Marjorie Garber claims it has "extraordinary powers... to disrupt, expose, and challenge, putting in question the very notion of the 'original' and of stable identity.
3.7 Summary

From the above discussion, it is clear that gender is a social construction that is built right from birth by the family, it if further molded by interaction with other people in the society and also by institutions which are religion and the state. In the next lecture, we shall look at gender approaches to development.

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Reference Amadiume,I.(1987). Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Sex and Gender in an African Society. Zed. London. Berger, P.L. and Luckmann,T.(1966). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge. Anchor. USA. Blackwood,E. (1984). The Social Construction on Reality. Garden City. New York. Esplen,E. and Jolly,S.(2006). Bridge development gender: Gender and Sex, A Sample of definitions. www.bridge.ids.ac.uk Garber, M. (1992). Spare Parts: The Surgical Construction of Gender. Harper Collins. New York. Lorber,J. (1994). The Social Construction of Gender. Vygotsky, C. S. (1978). Mind in Society. The Development of Higher Psychology Processes. Harvard. London. West, C. and Zimmerman, D.H. (1987). Gender and Society, Vol.1 No.2 June 1987 125-151

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LECTURE FOUR GENDER ROLES IN THE SOCIETY 4.1 Introduction In the previous lecture, we discussed the Social Construction of Gender. In this lecture, we shall discuss the gender roles in the society.

4.2 Objectives By the end of this lecture, you should be able to: 1. Define gender roles 2. Differentiate between gender roles and gender division of labor 3. State and explain why women do not do certain jobs 4. State and explain why women should not do certain jobs

4.3 Gender Roles In addition to age, gender is one of the universal dimensions on which status differences are based. Unlike sex, which is a biological concept, gender is a social construct specifying the socially and culturally prescribed roles that men and women are to follow. According to Gerda Lerner in The Creation of Patriarchy, gender is the "costume, a mask, a straitjacket in which men and women dance their unequal dance" (Lerner, 1977: 238). Women have always had lower status than men, but the extent of the gap between the sexes varies across cultures and time (some arguing that it is inversely related to social evolution). In 1980, the United Nations summed up the burden of this inequality: Women, who comprise half the world's population, do two thirds of the world's work, earn one tenth of the world's income and own one hundredth of the world's property. In Leviticus, God told Moses that a man is worth 50 sheikels and a woman worth 30-39

Equal doesn't mean that women have to/get to be like men (as if that was the norm), and it doesn't mean that men have to/get to be like women. Equal is sharing the workload, getting paid the same for doing the same job, and not discriminating against either sex. Even Sweden (which has a very good gender equality record) isn't fully equal. Unfortunately gender roles and stereotypes are much embedded in our societies. Gender roles are the roles that society assigns to men and women based on their gender. They influence relationships between men and women. Gender roles have been changing in Western society in recent decade and generally have become more flexible. However, traditional gender roles still have some influence. For example, it used to be expected that women were supposed to get married and stay home to raise a family. The man was expected to go out to work to support his family. If the woman chose to have a career, she was considered barren or lacking in maternal instinct and her partner was often considered inadequate as it was assumed he was not a good provider.

In text Question 4.1 Referring to sub section 4.3, what were the expectations of your traditional society on men and women?

Today, things have changed to some degree. There is more sharing of family and household responsibility and both males and females are working in less traditional careers, e.g. we have male and female nurses, teachers, firefighters, engineers, dentists etc.

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Activity 4.1 1. How do gender role expectations affect you? 2. Do you feel free to be passive if you are a male or aggressive if you are a female? Share your experience with our colleague.

4.4 Gender Division of Labor In the early 1900s, Max Weber, one of the pioneers of modern sociology, designed a perfectly rational organizational form, called a bureaucracy. Among the characteristics of this "ideal" organization were specialization, division of labour, and a hierarchical organizational design. Division of labour is a form of specialization in which the production of a product or service is divided into several separate tasks, each performed by one person. According to Weber's design, inherent within the specialization and division of labour is knowledge of the precise limit of each worker's "sphere of competence," and the authority to perform individual tasks without overlapping others.' (Business Directory, 2007). Gender Division of labour refers to beliefs which define the kinds of work that men and women can do or should do in terms of supposedly essential differences between them. It means an overall societal pattern where women are allotted one set of gender roles, and men allotted another set. Unequal gender division of labor refers to a gender division of labor where there is an unequal gender division of reward i.e. high paid work is appropriate for men because men are supposed to be the breadwinners.

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In text Question Differentiate between gender roles and gender division of labor?

4.5 Factors inhibiting Women from performing certain jobs Lets us now explore a few factors that justify the argument that women cannot do certain jobs. 4.5.1 Lack of physical strength This is often the first reason given for womens inability to do a particular job, for example that the work is too heavy or that there is too much standing. It clearly is the case that women are less strong than men on average, but men contribute to womens lack of knack or strength by denying them the ability to develop their physical capacities: * By excluding women from the experience needed to develop physical strength and confidence. * Men are influential in designing labour processes, so that the job specification and design of equipment is conditioned by the gender stereotyping of the work whether lifting gear will be used, the height of machines, for example. 4.5.2 Health hazards Particular jobs are said to present gender-specific health hazards. Dangers for womens fertility are frequently cited, but dangers for men are ignored in these arguments. The stereotyping of the jobs is reproduced by the failure to take measures to counter such real or imagined health hazards. 4.5. 3 mental ability Men are seen as being pre-eminently rational beings, while women are dominated by emotion. On this basis women are seen as stupid, inadequate or illiterate, lacking the

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capacity for initiative and independent thinking, and so incapable of doing jobs which require the independent exercise of intellectual faculties. Conversely, some work is seen as womens because men are too intelligent to do it and because it utilises some of womens specifically feminine attributes. For example: * Only women can stand to do boring work because they are more patient and conscientious in carrying out routine and intellectually undemanding tasks. * Women are said to be: more persuasive, more caring, more attractive and foster a co-operative and non-threatening atmosphere. These psychological stereotypes are self-validating in the sense that they condition the socialization patterns of boys and girls. Take Note Refer to Gendered Socialization in Lecture Six which will explain the socialization patterns of boys and girls

However, they are also self-validating in the sense that departures from the stereotype are characterised as individual and exceptional deviations from the norm a rational woman is hard, an emotional man is soft. Thus the qualities of every individual are defined in relation to the norm identical behaviour in a man or in a woman will be described very differently, and the norm persists However, many counter-examples are identified. 4.5.4 The rational/affective distinction

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The rational/affective distinction is linked to womens supposed innate aversion to machinery and technology. Women are often said to be too temperamental to work with machinery, which mens more rational temperament is better suited to. But: * Men as a sex have appropriated technology. They design it, maintain it and often operate it. * The educational and occupational structure teaches boys to be scientifically and technologically capable while disqualifying girls in this respect. * Men identify themselves with technology and identify technology with masculinity.

Where women do work on machines it is usually in a routine operational relationship, while men have an informed and interactive relationship to their machines women are only lent machinery by men.

4.5.5 Natural temperament * Women are said to be too emotional to cope with male working environments, and could not take criticism from supervisors or stand up to them, so that women are assigned to supposedly low-stress occupations. * Women are said to be naturally unreliable, because after years of training they then leave to have babies. Menstruation is also cited as a problem. * Women have an instrumental and temporary attitude to work. They fluctuate or get bored with the work. * At a certain age women are more concerned with their looks and then with getting married and having babies and looking after children, hence less interest with work. * Womens main centre of interest is assumed to be the family and this is seen as a negative attribute in regard to work. For men, marriage and children on the other hand

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are seen as advantages and signs of increased responsibility and stability. * So women are seen as partial workers, as incomplete, temporary, choosy or flawed workers. * Even if women are diligent workers they are not able to take responsibility.

All these stereotypes are self-validating and self-reproducing, and relate not to the reality of mens and womens experience of work, but to the ideological typification of that experience, linking the definition of the different gender identities of men and women to the characterisation of a particular job in terms of those qualities which supposedly define those gender identities. These typifications are so powerful that they are almost impervious to critical empirical evaluation: 1. The characterisation of a particular job is not based on a detailed examination of precisely what skills are in fact necessary for the performance of the job. A particular job is regarded as being almost self-evidently a mans job or a womans job. Should a closer examination of the skills used challenge the gender assignment of the job, it is more likely that the definition of the job will be changed, rather than its gender assignment, as new features are discovered to confirm its self-evident gender definition. 2. Evidence that men can successfully do womens jobs and vice versa does not necessarily challenge the gender stereotyping of the jobs. Women who do mens jobs are seen as exceptional in some way, so that it is still asserted that merely average women could not do the job.

Activity 1.2 Look at the above arguments one more time. With your colleague, discuss: 1. Other factors that may contribute to the unequal gender division of labor

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2. Identify professions in our society that are the reserve of men

Nevertheless, when women do successfully perform mens jobs, this constitutes some kind of an affront to the manhood of the men who do those same jobs. Mens sense of prestige and machismo rests on the exclusion of women from the same jobs. If women do the same work it is seen as devalued and may come to be defined as womens work. Everything women touch is tarnished. Thus, when the gender division of labour cannot be sustained by arguments that women cannot do the particular jobs, the argument tends to move towards the assertion that women should not do those jobs. 4.6 Factors that justify Womens inability to do certain jobs Lets us now explore a few factors that justify the argument that women should not do certain jobs Even if women prove that they can do mens jobs, it is still argued that they should not do them. The supposed psychological characteristics and social roles of men and women are transformed into moral qualities attached to gender identity. 1. Ideas about masculinity and respect are linked to the fact that men are supposed to be able to support women. The man should be the head of the family and breadwinner. Having a wife at home was seen as a privilege and as a status symbol and a mans degree of manliness could be gauged by the size of his wage the man should earn a family wage. If his wife works, her earnings are seen as peripheral to those of her husband. It is an affront to his manhood if she earns more than he does. These moral arguments mutually reinforce the characterisation of women as inherently fickle, unreliable and uncommitted to their work. Thus a woman who
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violates these supposed psychological features of womanhood by displaying commitment to her work stands morally condemned for betraying her femininity. 2. The issue of sexual morality. Women are sexual creatures and are exposed to bad moral influences by entering male occupations. They would be coarsened by mens bad language and lose their femininity. Married women in particular are seen to be at risk of forming liaisons with men at work if they work in too close contact with them. Exposure to mens male/male intercourse would damage his woman in a mans eyes. They would be spoiled by men/for men. The gender stereotyping of jobs is not simply an ideological rationalization of a historically developed gender division of labor. It is a very powerful means by which men defend their own gender identity by confining women within their own subordination. If women violate this gender stereotyping in or at work, they find themselves morally condemned for straying beyond their proper role. This also means that, to the extent that women themselves continue to accept these stereotypical categories, they are denied any collective means of challenging their subordination, since any attempt to move beyond the role assigned to them is conceived, by women as much as by men, as an exceptional and purely individual action, that may be justified by the particular circumstances or the particular qualities of that individual. Women are thereby allowed through the barriers individually, and each woman has to find her own way forward individually, but the barriers themselves remain intactLet us conclude this section by looking at the case study below: Case Study 4.1 Women's work in the Philippines In the mid-1970s, Gelia Castillo noted that about 60 percent of the women in the rural areas of the Philippines were engaged in agriculture or related activities, such as fishing, an increase from the 1965 figure of 53.6 percent. In roughly two decades (from 1956 to 1974), the proportion of all Filipinos in agricultural and related activities decreased from about 59 to 55 percent, and the proportion of all women and girls over ten years old decreased slightly more (from 48.1 percent to 36.6 percent). The overall decline in the

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proportion of women employed in agriculture coupled with the increased proportion of rural women in agriculture from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s could suggest that there were more opportunities for urban employment and/or fewer opportunities for nonagricultural rural employment. It is also possible that farm women were counted differently in the 1970s, if, as may people contend, agricultural women are generally under enumerated, the 1970s figures could reflect greater accuracy (Castillo did not address this issue in her study). Of these agricultural women, the vast majority are crop workers in rice and com farming, and the burden of the women's work is in non-mechanized tasks such as weeding and transplanting. In one study carried out in the provinces of Bulacan and Tatangas, planting/transplanting, harvesting, and post-harvest activities accounted for nearly 70 percent of the female contribution to farming those regions. These are activities that can be done in a relatively short span of time, so they are compatible with the major household duties for which the women are also responsible. The kind of work Filipinas do helps to explain why there are substantial seasonal variations in the agricultural employment of women. Castillo notes, for instance, that the percentage of women working full time in agriculture can increase between 6 and 10 percent between February and May. A detailed study of time allocation in rural households in Laguna, a province of the Philippines, showed that mothers were less involved in agricultural activities than either fathers or children. On the average, the women in the sample spent slightly over one hour a day on pre-and post-harvest activities, vegetable production, livestock raising, and the like men and children spent well over three hours a day on these same activities but the 5 percent of the women in the sample who reported that their primary occupation was farming averaged about three and one-third hours a day on farming alone. Overall, farming and non-farming women in this rural area spent additional seven and one-half hours on household work or home production. As in most countries, rural women are among the most economically disadvantaged people in Filipino society. There are more unpaid family workers among women than

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among men, and almost 90 percent of all male unpaid workers in 1975 were in the rural areas and engaged in agricultural work. Despite this general condition, however, both rural and urban Filipinas are viewed by a number of scholars as having considerable status and power compared to women in other Asian countries, and Filipina influence extends to important decision-making roles in agricultural matters. Justin Green, for example, noted that women are better educated than men, and he has also argued that women have a good deal of behind-the-scenes or privately exercised power. People who think that the traditional method of reckoning kinship and the prevalence of bride price or dowry are indicators of male-female status might note that historically, Filipinos have traced kinship through both parents and bride price has been common (whereas dowry prevails in India). For rural Filipino women, a practical consequence of this relative equity is that the sexual division of labor is not as rigid as in many societies. Women can handle a plow if necessary, and a husband will do the cooking if his wife is away or do the laundry if his wife has just delivered a child. (Adopted from, Charlton 1984)

Activity Using the case study above, answer the following questions: 1. What factual information about women's work in the Philippines can you extract from this case study? 2. What principles about women's work in the Philippines emerge from these facts? 3. Do these principles coincide with those obtaining in your own society? 4. Have the facts in the case study caused you to change your assumptions about women's work? How?

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Summary In this lecture, we have explained gender roles and Gender Division of labor. We have also looked at some factors that inhibit women from performing certain tasks and also factors that justify womens inability to do certain jobs.

References 1. Boserup, E. (1970), Womens Role in Economic Development , London: George 2. Allen and Unwin. Braddotti, Rosi, Charkiewicz Ewa, Hausler Sabine and Wieringa Saskia (1994). Women, the Environment and Sustainable Development: Towards a Theoretical Synthesi,London: Zed Books.

LECTURE FIVE GENDER APPROACHES TO DEVELOPMENT 5.1 Introduction

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In this lecture we will look at gender approaches to development. Gender based perspective can illuminate goals in projects which apply to various stages of the project cycle. Projects are an avenue of development in countries and especially developing countries. A key issue is that some projects are mixed while others are women-only. Making a choice between the two depends on certain factors. This lecture introduces the concepts of gender and development and the factors that gave rise to their emergence. It also provides an explanation of the pre-colonial experience of the so-called Third World people, especially with respect to gender relations and the experiences of women and men in social, political, and economic life. The discussion challenges simplistic characterizations and generalizations of pre-colonial societies and points to their rich diversity and difference. This lecture provides a framework for considering alternative ways of perceiving human social and cultural development and organizing social, economic, and political life. It also provides information that challenges traditional monolithic assumptions about women and the sexual division of labor.

5.2 Objectives

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1. To explore the evolution of the concepts of gender and development and to examine their underlying assumption 2. To recognize the diversity of human experience and the alternative measures of value and standards for the assessment of progress and human achievement 3. To provide a general understanding of the lives of Third World people before the institutionalization of development. 5.3 What is Development? In ordinary usage, development implies movement from one level to another, usually with some increase in size, number, or quality of some sort. In the Penguin English Dictionary, the verb develop means "to unfold, bring out latent powers of; expand; strengthen; spread; grow; evolve; become more mature; show by degrees; explain more fully; elaborate or exploit the potentialities (of a site) by building and mining (Penguin 1977). For the purposes of this discussion, development will apply to human societies. The usage of the word in this context was popularized in the post-World War period to describe the process through which countries and societies outside North America and Europe (many of them former colonial territories) were to be transformed into modern, developed nations from what their colonizers saw as backward, primitive, underdeveloped societies. These areas comprised most of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, the Middle East, the Pacific region, and South and Central America. Today, this grouping includes former colonial, largely but not totally tropical, countries, peopled mainly by

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non-Europeans. It is usually referred to as the Third World, underdeveloped countries, developing countries, and, more recently, the South or the economic South. The development debate has advanced considerably since the United Nation's First Development Decade in the 1960s, which emphasized economic growth and the "trickledown" approach as key to reducing poverty. One of the notable advancements in the debate has been the move to consider gender equality as a key element of development. Women's concerns were first integrated into the development agenda in the 1970s. Disappointment over the trickle-down approach paved the way for the adoption of the basic-needs strategy, which focused on increasing the participation in and benefits of the development process for the poor, as well as recognizing women's needs and contributions to society. Activists articulated women's issues in national and international forums. Following these events, the women-in-development movement endorsed the enhancement of women's consciousness and abilities, with a view to enabling women to examine their situations and to act to correct their disadvantaged positions. The movement also affirmed that giving women greater access to resources would contribute to an equitable and efficient development process. 5.4 The Women's Challenge to Modernization and Development The seeds of the women-and-development concept (a broad-based term that includes a number of approaches to women's development) were planted during the 1950s and 1960s. During this time, 50 countries were freed from colonialism, and the women who had participated in independence movements acted on their convictions that they must join with men in building these new nations. For example, at the beginning of the 1960s,

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women of East African countries, led by Margaret Kenyatta, met at seminars to adopt strategies aimed at reaching their goals. Before that time, in 1947, just 2 years after the formation of the United Nations, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) was established to monitor United Nations activities on behalf of women. To a large extent, however, its efforts were limited within the legalistic context of human rights. By the 1950s and 1960s, women of these newly independent countries began taking their delegations to the United Nations (though in small numbers) and were able to challenge the legalistic agenda of CSW by raising development-oriented issues. By 1970, when the-United Nations General Assembly reviewed the results of the First Development Decade of the 1960s, three factors that would eventually converge to foster the various approaches to women's development had become evident: 1. It was found that the industrialization strategies of the 1960s had been ineffective and had, in fact, worsened the lives of the poor and the women in Third World countries. The Second Development Decade was therefore designed to address this and "bring about sustainable" improvement in the well-being of individuals and bestow benefits on all. It is important at this point to define the term sustainable development. This is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" (WCED 1987:43). 2. Evidence was brought forward in Ester Boserup's (1970) now classic Women's Role in Economic Development. Boserup, an agricultural economist, used research data from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, and Latin America to highlight

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women's central positions in the economic life of these societies, and she described the disruptive effects of colonialism and modernization on the sexual division of labor through the introduction of the international market economy. Among other things, this process drew men away from production based on family labor and gave them near-exclusive access to economic and other resources. Boserup concluded that the economic survival and development of the Third World would depend heavily on efforts to reverse this trend and to more fully integrate women into the development process. The feminist movement reemerged in Western countries around 1968, alongside other social movements for civil rights. Although the movement's energies were, for the most part, directed internally, some Western women used their position to pressure their government's foreign-aid offices to ensure that grants to recipient countries supported women as well as men. The central point of the original women-and-development approach was that both women and men must be lifted from poverty and both women and men must contribute to and benefit from development efforts. Margaret Snyder and Mary Tadesse, in their book, African Women and Development: A History, defined women and development as follows: "Women and Development" is an inclusive term used to signify a concept and a movement whose long-range goal is the well-being of society the community of men,

women and children. Its formulation is based on the following suppositions :

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"Development," in accordance with the International Development Strategy for the Second Development Decade, means "to bring about sustained improvement in the wellbeing of the individual and to bestow benefits on all." Because women comprise more than half of the human resources and are central to the economic as well as the social well-being of societies, development goals cannot be fully reached without their participation. Women and development is thus a holistic concept wherein the goal of one cannot be achieved without the success of the other .Women, therefore, must have "both the legal right and access to existing means for the improvement of oneself and of society" (Snyder and Tadesse ,1995: 6) 5.5 The Origin of Women and Development Women and Development is a concept which has developed gradually since the 70s.Its inception began with the declaration of the International Women's Year by the United Nations in 1975, and the celebration of this at the First International Women's Conference in Mexico City marked the globalization of the movement. This unique intergovernmental conference and the non-governmental International Women's Tribune Centre (TWTC), a networking and communications institution, brought together women from nearly all countries of the world under the theme Equality, Development and Peace and extended its work during the United Nations Decade for Women, 1976-85. This sparked the creation of institutions and networks world-wide as "women and development" became an area of specialization in the development field. The United Nations Voluntary Fund for Women (later called the United Nations Development Fund for Women) and the International Training and Research Centre for

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Women were soon established within the United Nations system. IWTC and the Women's World Bank, a loan-guaranteeing organization, came into existence as NGOs. At the national level, "national machineries" commissions on women, women's desks, and women's bureaus were soon established in most countries. New women's organizations and networks sprang up at the community and national levels. These contributed to the institutionalization of women and development as an internationally recognized set of concepts and did much to generalize knowledge and consciousness about women's issues internationally. 5.6 Summary

LECTURE SIX GENDER INTEGRATION IN DEVELOPMENT PROCESSES

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6.1 Introduction In this lecture, we shall discuss gender integration in development processes. Thereafter we shall identify strategies that are used to integrate gender. 6.2 Objectives By the end of this lecture, you should be able to: 1. Define the term gender integration 2. Differentiate between integration of women in development (IWD) and integration of gender in development (IGD) 3. Explain gender integration strategies 4. Describe the socialization process

6.3 What is gender integration? Let us start by reminding ourselves the definition of gender. You will recall in Lecture one that gender is defined as a concept which refers to the social construction of masculine and feminine roles in a given society, at a given time; the social constructs of masculinity and femininity categorizes all human interactions. While reference to biological sex expresses a universal reality, the social construct of gender is variable over time and from place to place. Gender concerns everyone, men and women, and the relations between them. The gender dimension encompasses both sexes conditions, needs and priorities, potentials and strategies, as well as the evolution of gender relations throughout the development process. Integration refers to equal access for all, the process of opening a group, community, place, or organization to all, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or social class. Therefore, integrating gender into development activities- in all sectors- adds value and ultimately leads to better and more equitable results.

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Integration means taking account of both the differences and the inequalities between men and women in program planning, implementation and assessment. The roles and activities of men and women affect who does what in carrying out an activity and who benefits. Taking account of the inequalities and designing programs to reduce them should contribute not only to more effective development program but also to grater social equity.

Activity 6.1 Using the explanation given above, give your own understanding of gender integration

6.4 Differences between integration of women in development and integration of gender in development Integration of women in development (IWD): this approach identifies women (or their absence) as an important factor indicating the effectiveness of development program (or lack thereof). This integration takes shape in projects (or parts of projects) focused on women, whose aim is to increase women revenues and their ability to assume their (often traditional) roles, thus contributing to the mobilization of all available human resources for development. The focus here is on women as a category, and the idea is that women must be added in to development projects if they are absent. Integration of gender in development (IGD): this approach identifies inequalities and disparities of power, between men and women, as an obstacle to or brake on equitable development and the full participation of women. This integration is manifested in a gender analysis from which two types of strategies are derived: Mainstreaming and Affirmative Actions. Gender analysis is a tool which makes it possible to highlight the possibly different needs of women and men (especially in terms of access to and control of factors of production such as water, land, capital, and knowledge), their specific

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limitations and opportunities and their respective survival strategies. This analysis includes the practical needs determined by women and men, with a view to improving Mainstreaming and Affirmative Action benefit the under-represented or disadvantaged group. Let us know define the two new terms so that we may understand the meaning of integration of gender in development. In lecture one, we defined gender mainstreaming. Let us remind ourselves once again. Mainstreaming: is a strategy which aims to systematically integrate the gender dimension into the formulation of development policies, through each step of their implementation and at the time of their evaluation, so that development practices will help foster equality, between the women and men in a given society. It stresses procedures and methods which can have the effect of favoring (or not) the equal participation of men and women. It aims to eliminate power inequalities between men and women. Positive or affirmative action: is a strategy which consists of including actions of positive discrimination in favor of an undervalued social group (be it women in general or a specific group of women, a minority group or an unrepresented group) into a development programs budget, with the goal of re-establishing balance and contributing to more equality between those men and women directly or indirectly affected by a development program.

Activity 6.2 1. Identify areas in the society which can favor equal participation of men and women 2. Identify ways in which the government can address Affirmative Action in Kenya.

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In section 6.2, we have said that integrating gender into all development activities adds value and ultimately leads to better and more equitable results. However, the participation of both men and women is not at equal. It is therefore important to understand the origins of gendered behavior and how it might explain differences between men and women in the development sphere. 6.5 Theories of Gendered Socialization Masculine traits are most commonly associated with men and feminine traits with women. Masculine characteristics include powerful, aggressive, assertive, ambitious, strong, and unemotional. By contrast, being feminine means being sensitive, emotional, charming, docile, and lacking aggressiveness and power. These defining characteristics of gender are manifested in acts as subtle as buying pink booties instead of blue for a by girl or encouraging a young boy to play with trucks instead of with his sisters dolls. After all, it is during playtime with dolls that girls learn how to be nurturing and sensitive. Most research identifies similar processes by which we learn the concept of masculine and feminine ideals. Gender is learned and reinforced by parents, from the media, from peers, in church, and in school (Bennet, 1993). Girls are encouraged to emulate their mothers and learn to be women by dressing up in their mothers high heel shoes, putting on lipstick and painting their fingernails. Instead of dolls, boys are encouraged to play with trucks and cars. Role-playing for young boys is also common, such as being a policeman, fireman, or soldier and this playtime teaches boys about civic responsibilities. Pretending to be a policeman or soldier also includes playing with toy guns or acting out violence and aggression in other ways, which develops dominance traits. Further evidence supporting the position that gender is a learned behavior comes from studies showing that while boys are more aggressive physically, both boys and girls are equally verbally aggressive (Sapiro, 1983). The author concludes that sex differences in styles of power and control behavior begin to emerge during childhood in part because boys are allowed more options for expression of aggressiveness (Sapiro, 1983, p.44). So, children learn at a very young age what power means and which sex is best suited to exert power and control.
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Appropriate roles in the workplace are affected by gender ideals. Just 50 years ago, women rarely worked outside of the home and when they did, it was in traditional roles such as teachers, secretaries, or nurses but today women are visible in all occupations, even those previously dominated by men. For instance in fact, (CHECK ON CURRENT % OF WOMEN IN SCIENTIFIC COURSES AT THE UNIVERSITIES, CBS) Even though women are more visible in all occupations, they still are slow to reach top positions in their fields. For instance, according to a study done by the Womens Forum of North Carolina in 1999, women accounted for 75% of the workforce at the First Union Corporation in North Carolina but only 8% of their board of directors was female. Further, Duke Energy had a board of directors that was only 6% female. So, women are reaching top positions in once male-dominated professions, but their numbers are sparse. Let us now look at the various strategies of gender integration 6.6 Gender Integration Strategies 6.6.1 Gender integration in politics. Before empirically exploring the integration of women into politics, it is important to understand the dynamics of gender, ultimately, as it relates to politics. The institution of politics is highly masculine, and feminine gender roles could hinder women when they try to gain entry into politics. Gender roles are learned early and constantly reinforced socially and politically. As a result, male and female legislators are expected to hold different attitudes and behave differently. Prior to running for office, for example, men are more likely to have had jobs that provided them with greater community contacts and access to money and connections while women are more likely to have gained experience by volunteering or participation in other community activities. Female legislators are also likely to have young children in the home because of the family responsibilities placed on them as the caretakers. Finally, women often have distinctively different policy priorities and different leadership styles as a result of their experiences as women (Thomas, 1994; Kathlene, 1995; Boulard, 1999; Diamond, 1977).

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According to Kathlene et al, 1995, there are two ways that women enter the political world: horizontally and vertically. Horizontal integration represents the increase of women into politics in numbers while vertical integration requires that women ascend to positions of power and leadership within the institution. Though there is considerable research and data on the increasing numbers of women in politics and how this augmentation of women in office positively affects specific constituency groups, scholars have not rigorously studied the vertical integration of women in political structures. Vertical integration, in contrast with simply increasing the numbers of office holders - or horizontal integration - requires women to ascend to positions of power and leadership roles. The horizontal integration of women into politics comes in the form of increasing the number of female elective office holders and the number of women serving in political posts and appointments on boards and commissions. Being horizontally integrated, though, does not signify true acceptance into the highly masculine institution of politics. This acceptance only comes with vertical integration. Let us consider the following model:

Partial Inclusion III

Full Integration IVIV

1 Total Exclusion

II Partial Integration

Total Exclusion represents situations where women are rarely admitted and achieve less powerful positions within the institution. Partial Inclusion indicates that women are being integrated in more proportional numbers but are generally restricted to low ranks.
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In Partial Integration women are poorly represented in terms of descriptive representation but once there, women can rise in leadership. Women in Kenyan government would fall within this quadrant. Only 10% of Kenyas Parliament are women yet we have a number of women in high leadership positions.

Activity 1. Identify women (in your country) who hold high leadership positions 2. Are there challenges that these women face? Identify about five and discuss them with your colleague Finally, Full Integration shows an equal admittance and an equal ability to reach positions of power. Full integration would also require that women be totally accepted by those already in the institution. In other words, to be fully integrated would mean rejection of the good ol boy world of politics. At present, this is largely an ideal. Women in state legislatures likely fall somewhere between Full Integration and Partial Inclusion. Though only 10% of the nations (Kenya) state legislators are women, data indicates that over the years, more women are being elected to office. One way of assessing the degree of vertical integration for women is to study appointments to boards and commissions. If there are significant numbers of women are serving on boards and commissions in Kenya this would demonstrate horizontal integration of women into this part of the political process. Vertical integration would require women being appointed to the more powerful boards and commissions and/or rising to chair these boards. Gender balance on boards and commissions is important to ensure that all citizens have equal representation, but appointments are especially important to the women who are chosen to serve. At least one researcher showed that female legislators placed a higher value on experience gained serving on a board or commission than did male legislators (Carroll and Strimling, 1983). Women in the study

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considered those appointments to be political experience that was necessary to run for state legislative office and those appointments likely gave women the confidence to seek elective office. It is important to note that lack of women on boards and commissions particularly the more powerful ones - could be a self-segregating occurrence. Because women typically have more experience with traditionally female issue areas, women are, arguably, pursuing appointments on those boards and commissions dealing with those types of issues.

Activity 1. Identify the typical female issues that women leaders are mainly involved in? 2. In your own view, do you support the proposition that women head areas that are less powerful? Please discuss with your colleagues

However, the fact that most of those boards and commissions related to traditionally female areas of expertise are not considered to be among the most powerful is also very telling. Importance is still being placed on boards and commission that deal with subject matter that is traditionally within the sphere of mens responsibility, such as the Banking Commission or the Wildlife Resources Commission. Politics has long been viewed as a world of bargaining and logrolling where difficult decisions are made. The image of politics as something dirty, where the real action takes place in smoke-filled backrooms and bars, is a prominent theme in the American political culture (Diamond, 1977, p.73). This is also reflected in the Kenyan situation. Politics is a game of power and to successfully compete in this game one has to be very assertive and aggressive. With this common view of politics, women possessing these feminine qualities of passivity, sensitivity, and lack of aggressiveness would seem to be not well suited to play the game. Thus, the political model of gender perpetuates the social constructs of gender and vice versa.

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Research even connects gender socialization to learned political behavior. Sex-role socialization studies in the 1980s showed that, like in earlier times, girls were still learning passivity from their mothers and this learning process accounted for their political passivity as adults (Bennett, 1993, p.47). Politics has been regarded as better suited for men not only because of the skills necessary to participate but also because women are the mothers of our children and the moral pillars of society. Early arguments against granting womens suffrage in the 1920s included the idea that women should be protected from the political world because subjecting them to politics would be the demise of society; it would cause them to lose their purity and virtues.

Let us now discuss a few factors that inhibit women from participating in politics.

Family Responsibilities One possible explanation for the lack of horizontal integration of women in politics is that gender roles affect a womans calculation of costs and benefits for entering into politics. Family responsibilities dictate for women more often than men both the decision to run for political office and the timing of that decision. Women still typically have the responsibility of raising the children and will wait until the children are grown or at least older before running for state legislative office.

Gender and Prior Experience Differences between men and womens routes to legislative office are also evident. These disparities can, arguably, be the attributed to the way gender is assimilated in our culture. Men are more likely than women to have had occupations prior to holding office that provided high status, high prestige, and high community visibility (Thomas, 1994, p.32). Such occupations make it easier for men to enter the political world because they allow men to gain contacts in the community, access to key individuals, and money. Women, by contrast, tend to gain the necessary contacts and experience to run for office through activities such as civic or community volunteering or being active in local
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political party work (Thomas, 1994; Rosenthal, 1998). Further, although Thomas found that both men and women were just as likely to have held an office prior to running for state legislative office, those prior offices were frequently school boards for women and city council for men (Thomas, 1994). Womens entrance into those male-dominated professions, such as law, that allow for greater community contact and access to key individuals has been relatively slow until recent years. Now, women seem to be quickly joining the ranks of men in these professions and this is evidenced by the high percentages of women attending graduate and professional schools. Similarly, at least one study found that the number of women who cite their occupation as homemaker has declined over the years, changing what has traditionally kept women out of the public sphere of politics (Bennett, 1993, p.48). Changing family responsibilities and gender expectations are likely to promote the increased horizontal and possibly vertical integration of women into the traditionally masculine world of politics. 6.6.2 Gender integration in Education Development programming that incorporates gender considerations is more effective, responsive, and sustainable. Within the context of education, this means that more boys and girls are able to attend school, receive a higher quality education, improve their educational outcomes, and maximize their potential. Education plays a crucial role in development, improving economic growth, and reducing poverty. Educating girls, in particular, leads to many additional social benefits, including reduced fertility, healthier children, greater political participation, increased economic productivity for women, and a reduction in the prevalence of domestic violence, HIV, and AIDS. While development funding for education already achieves a high yield on the investment, integrating gender considerations into education programming helps ensure access to a better quality education for all. Enabling boys and girls to fully realize the benefits of education necessitates an understanding of their differing roles, needs, and responsibilities. Identifying how gender norms, relations, and power dynamics influence educational opportunities for boys and

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girls enables education officers to design solicitations that elicit targeted responses to existing needs and problems. By integrating gender considerations into solicitations, education officers can ensure that proposed activities address the root causes of problems and overcome the barriers and constraints to education for boys and girls. Solicitation refers to the assorted means by which offers or proposals are sought for government requirements and programs. These include Requests for Proposals, Requests for Applications, Requests for Task Order Proposals, and Annual Program Statements, which are referred to collectively throughout this guide as solicitations. To ensure gender integration in the education sector, the education officers need to make the following general considerations: 1. Include sex-disaggregated information to provide a clearer understanding of the context and existing disparities e.g. provide adequate data on disparities in education access, quality and achievement of both boys and girls 2. Expand the examination of gender issues beyond the individual level e.g., low salaries create a disincentive to men becoming teachers or policies barring pregnant girls from attending school. 3. Avoid including an all-encompassing, one-sentence statement regarding the importance of considering gender e.g. in the Sessional paper No 1 of 2005, one of the objective is To eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005. This objective is not very clear but another objective in the same paper adequately addresses gender: To ensure that all children including girls, children in difficult circumstances and from marginalized or vulnerable groups have access to and complete free and compulsory education by 2010 4. Be careful not to equate gender concerns with an exclusive focus on girls or women. Gender refers to the qualities and behaviors expected from males and females what is defined by society as masculine or feminine traits or roles. An attention to gender involves examining the roles, relationships, and dynamics between males and females and how these impact their needs, what they do and

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how they spend their time, their access to resources, their ability to participate and make decisions, and the power relations between them. There are four inter-related dimensions that must be addressed in order to ensure that boys and girls have access to a quality, relevant education that will allow them to maximize their full potential. The four dimensions are: Equality of access; Equality in the learning process; Equality of educational outcomes; and Equality of external results.

These four dimensions form part of the Gender Equality Framework, illustrated below.

Equity Strategies e.g. (-) Curriculum Reform Classroom Management Teaching Methods Teacher Training

Equity of Access

Equity of Educational Outcomes

Equality External Results

(+)

Equity in the learning outcomes

Aggravating Accommodating Transforming Equality of access means that girls and boys are offered equitable opportunities to gain admission to formal, non-formal, or alternative approaches to basic education. Actual

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attendance, rather than enrollment, is a better indicator of whether access has been achieved. Equality in the learning process means that girls and boys receive equitable treatment and attention and have equal opportunities to learn. This means that girls and boys are exposed to the same curricula, although the coursework may be taught differently to accommodate the different learning styles of girls and boys. In addition, all learners will enjoy teaching methods and materials free of stereotypes and gender bias and have the freedom to learn, explore, and develop skills in all academic and extracurricular offerings. Equality of educational outcomes means that girls and boys enjoy equal opportunities to achieve and that outcomes are based on individual girls and boys talents and efforts. This does not suggest that all students will perform the same. Rather, it implies that strategies have been put into place to ensure fair chances for achievement. Equality of educational outcomes is achieved through combined approaches for achieving equality of access and equality in the learning process. Equality of external results occurs when the status of men and women, their access to goods and resources, and their ability to contribute to, participate in, and benefit from economic, social and cultural, and political activities are equal. This implies that career opportunities, the time needed to secure employment after leaving full-time education, and the earnings of men and women with similar qualifications and experience are equal. The four domains of gender equality are related, but that relationship is complex and not necessarily linear. Parity in enrollment and greater gender equality in schooling can, and often do, coexist with inequalities outside of education. In fact, several studies have demonstrated that educational success for girls does not automatically translate into higher economic status or greater political participation as adults (SERNAM 2004). At the same time, improving opportunities for women in the labor market can give them the economic means to send their children to school. Achieving equality after learners finish their studies and enter the labor market requires interventions that go beyond the education sector.

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Intext Question In groups of five, discuss Gender integration in Health and the Environment in a country of your choice

Continuum of Approaches for Integrating Gender Considerations Into Programming Part of the Gender Equality Framework, the Continuum of Approaches for Integrating Gender Considerations into Programming is a tool that helps determine how effectively projects address gender needs through their planned activities. (-) (+)

Aggravating

Accommodating

Transforming

On one end of the continuum are approaches that are harmful and promote inequality; on the other end are approaches that actively seek to improve equality and transform gender relations. Strategies put into place to address gender inequalities may fall anywhere along this continuum. Broadly, these strategies for gender integration are categorized as being aggravating, accommodating, or transforming. Aggravating approaches are programs that create, exacerbate or ignore gender inequalities in pursuit of project outcomes. This approach is harmful and, in the long run, can undermine project objectives, even if short-term goals are realized. Example: To increase condom usage, condom social marketing campaigns have targeted men using aggressive or violent imagery. Although condom usage did increase, the approach used, which was grounded in broad stereotypes of masculinity, also reinforced male dominance and control over decision- making in intimate relationships. This was an unintended negative outcome that was only discovered after the intervention was already underway. Reinforcing male control over decision-making eventually undermined womens ability to protect

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themselves from unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and made them more vulnerable to incidents of domestic violence. Accommodating approaches are programs that maintain existing gender roles to achieve project outcomes. While the approach is not harmful, it does not seek to reduce gender inequality. This approach may bring short-term benefits but does not address greater systemic issues that contribute to inequalities. Example: Soon after reconstruction efforts began in a post-conflict country, project implementers began running community schools for girls. These schools operated underground and girls were not openly educated. Although educational goals were achieved, the approach accommodated prevailing attitudes that females should not be educated and that they should have limited mobility outside the home. Transforming approaches are programs that seek to actively change gender relations to promote equality and achieve project objectives. This approach helps to change power imbalances, resource distribution, and the allocation of duties between men and women. Such approaches include strategies that seek to involve and empower both women and men. Example: Gender-sensitive school-based HIV/AIDS education programs can encourage the establishment of positive attitudes and respectful relationships between boys and girls. This foundation is critical in building gender-equitable norms, healthy relationships and life skills, including abstinence, to protect against the spread of HIV. In summary, while project designers may be aware of gender inequalities, programs put into place to address those inequalities may not always be beneficial. Some programs may have unintended negative consequences or even perpetuate inequalities. Through the application of the continuum, project planners can make informed choices. When addressing gender issues in education, programs should not be aggravating; activities should move towards transformation to achieve more robust development outcomes, as context and circumstances allow.

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6.7 Summary In this lecture we have explained what gender integration is, differences between integration of women in development and integration of gender in development. We have also discussed the theories of gendered socialization. Finally, we have explored how gender is integrated in contemporary issues

References 1. United Nations Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 2006. Strong foundations: Early childhood care and education. Paris: UNESCO. 2. United States Agency for International Development (USAID). n.d. Automated Directives Systems. Washington, DC: USAID. http://www.usaid.gov/policy/ads

LECTURE SEVEN

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GENDER EQUALITY AND DEVELOPMENT 7.1 Introduction

In this lecture, we shall discuss the gender issues that affect development. In the previous lecture we looked at how gender is integrated in development process. Gender equality is an integral part of development and if men and women are treated equally, the society shall move forward. We shall discuss how to enhance equality in economic issues, violence against women, democratic governance, HIV and AIDs, peace and stability and Human rights. 7.2 Objectives At the end of the lecture, you should be able to: State the relationship between gender equality and development Discuss gender issues that affect development Explain strategies to improve gender inequalities

7.3 Gender Equality and Development Gender equality is important for both intrinsic and instrumental reasons (IEA, 2008). It affects social harmony and societys wellbeing in various dimensions. It involves policy dimensions in all areas including education, poverty, labor, financial markets, political and economic empowerment, institutions and overall economic development. Gender equality enhances prospects of achieving both international and national commitments such as Millennium Development Goals, Education for All, Convention on the Education of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Vision 2030, 2003- 2007 Economic Recovery and Employment Creation Strategy, poverty reduction and sustainable development either directly and or indirectly. Gender inequality on the other hand undermines economic growth and social development. This is particularly true among less developed economies where women are often constrained from having equal access to social and economic capital such as employment, political, financial and social services. Consequently empowering women and enabling them to actively participate and

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contribute to social, economic and political activities is important for sustainable development. Let us remind ourselves how we defined gender in lecture one: Gender refers not only to women or men per se, but to the socially defined roles of each sex, as well as to the relation between them. According to World Bank (2003), gender inequality, which remains pervasive worldwide, tends to lower the productivity of labor and the efficiency of labor allocation in households and the economy, intensifying the unequal distribution of resources. It also contributes to the non-monetary aspects of poverty lack of security, opportunity and empowerment that lower the quality of life for both men and women. While women and girls bear the largest and most direct costs of these inequalities, the costs cut broadly across society, ultimately hindering development and poverty reduction. Gender issues, therefore, form part of the development approach that puts people at the center and ensures their participation in the entire development process. The Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit, commits the member countries to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, as effective ways to combat poverty, hunger and disease and to stimulate development that is truly sustainable. Gender inequalitydefined in this discussion refers to the differences in the rights, responsibilities, and opportunities provided for women and for men. Equality of men and women is an integral part of universal human rights. This means that women and men are given equal access to quality education, health and nutrition. It also means that the barriers to equal participation in political and economic life are removed so that women are able to share equally with men the opportunities and benefits of development. The active participation and cooperation of all members of the community is at the heart of sustainable development. Such participation should build on peoples skills, knowledge and potential and enable them to be involved in activities which are meaningful to them. The goal and objectives of the gender and development policy recognize that development programs cannot succeed if the people - men and women affected do not participate in and support them.

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Take Note

Gender inequality exists where women and men: Are not treated equally in laws and policies. Do not share equally in power and influence. Do not have an equal possibility to develop their full potential. Do not have equal access to services, financial resources, information, and technologies. Do not have equal opportunities, rights, and obligations in the public and private spheresincluding those that are related to work and to other ways of generating income.

Gender equality does not mean that women and men are the same. Rather, it means that no ones rights, responsibilities, and opportunities depend on his or her sex. Let us now look at gender issues that affect development. 7.4 The situation in Kenya in terms of Gender Equality According to the institute of Economic Affairs (2008), various national, regional and international conventions and documentation have emphasized that enabling the population, regardless of gender to actively participate in social and economic wellbeing is critical for long-term and sustainable social, political and economic development of any society. In Kenya, gender equity has taken centre stage resulting in the development and enactment of various legal and policy interventions including enactment of the National Commission on Gender and Development Act in 2003 and subsequent establishment of the National Commission on Gender and Development in November the same year; introduction of gender desks in key parastatals and police stations; the introduction of the womens enterprise fund; the passing of the National Policy on Gender and Development in 2006 and the 30% presidential decree on affirmative action in public appointments, among others. Although, females constitute 51% of the

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population in Kenya, gender disparities are still persistent in most sectors. A study on the profile of womens socio-economic status in Kenya (2008) shows that there is low female representation in post primary education, formal employment, enterprise ownership outside wholesale and retail trade, and political decision making processes. Gender inequalities can be attributed to limited access and control over productive resources, access to financial services, insufficient access to education, lack of skill, limited access to technology, cultural impediments and other constraints limiting employment options and participation in decision making. All these serve to seriously constrain womens ability to effectively participate in and benefit from economic development. Policy interventions towards removing barriers to general female well-being include economic and knowledge empowerment, increasing access to financial services, employment and participation in decision making. The countrys commitment to addressing gender equity and inequalities can be traced in both international and national policy commitments. The third and fifth Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) underscore the need for gender parity especially in education and access to social, economic and political opportunities, by 2015. As a result the country has put in place various policies and interventions including legislation, female specific policies, plans and programs aimed at addressing specific gender gaps or forms of discrimination. Such interventions include affirmative action, promoting girl child education, economic empowerment through introduction of the Women Development Fund. Most of the policy interventions targeting elimination of gender gaps are however not consistently documented and they are not informed by data or statistics. Moreover, the status of female population with respect to distributions of opportunities in various economic, social and political dimensions is scantly documented Gender inequalities in Kenya persist at all levels and they are manifested in various ways, the IEA (2004) highlighted some of them as follows. Inadequate access to social services, such as health services. Kenya has a high maternal mortality rates due to poor access to health facilities, especially in rural areas. Gaps in education system for girls especially at secondary and tertiary levels

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Poor access to potable water supply. Women and girls are usually responsible for fetching water for household use from rivers and often kilometres away from the household.

Although women play an important role in agriculture, they have more limited access to agricultural credit, farm inputs, and land; Policies for this sector need to be more gender responsive.

Women play an important role in the informal sector, especially in food processing in the agricultural sector, and in trade. Yet policies targeted at these sectors often ignore the needs and constraints faced by women.

Women-owned micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), have limited access to support services for this sector. Gender disparities exist in rights, political participation and ownership of financial and other assets. Female-headed households are more likely to be poor than male-headed households

These disparities constrain womens effective participation in the economic, social and political life of the nation. Identifying and redressing these inequalities tends to have high social, economic and financial returns. 7.5 Gender Issues that affect Development 7.5.1 Women, Poverty & Economics Women bear a disproportionate burden of the worlds poverty. Statistics indicate that women are more likely than men to be poor and at risk of hunger because of the systematic discrimination they face in education, health care, employment and control of assets. Poverty implications are widespread for women, leaving many without even basic rights such as access to clean drinking water, sanitation, medical care and decent employment. Being poor can also mean they have little protection from violence and have no role in decision making.

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According to some estimates, women represent 70 percent of the worlds poor. They are often paid less than men for their work, with the average wage gap in 2008 being 17 percent. Eight out of ten women workers are considered to be in vulnerable employment in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, with global economic changes taking a huge toll on their livelihoods. Intext Question Discuss the poverty index in your country with reference to women

Let us look at these facts and figures as given by UNIFEM Newsletter (2008)

There is a direct link between increased female labor participation and growth: It is estimated that if womens paid employment rates were raised to the same level as mens, Americas GDP would be 9 percent higher; the euro-zones would be 13 percent higher, and Japans would be boosted by 16 percent.

Womens nominal wages are 17 percent lower than mens. Women perform 66 percent of the worlds work, produce 50 percent of the food, but earn 10 percent of the income and own 1 percent of the property

In some regions, women provide 70 percent of agricultural labor, produce more than 90 percent of the food, and yet are nowhere represented in budget deliberations.

In Mexico, women in paid employment devote an additional 33 hours to domestic chores per week, while mens weekly contribution six hours.

If the average distance to the moon is 394,400 km, South African women together walk the equivalent of a trip to the moon and back 16 times a day to supply their households with water.

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In many countries, however, the impact goes far beyond the loss of formal jobs, as the majority of women tend to work in the informal sector, for example as domestics in cities, and do not show up in official unemployment numbers. Economic policies and institutions still mostly fail to take gender disparities into account, from tax and budget systems to trade regimes. And with too few seats at the tables where economic decisions are made, women themselves have limited opportunity to influence policy. Take Note According to the United Nations (2002): Research on agricultural productivity in Africa shows that reducing gender inequality could significantly increase agricultural yields. For instance, studies have shown that giving women farmers in Kenya the same level of agricultural inputs and education as men farmers could increase yields of farmers by more than 20 per cent. Research on economic growth and education shows that failing to invest in womens education can lower the gross national product (GNP). Everything else being equal, countries in which the ratio of female-to-male enrolment in primary or secondary education is less than .75 can expect levels of GNP that are roughly 25 per cent lower than countries in which there is less gender disparity in education. Research on gender inequality in the labor market shows that eliminating gender discrimination in relation to occupation and pay could both increase womens income and contribute to national income. For instance, estimates reveal that if gender inequality in the labor market in Latin America were to be eliminated, not only would womens wages rise by about 50 per cent, but national output would rise by 5 per cent.

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Intext Question Discuss other areas in which eliminating gender inequalities would increase economic efficiency?

Strategies to improve gender equalities in Economics

a)

Gender-Responsive Budgets

A budget is the most comprehensive statement of a governments social and economic plans and priorities. It is now widely acknowledged that macroeconomic policy can, and does influence gender inequality and gender inequality influences macroeconomic outcomes (Elson 1998). In tracking where the money comes from and where it goes, budgets determine how public funds are raised, how they are used and who benefits from them. Therefore, implementing commitments towards gender equality requires intentional measures to incorporate a gender perspective in planning and budgeting frameworks and concrete investment in addressing gender gaps. Gender-responsive budgeting is not about creating separate budgets for women, or solely increasing spending on womens programs. Rather gender-responsive budgeting seeks to ensure that the collection and allocation of public resources is carried out in ways that are effective and contribute to advancing gender equality and womens empowerment. It should be based on in-depth analysis that identifies effective interventions for implementing policies and laws that advance womens rights. It provides tools to assess the different needs and contributions of men and women, and boys and girls within the existing revenues, expenditures and allocations and calls for adjusting budget policies to benefit all groups. Gender-responsive budget analysis, along with legislation, and other practical policy measures can address gender bias and discrimination. It is a step not only towards accountability to womens rights, but also towards greater public transparency and can shift economic policies leading to gains across societies. In Mozambique, work on
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gender-responsive budgeting helped to address gender equality gaps in the countrys poverty reduction strategy. Following the call by womens organizations to prioritize ending violence against women in the strategic plan as key to addressing gender inequality, funds were provided to create facilities for victims of domestic violence in police stations in all 129 districts, In Morocco every second woman does not know how to read or write. To reverse this trend, the Ministry of Education allocated funds to expand the school feeding programs, extend medical services within schools, distribute books, and provide transport for students living in remote areas. These measures were spelt out in the gender budget statement, the first in the history of Morocco and presented as an annex to the national budget for 2006. The statement outlined how the allocation of public resources will address gender equality priorities. In Kenya, the Institute of Economic Affairs carried out a study in 2004 on Mainstreaming Gender in National Budgets and they identified gaps in the Kenyan Budget process (www.ieakenya.or.ke/documents/mainstreaming).

b)

Women Migrant Workers

Globalization has contributed to an increasing flow of migrant workers from countries with limited economic opportunities to fill gaps in nations with a dwindling labor supply. While globalization may foster the acceleration of trade and investment, it does not create an environment that protects migrant workers economic, social and physical security. This is even more so when it comes to women migrant workers, whose numbers have been increasing, now constituting 50 percent or more of the migrant workforce in Asia and Latin America. By creating new economic opportunities, migration can promote economic independence and status for women workers, who provide safety nets that sustain communities at home. Studies indicate that migrant women workers contribute to the development of both sending and receiving countries remittances from their incomes account for as much as 10 percent of the GDP in some countries. In 2008, remittances were estimated by the World Bank at US$305 billion. These monetary investments used for food, housing, education and medical services along with newly acquired skills of returnees, can
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potentially contribute significantly to poverty reduction and the Millennium Development Goals. Yet, while migration can bring new employment and opportunities, it also bears great risks for women, many of whom end up at the lower end of the job market. Female migrants often work as domestic workers and entertainers a euphemism for sex workers in unregulated informal sectors that do not fall under national labor laws. Migrant women routinely lack access to social services and legal protection and are subjected to abuses such as harsh working and living conditions, low wages, illegal withholding of wages and premature termination of employment. The worst abuses force women into sexual slavery. UNIFEM for instance has worked with worked with governments, civil society and the private sector, in an effort to promote safe migration for women, eliminating trafficking, and enabling policy, institutional and socio-economic environments that ensure womens equal opportunities and benefits from migration. Specific program support goes towards establishing laws and practices that protect women migrants human rights, drawing connections to national poverty reduction strategies, strengthening migrants organizations, and brokering exchanges between source and destination countries to advance labor rights. For example, in Jordan, UNIFEM supported efforts for inclusion of women migrant workers in the national labor code. This resulted in the formulation of a minimum standard contract for migrant women that stipulates their rights, such as the right to medical care, rest days and timely payment of wages. Information on a shelter and hotline for domestic workers was also included. In addition, the Government has established a monitoring committee to assess the situations of migrant women workers in their employers houses. Media campaigns have raised awareness in this destination country regarding the rights of migrant workers.

c)

Womens Land & Property Rights

In many countries around the world, womens property rights are limited by social norms, customs and at times legislation, hampering their economic status and

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opportunities to overcome poverty. Even in countries where women constitute the majority of small farmers and do more than 75 percent of the agricultural work, they are routinely denied the right to own the land they cultivate and on which they are dependent to raise their families. Ownership of land and property empowers women and provides income and security. Without resources such as land, women have limited say in household decision-making, and no recourse to the assets during crises. This often relates to other vulnerabilities such as domestic violence and HIV and AIDS. In regions of conflict, the impact of unequal land rights has serious consequences for women often the only survivors. In conflict and post-conflict situations, the number of women-headed households often increases sharply as many men have either been killed or are absent. Without their husbands, brothers or fathers in whose name land and property titles are traditionally held they find themselves denied access to their homes and fields by male family members, former in-laws or neighbors. Without the security of a home or income, women and their families fall into poverty traps and struggle for livelihoods, education, sanitation, health care, and other basic rights. In recent years, international agreements have repeatedly reiterated the importance of womens land and property rights. The Beijing Platform for Action affirmed that womens right to inheritance and ownership of land and property should be recognized. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has underscored it, referring to rural womens rights to equal treatment in land and agrarian reform processes. Womens property rights are an implicit part of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, specifically Goal 1 on eradicating extreme poverty and Goal 3 on gender equality. Advocacy for womens land and property rights enhances womens economic security and rights and reduce feminized poverty. Let us conclude this part by rephrasing the words of UNIFEM coordinator in Nepal who said that a growing body of evidence suggests that gender equality fuels thriving economies. When women can find decent jobs and acquire assets, they earn incomes and

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accumulate savings to help themselves and their families. The pool of human resources, talents and economic contributions expands, spurring productivity and growth (UNIFEM, 2008)

7.5.2

Violence against Women

Violence against women and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture. It takes a devastating toll on womens lives, on their families, and on society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence yet the reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condone. UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-Moon, 8 March 2007 Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread violations of human rights. It can include physical, sexual, psychological and economic abuse, and it cuts across boundaries of age, race, culture, wealth and geography. It takes place in the home, on the streets, in schools, the workplace, in farm fields, refugee camps, during conflicts and crises. It has many manifestations from the most universally prevalent forms of domestic and sexual violence, to harmful practices, abuse during pregnancy, so-called honor killings and other types of femicide. International and regional legal instruments have clarified obligations of States to prevent, eradicate and punish violence against women and girls. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) requires that countries party to the Convention take all appropriate steps to end violence. However, the continued prevalence of violence against women and girls demonstrates that this global pandemic of alarming proportions is yet to be tackled with all the necessary political commitment and resources. Globally, up to six out of every ten women experience physical and/or sexual violence in their lifetime. A World Health Organization study of 24,000 women in 10 countries found that the prevalence of physical and/or sexual violence by a partner varied from 15 percent in urban Japan to 71 percent in rural Ethiopia, with most areas being in the 3060

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percent range. Violence against women and girls has far-reaching consequences, harming families and communities. For women and girls 1644 years old, violence is a major cause of death and disability. In 1994, a World Bank study on ten selected risk factors facing girls and women in this age group, found rape and domestic violence more dangerous than cancer, motor vehicle accidents, war and malaria. Studies also reveal increasing links between violence against women and HIV and AIDS. A survey among 1,366 South African women showed that women who were beaten by their partners were 48 percent more likely to be infected with HIV than those who were not. Gender-based violence not only violates human rights, but also hampers productivity, reduces human capital and undermines economic growth. A 2003 report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the costs of intimate partner violence in the United States alone exceeds US$5.8 billion per year: US$4.1 billion are for direct medical and health care services, while productivity losses account for nearly US$1.8 billion due to absenteeism. Countries have made some progress in addressing violence against women and girls. According to the UN Secretary-Generals 2006 In-Depth Study on All Forms of Violence against Women , 89 countries had some legislation on domestic violence, and a growing number of countries had instituted national plans of action. Marital rape is a prosecutable offence in at least 104 States, and 90 countries have laws on sexual harassment. However, in too many countries gaps remain. In 102 countries there are no specific legal provisions against domestic violence, and marital rape is not a prosecutable offence in at least 53 nations. Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime with the abuser usually someone known to her. Perhaps the most pervasive human rights violation that we know today, it devastates lives, fractures communities, and stalls development.

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Statistics paint a horrifying picture of the social and health consequences of violence against women. For women aged 15 to 44 years, violence is a major cause of death and disability. In a 1994 study based on World Bank data about ten selected risk factors facing women in this age group, rape and domestic violence rated higher than cancer, motor vehicle accidents, war and malaria. Moreover, several studies have revealed increasing links between violence against women and HIV/AIDS. Women who have experienced violence are at a higher risk of HIV infection: a survey among 1,366 South African women showed that women who were beaten by their partners were 48 percent more likely to be infected with HIV than those who were not. The economic cost of violence against women is considerable a 2003 report by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) estimates that the costs of intimate partner violence in the United States alone exceed US$5.8 billion per year: US$4.1 billion are for direct medical and health care services, while productivity losses account for nearly US$1.8 billion. Violence against women impoverishes individuals, families and communities, reducing the economic development of each nation. The UN Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) was established by General Assembly resolution 50/166 in 1996 and is managed by the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) on behalf of the UN system. The UN Trust Fund is the only multilateral grant-making mechanism that supports local, national and regional efforts to end violence against women and girls. Grants support:

awareness raising; advocacy for adequate budgetary allocation; multi-sector partnerships; development of sustainable capacities of judiciaries, law enforcement and health service providers;

access of survivors to services;

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and creation and strengthening of data collection systems

7.5.3 HIV & AIDS More than 30 million people are today living with HIV. Globally, women now account for half of all infections. Yet women increasingly make up the majority in sub-Saharan Africa, where the epidemic has stretched the furthest. In parts of Africa and the Caribbean, young women ages 1524 are up to six times more likely to be HIV-positive than young men of the same age. The proportions of women living with HIV in Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe are also growing slowly. Gender inequality and violations of womens rights make women and girls particularly susceptible, leaving them with less control than men over their bodies and their lives. Women and girls often have less information about HIV and fewer resources to take preventive measures. They face barriers to the negotiation of safer sex, including economic dependency and unequal power relations. Sexual violence, a widespread and brutal violation of womens rights, exacerbates the risk of transmission. And while it is widely assumed that marriage provides protection from AIDS, evidence suggests that in parts of the world it can be a major HIV risk factor, especially for young women and girls. In many cases, HIV-positive women face stigma and exclusion, aggravated by their lack of rights. Women widowed by AIDS or found to be HIV-positive may face property disputes with in-laws. And regardless of whether they themselves are HIV-positive, women generally assume the burden of home-based care for others who are sick or dying, along with the orphans left behind. The sixth Millennium Development Goal calls for reversing the spread of HIV and AIDS by 2015. To that end, more resources are needed, and strategies and programs must be

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targeted to women in particular. At a UN General Assembly Special Session in 2001, more than 180 countries agreed that gender equality and womens empowerment are fundamental to reducing girls and womens vulnerability to HIV and AIDS. To fight the epidemic successfully it is necessary to tackle the persistent challenges of gender-based violence, discrimination, and unequal access to resources.

7.5.4

Democratic Governance

Studies show higher numbers of women in parliament generally contribute to stronger attention to womens issues. Womens political participation is a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and genuine democracy. It facilitates womens direct engagement in public decision-making and is a means of ensuring better accountability to women. Political accountability to women begins with increasing the number of women in decision-making positions, but it cannot stop there. What are required are gendersensitive governance reforms that will make all elected officials more effective at promoting gender equality in public policy and ensuring their implementation. There has been significant progress in recent years: more and more women are seeking to transform politics itself, and womens groups are focusing on efforts to increase womens representation on the ballot to reinvigorate political accountability. Today, there are more women in government than ever before. The proportion of women parliamentarians at the national level has increased by 8 percent in the decade from 1998 to 2008, to the current global average of 18.4 percent, compared to an increase of just 1 percent in the two decades after 1975.

Activity Discuss the situation in your country as far as women representation in governance in concerned

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Yet, around the world, gender equality in democratic governance continues to be extremely limited. Women are outnumbered 4 to 1 in legislatures around the world. At mid-year 2009, only 17 heads of state or government were women. Even if the present accelerated rate of increase in womens representation continues as compared to previous decades, we are still a long way from reaching the parity zone of 4060 percent. According to UNIFEM estimations, countries with first past the post electoral systems without any type of quota arrangements will not reach the 40-percent threshold of women in public office until near to the end of this century. Many factors hinder womens political participation, such as political parties being slow to respond to womens interest, under-investment in womens campaigns, cultural barriers, and conflicting demands on the time of women candidates due to their domestic and social responsibilities. Quotas and other temporary special measures, such as reserved seats, are a proven means for supporting womens engagement in political competition. Another strategy is through working with multiple stakeholders, like womens organizations, governments, the UN system and the private sector, to bring more women into government, train women leaders, and boost womens skills to actively participate in elections as candidates and voters.

7.5.5

Peace & Security

The changing nature of conflict in recent decades has altered the way it affects men and women. While women remain a minority of combatants and perpetrators of war, they increasingly suffer the greatest harm. In contemporary conflicts, more than 70 percent of casualties have been civilians most of them women and children. Women face specific and devastating forms of gender-based violence, including widespread sexual violence, deployed systematically for military or political objectives. As women in war-torn societies struggle to keep families together and care for the wounded, they are the first to be affected by infrastructure breakdown, and may be forced into survival strategies that involve sexual exploitation.

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Yet conflict resolution and peace building are still an exclusive, male-dominated affair. Despite the fact that women have often been the most ardent advocates of peace, they have mostly remained on the sidelines of formal peace talks and reconstruction processes. Research by UNIFEM indicates that in ten major peace processes in the past decade, women were on average 6 percent of negotiators and under 3 percent of signatories. Womens exclusion from negotiating tables and the lack of gender expertise among mediators leads to a failure to address womens concerns. For instance, only five peace accords have referred to the use of sexual violence as a military and political tactic, despite its increase in both frequency and brutality. In recent years, recognition has grown that womens exclusion from peace processes not only contravenes their right to participate in decisions that affect their lives, but that for a sustainable peace to take hold, women must take an equal role in shaping it. Womens perspectives and experiences are critical to stability and inclusive governance. Postconflict reconstruction also provides a chance to strengthen gender justice through the reform of laws, judicial systems and political processes. Governments should supports measures to end impunity for sexual and gender-based violence in conflict and to address a wider range of post-conflict gender justice, including truth-telling and reconciliation, as well as institutional reforms to ensure that police and other security services respond to womens safety needs. UNIFEMs work on good governance in post-conflict contexts addresses long-term issues of building public sector accountability to women, emphasizing the need for women to take active roles in political and economic leadership and public administration.

7.5.6

Human Rights

Across the globe, women confront manifold violations of their human rights when they cannot participate in the decisions that affect their lives or claim fair political representation, when they face discrimination in employment, when they are denied entitlement to land and property, or when they suffer violence within their own home. Other obstacles to rights arise when women and girls are prevented from going to school or attaining health care, or are subject to harmful traditional practices.
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At the same time, governments around the world have undertaken legal human rights obligations to combat gender inequalities. The key international agreement on womens human rights is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which is also described as the international bill of womens rights. Ratified by 185 UN Member States, CEDAW encompasses a global consensus on the changes that need to take place in order to realize womens human rights. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Conventions adoption through the UN General Assembly in 1979. Under CEDAW, States are required to eliminate the many different forms of genderbased discrimination women confront, not only by making sure that there are no existing laws that directly discriminate women, but also by ensuring that all necessary arrangements are put in place that will allow women to actually experience equality in their lives Summary This chapter has looked at the influence of gender in development. We have also looked at various indicators of gender inequality with more emphasis on Kenya. Finally we have discussed various strategies that may improve gender equality

References Institute of Economic Affairs (2008), profile of womens socio-economic status in Kenya: Kenya, IEA Institute of Economic Affairs (2004), Mainstreaming gender in national budgets: The gaps in the Kenya Budget process: Kenya, IEA UNIFEM Newsletter. 2008 www.ieakenya.or.ke/documents/mainstreaming).

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LECTURE EIGHT EMERGING TRENDS IN GENDER ISSUES

8.1 Introduction In the last lecture we dealt with gender issues that affect development in society. In this lecture we are going to look at emerging trends in gender issues. This lecture is on emerging trends in gender issues, I will introduce to you gender issues that have been coming with the passing of time. I will look at the new and emerging areas of concern described and internationally endorsed because they are important development issues. We shall discuss gender and violence which will focus on the social, political and economic costs of all forms of violence against women.

This lecture will cover Women and HIV/AIDS. The global HIV/AIDS can only be understood by considering male and female roles in society. The epidemic can only be fought by tackling the persistent challenges of gender based violence, discrimination and unequal access to resources.

Next we shall, Women and Governance. Women bring important skills, attributes and perspectives to the governance process. Next, we shall look at gender and environment because gender matters in the context of sustainable resource management and development policy. Finally, we shall discuss the need for gender and empowerment in development. Empowerment is a process whereby women and men experience as well as

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challenge power relationships. It takes place in institutional, material and discursive contexts. 8.2 Objectives At the end of this lecture you should be able to: Define gender violence and discuss how it affects development Describe the vulnerabilities and consequences of HIV/AIDS for women and girls Explain the importance of women in governance Explain the need for gender empowerment in development

8.3 Violence against Women Violence isit was described and endorsed internationally in the Beijing Platform for Action ( ) and acknowledged as an important development issue. Female-focused violence interferes with and reduces womens capacity to participate fully and equally in the countys development. It is not only a matter of fundamental justice, equality and human rights but also an important development issue for communities and governments. There is a relationship between female-focused violence and health, child survival, AIDS prevention, costs to the judiciary and law enforcement agencies. Gender violence represents a hidden obstacle to economic and social development. Domestic violence not only entails private costs to the individual but also wider social and economic costs. It also constrains human development, economic growth and productivity, domestic violence also strains financial resources and it can mean loss of income, reduction of efficiency and level of productivity.

8.4 The vulnerabilities and consequences of HIV/AIDS for women and girls

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Ashburn, Ooman, Wendt and Rosenzweig (2009) explain that at the start of the global epidemic in the 1980s, about a third of all people infected by HIV worldwide were women, they argue that just a decade later more than half were women. They add that in sub-Saharan Africa, 61% of all people infected with HIV are women. The most vulnerable age group to HIV infection is women between 15 and 24 years. Gender inequality increases the risk of contracting HIV for women and girls in a number of ways. The choices that women haveincluding choices about marriage, work, and where to live are determined largely by society. Gender norms limit womens ability to control the conditions of their sexual relationships, including risky sexual behavior. In addition, concepts of masculinity often create risk and vulnerability for both men and women by encouraging risky behaviors such as having sex with multiple partners. Gender-based violence has been identified as a risk factor for HIV infection. Womens limited access to education, employment, and other economic opportunities increases their economic vulnerability, which in turn makes them more likely to adopt risky sexual behavior. Although the mechanism through which girls education affects HIV vulnerability still is not precisely clear, evidence is emerging that girls with more years of schooling are better able to negotiate conditions of sexual relationships. For example, results of a study in South Africa show that girls who complete primary school, compared with girls who do not, are twice as likely to use condoms. And girls who complete secondary school, compared with girls who do not complete primary school, are almost four times more likely to use condoms. Similar results are reported in various other studies in sub-Saharan Africa. Limited access to economic opportunities also makes women more dependent on menand economic inequality in relationships has been associated with sexual coercion and an inability to negotiate condom use. Finally, gender inequality further increases the harmful effects of HIV/AIDS for women and girls and creating barriers for them in accessing services. Gender-based violence and unequal power dynamics in the home can limit womens access to counseling, testing, and treatment and can hinder them from disclosing their HIV positive status. And womens roles as mothers and caregivers mean
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that they often bear the greatest burden in caring for family and community members living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. 8.5 Bringing Women into Governance Women form a great fraction of the Kenyan population and they bring important skills, attributes and perspectives to the governance process. The greatest deterent factor to womens participation is gender inequality and the fact that most senior managers are men and they are the ones who have power to make decisions. The policies in place are not gender sensitive which reduces the opportunity for women to be included in transitional institutions especially constitution drafting bodies. 8.6 The Need for Gender Empowerment for Development 8.6.1 What is empowerment? Empowerment especially for women has been on the minds of a number of scholars and practitioners, namely: Haleh Ashfar (1998): Jo Rowlands (1997): Naila Kabeer (1994) and Srilatha Batliwala (1994) in Parpart, Rai and Staudt (2002). Empowerment is to give somebody power or authority (Oxford Learners Dictionary 2002).Empowerment is a process which takes a long time to achieve and it involves the exercise rather than possession of power. In the case of women, it is giving women opportunities to acquire knowledge, funds and support so that they can address their needs.

8.6.2 Empowerment, Power and Development Most interrogations of the term focus on the ways to improve its effectiveness at the local level. Emphasis has been on grassroots, participatory methods and their empowerment potential. For a long time development has been state-led and the top-down approach has been utilized, while this has had its benefits, these benefits have not trickled down to the community and especially women who form the wider base of those who are not in employment. Parpart et al (2002) explain that various interpretations of power and

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empowerment have influenced the thinking and practice of development practitioners and theorist.

LECTURE NINE GENDER AND ENVIRONMENT 9.1 Introduction

In this lecture we are going to discuss gender and environment, the issues that we shall look at in this area are: Environmental Relations and Interactions, Institutional Analysis of gender and environment, Key Issues in Gender and Environment. We shall also discuss policy implications and challenges to Gender and Development.

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9.2 Objectives By the end of this lecture you should be able to: 1.Explain the genesis of gender and environment 2.Describe key issues in gender and environment 3.Examine the impact of conflict on the environment, gender, vulnerability and environmental change 4. Explain how environmental crises affect environmentally based livelihoods 5. Explain the need early warning systems and disaster mitigation

9.2 The genesis of gender and environment

In the recent past there has been an attempt to draw attention to the importance of the relationship between gender, the environment and sustainable development. In 1992, the first systematic international document connecting gender issues and environmental issues was passed in the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in the form of Agenda 21. This landmark document also highlighted the importance of incorporating women into natural resource management-related development projects. Other international conventions and action plans that include an explicit focus on gender and the environment include UN and other conventions on climate change, biological diversity, desertification and on gender and sustainable development. The United Nations World Conferences on Women also incorporated women and the environment into their action plans, for example in Chapter IV, section K of the Platform in the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. The problems of the environment and sustainable development are not only an issue in Kenya but it is global. Global climate change is an indication that deforestation, industrial pollution and environmental degradation need to be addressed not by the localities and

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the nations that appear to be most deeply affected, but through serious coordinated international efforts as well. In this regard, local and government agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), womens organizations and international development institutions need to work together and address environmental challenges.

9.4Key Issues in Gender and Environment 9.4.1Gender and Water

Seager and Hartmann (2004) explain that NGOs, governmental and academic interest has recently turned to developing gendered analyses of water resources, management and supply issues. They add that support for integration of water into water resource management has come from recent world forums in Marakesh 1997, The Hague 2000 and Kyoto 2003.The current visibility of water resource management and gender on official UN and member-government agendas is to some extent the result of the International Conference on Water and Environment held in Dublin in 1992. Principal three of the Dublin Conference focuses on the pivotal role of women as providers and users of water and guardians of the living environment and recommends the implementation of positive policies to address womens specific needs and to empower women to participate in all levels in water resources programs. The understanding that environmental relations are primarily social relations has catalyzed research into gendered dimensions of water such as developing water policy and water strategy at national and international levels.

9.4.2 Gender, Poverty and Environment

We shall now look at gender, poverty and environment, this is a triangulated analysis and it helps in understanding certain gendered relationships such as: Environmental and livelihood sustainability in rural areas depends on improving the security of land and resource tenure, tenure is only possible when women have the same options as men

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Land and resource management sustainability can be improved by research extension and education activities, but this will only be possible if women are in the loop as much as men are

Improved access to credit and financial resources can reduce pressures to degrade resources. Such access is highly gender- stratified and unless this gender imbalance is addressed, such programs will not succeed

The urban poor are disproportionately affected by pollution and exposure to environmental ills. This exposure varies with class, race, age and gender and in urban settings women are the most vulnerable to urban environmental hazards

Housing tenure security helps to improve living conditions for the urban poor and as in rural areas, tenure patterns are usually gender-distorted

Water supply and sanitation infrastructure are critical urban poor needs. Women and men typically have quite different perceptions of and relationships to water use, supply, management, expertise, ownership and responsibility.

Gender inequalities, environment deterioration and deepening poverty are mutually self-reinforcing (Seager and Hartmann, 2004).

One of the problematic aspects of combining poverty, gender and environment analysis is that gender often disappears or is subsumed into the social. Leach (2003) explains that issues of rights and resource access and control are now acknowledged, but not necessarily in relation to gender, and rarely through the relational, multi-layered lens have which feminist political ecologists and gender analysts of land been important. There is a risk of adopting poverty as the primary lens into vulnerability. The risk is that it can mask the issues specific to gender discrimination and the related unequal access to and control over resources. However issues relating to gender inequality are central to the ability of a community or region to cope with and recover a disaster or environmental change event. Consequently, an approach that combines the insights of an integrated

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analysis of community livelihoods and a gender analysis is necessary to illuminate the real- world dimensions of vulnerability to global environmental change.

9.4.3 Gender, Security, Conflict and Environment

We have been discussing gender, poverty and environment. We are now going to look at gender, security, conflict and environment to see how the three entities interrelate. Conflict and conflict resolution continue to frame civil society, gender relations and environmental relations in most regions of the world whereas security is a global concern and is grounded in United Nations (UN) and United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) agendas.

9.4.3.1 Gender, Security and Conflict

The UN Security Council Resolution 1325 states that women should be included inpost-conflict peace and reconstruction processes. Seager and Hartmann (2004) argue that environmentalists have been absent from conversations on the gendered repercussions of war/conflict and post-conflict reconstruction and conversely experts of gender have not taken much account of the environment. Current intellectual, policy and humanitarian frameworks on gender and security/conflict revolve around three interlocked concerns, that is, protection, participation and prevention. Issues of protection have focused on impact studies and they document the myriad ways in which hardship, violence and dislocation of conflict are different for women and men. In conflict and post-conflict situations women need particular protection from sexual violence and identifying and meeting these needs. During conflict, women experience increased levels of violence and there is disappearance of institutional support structures, for example lack of housing and absence of civil policing and a sense of immunity from repercussions among perpetrators of violence and an overall climate of increased fear and insecurity. Interest in gender dynamics of participation has been fuelled by Resolution 1325. Much of this work focuses on the ways in which women and men differently
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approach, understand and participate in post-conflict reconstruction. Moser (2001) makes the argument that conflict, war and violence are gendered processes and events and that a gendered analysis is necessary in order to build sustainable peace. She emphasizes the need to recognize womens experiences, not just as refugees and war widows, but also as combatants so that their specific psychological and material needs are addressed. In many conflict zones, womens networks have been key to peace building and yet women are still largely excluded from formal peace and reconstruction efforts. In many post-conflict zones, for example Angola, Somalia, Mozambique, Guatemala and East Timor, women have been absolutely central to community rebuilding and peace-building efforts and yet this activity on the ground is often not reflected in official narratives of how conflicts are resolved and how peace is achieved.

9.4.3.2 Impact of Conflict on Environment

Conflicts have diverse impact on the environment and there should be a way of mitigating impacts of conflict. Hartmann (2001) argues that the idea of environmentally-driven conflict had considerable currency in foreign policy circles in the United States. The principal architect of this idea was Canadian political scientist Thomas Homer-Dixon argued that societies of renewable resources such as cropland, fresh water and forests, induced in large part by poverty and population pressure contribute to migration and violent intrastate conflict in the developing world. Although the field has expanded since the mid 1990s, it includes scholarship critical of Homer-Dixons causal models, it lacks gender analysis. Women are viewed primarily through their reproductive roles and male stereotypes. There are differentiated responses to displacement points to the importance of adaptive capacity in moments of radical change as suggested by Moser and Clark (2001). They further suggest that women might be more self-sustaining in the face of diminished resources than men, largely because women are not as reliant upon the formal economy as are men. Women may be less likely to be lured into accepting cash compensation and insist instead on access to land.However, their lack of

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integration into the formal economy can also have drawbacks, this is because rights are often enshrined in informal and customary relationships. In terms of gendered impacts,there appear to be similarities between conflict and natural disaster. For example, Enarson(1997) documents an increase in violence against women during and after the Red River floods in North America, a similar situation occurred in Kenya during and after post-electuon violence when many women were raped.She argues that relief needs to recognize that battered women are an extremely vulnerable group because their tenous support networks become even more dispersed in periods of crisis. Conflict can have two potential outcomes vis-vis gender relations, that is, they can either reinforce existing qualities or provide an opportunity to address those inequalities. Disaster/conflict can be used as an opportunity to transform gender relations to move towards a more egalitarian society which means that there must be awareness of gender relations and proactive planning that provides support for women in conflict/disaster scenarios. Vinas (1998), Fothergill(1999) and Enarson(1997) in Seager and Hartmann(2004) point out instances where women in the wake of disaster, take on new and social norms and that it is sometimes possible for women to transgress their traditional roles and take on tasks that would normally be considered mens work which builds their confidence while at the same time redefining femininity.

9.5

Gender, Vulnerability and Environmental Change

Men and women may be differently vulnerable to environmental change or disaster and how individuals and communities cope, adapt or compensate in gendered ways also varies. Gender and disaster studies suggest that perspectives, responses and impacts surrounding disaster events are varied for men and women and from case to case. Gender is a significant dimension in understanding disasters and these patterns reflect not only gender differences but also inequalities such as womens lack of decision-making power and exclusion from community leadership positions.

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Take Note Women and men have different sets of environmental rights and responsibilities and occupy different locations in the social and economic structure; therefore they will experience environmental change or disaster differently. Having taken note of the fact that women and men experience environmental change differently, we should give examples to illustrate this point. For example physical impacts of global warming result in rising levels, flooding in low-lying delta areas and increased salt-water intrusion which can jeopardize sustainable livelihood. These can drive both men and women to pursue different livelihood strategies or contribute to collective strategies in different ways, then these impacts will be gender differentiated. This will in turn have rebound effects on community and household wellbeing, for example, food security and family well being can be threatened when the resource base on which women rely to carry their critical roles to provide food or obtain supplementary incomes is undermined. The marginalized status of women makes them bear a heavy burden of environmental change or disaster. Women also have unequal capabilities and opportunities for adjustments which renders them more vulnerable to regional and global environmental perturbations. The livelihoods of rural women are closely tied to natural resources and on the whole are less integrated into market economies than mens are, yet women do not have similar access to or control over natural resources.Anneckes(2002) investigation into gender, climate and energy asserts that men are the owners and producers of energy services but that women perform most of the key daily reproductive and productive services essential for maintaining the predominantly male workforce and enabling them to do their work each day. For a variety of reasons, women have little control over or negotiating power in relation to pricing,production or convenience of the energies they require. Without adequate access to and control over the resources they depend upon, women are more vulnerable to changes in those resources.

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Women are notably victims of disaster while children bear a disproportionate burden of global environmental changes and will continue to do so in the absence of changes in gender roles. In many situations, women are the first casualties of drought, famine and war. They have to struggle to keep life going while poverty drives the menfolk away in search of employment in urban areas and neighboring countries. This leaves women to cope alone with immense responsibilities. Quite often women are deprived of traditional forms of support and they need new sources of income to ensure the survival of their families and communities. However, illiteracy and lack of training invariably oblige them to seek employment in the formal sector. In most countries the experience of poverty is gendered, women make up the majority of the worlds poor and many of their vulnerabilities are due to poverty. Womens poverty varies from that of men in that women barely own property especially in rural settings while men will at least own land and livestock. Morrow (1999) voices a widely shared assessment that gender effects are generally associated with poverty and that poor womens vulnerability is accentuated when mixed with race, ethnicity and old age marginalization. There are particular gendered and classed conditions that frame the level of vulnerability someone might experience. Similarly during change or after disaster, there are particular classed and gendered conditions that frame the degree and quality of impact someone might experience that frame the degree and quality of impact someone might experience. Intext Question Explain the difference in poverty between men and women in your community and suggest ways of reducing poverty levels among women. A number of researchers highlight the fact that women in many countries have poorer health status than do men which makes them more vulnerable to chronic diseases, epidemics and the effects of contaminated water. This can be attributed to women having access to worse health care than men. Poor health can be related to the gendered of labor,

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with women as the primary fuel-collectors and cooks. Women are also exposed to indoor air pollution, as water collectors they face high exposure to malaria and other water borne diseases. Their poor health can also be attributed to food hierarchies that lead women to having poor nutritional status, this state can be exacerbated by water contamination, food scarcity and physical strife often associated with environmental change. Environmental toxins also cause and disrupt hormonal systems that govern reproduction. Women are also primary care givers in times of disaster and environmental stress. Those they care for are children, the elderly and the sick who are not often mobile and they require increased care during crisis. In addition, during times of disaster women will be faced with a magnified burden of care-giving since illness and injury increase for everyone (UNISDR, 2002). The care taking role of women also tends to make them less mobile and thus less able to move out of harms way times of crisis. Environmental crises affects environmentally based livelihoods, this is because men and women have different livelihoods activities and possibilities such as changes or disasters which will have gendered impacts.

Activity Examine gendered impacts of environmental changes or disasters and explain how women can be assisted in coping with these effects and reduce their vulnerability.

9.5.1 Livelihood resilience

Environmental crises affect environmentally based livelihoods.Men and women have different livelihood activities and possibilities and as such, changes or disasters will have gendered impacts. For this reason, it is essential to consider ways in which men and women are affected by the changes/disaster. Environmental changes,for example water contamination, floods and drought usually increase womens burden. At such times, women are often faced with additional work to fetch water and collect fuel as well as increased time needed to care for the sick. On the same note, drought

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increases male-out migration and decreases the availability of agricultural employment which leaves women with additional agricultural and household duties. The increased burden has implications for womens ability to diversify their livelihoods by seeking paid work.

9.5.2 Opportunities for Self- Protection

It is essential to think about ways of providing opportunities for self protection so that whenever there are environmental changes/ disasters, early warning systems can be crafted to disseminate information to members of the community at risk. There is need to move from a culture of reaction or crisis management to a culture of prevention. Fordham(2001) in Seager and Hartmann(2004) points out one important factor that disaster mitigation experts often ignore is the extent to which women are located socially or spatially out of the loop of information. He gives an example of the 1991 cyclone in Bangladesh which resulted in a disproportionate number of female versus male deaths (71 per 1000 versus 15 per 1000). Not only were the early warnings displayed in public where women were restricted in their movement and so were not likely to be informed as men, but researchers found that women delayed leaving their house much longer in order to avoid the impropriety of being alone in public. Women need to be more informed of environmental hazards, the fact that women have marginal education and lack involvement in planning and decision making for their uninformed status. In my view, disaster mitigation and prevention programs can be used to increase womens participation in planning and incorporate education and outreach aimed at women. When women are informed of an upcoming event they will have an opportunity to adapt, adjust and redistribute risk in their household domain. A good example is the use of energy saving bulbs whose use in households is being promoted in Kenya. It has been revealed that these bulbs have mercury which can have adverse effects if the bulb breaks, it is also said that the kind of light produced by this bulb can have detrimental effects on the skin. If women are given

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this information and they are informed about prevention measures then they will be less at risk as far as related environmental hazards are concerned. Take Note Women play a social role in communities before and after disaster. For example they create self-help associations and organize relief efforts. These efforts need to be supported in order for preparedness and relief efforts to be effective.

Intext Question Discuss possible roles that women could have played during El Nino in Kenya in 1997 and the roles played by women during floods and drought in the country at various times.

9.6

Disaster Mitigation and Early Warning Systems

Considering the effects of environmental change and disasters, it is important to develop early warning systems for identifying impending environmental change or disaster. If early warning and environmental assessment is done effectively, then there will be a decrease in loss of life and livelihood due to environmental change. This exercise requires decreasing the vulnerability of communities and increasing their capacity to cope with change. It would be of great benefit if early warning and assessment, disaster mitigation and prevention strategies would incorporate gender into their planning and implementation. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction states that disaster-reduction policies and measures need to be implemented with a two-fold aim, that is, one, to enable societies to be resilient to natural hazards, while ensuring that development efforts decrease the vulnerability to these hazards(UNISDR,2002).

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Gender equality is also a necessary precondition for recovery and rebound following disaster. Gender biased attitudes and stereotypes often complicate and extend womens recovery, inhibiting, for example, women from seeking care for physical and mental trauma experienced in disasters. Womens domestic responsibilities and status make it difficult to get relief and assistance sites. It is therefore necessary for gender guidelines to be developed for emergency preparedness. However, it is worthwhile to mention that a major barrier to incorporating gender into disaster planning is that disaster management is highly masculinized which results in the actions and knowledge of women being marginalized. Women are still poorly represents in planning and decision making processes in disaster mitigation and protection planning (United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women, 2001). Gender mainstreaming in the institutional structure of disaster management might be a way of managing environmental vulnerability. Summary We have been discussing gender and environment. We have looked at the genesis of gender and environment, key issues in gender and environment, impact of conflict on the environment, gender, vulnerability and environmental change, livelihood resilience, opportunities for self- protection and disaster mitigation and early warning systems.

LECTURE 10 CHALLENGES FACING GENDER MAINSTREAMING

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10.1 Introduction In the last lecture we looked at the Emerging trends in Gender Issues. In this lecture we shall look at the Challenges facing Gender Mainstreaming. We shall remind ourselves what is gender mainstreaming and then look at challenges facing it from a global and local perspective. 10.2 Objectives At the end of the lecture, you should be able to: Define gender mainstreaming Explain important factors to be considered before mainstreaming policy Discuss the challenges facing gender mainstreaming Discuss ways of bridging gender inequalities

10.3 What is Gender Mainstreaming? You will recall that in Chapter 1 we defined gender mainstreaming as a strategy aimed at promoting gender equality. Let us add that gender mainstreaming addresses the well being of women and men. It is the process of integrating a gender equality perspective into the development process at all stages and levels. Gender mainstreaming is a strategy for the achievement of gender equality. It is clear that there are global patterns to inequality between women and men. For example, women tend to suffer violence at the hands of their intimate partners more often than men; womens political participation and their representation in decision-making structures lag behind mens; women and men have different economic opportunities; women are over-represented among the poor; and women and girls make up the majority of people trafficked and involved in the sex trade. These issues and others need to be addressed in efforts to promote gender equality. Achieving greater equality between women and men will require changes at many levels,

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including changes in attitudes and relationships, changes in institutions and legal frameworks, changes in economic institutions, and changes in political decision-making structures. Gender Mainstreaming was first introduced on 1985 Third World Conference on Women in Nairobi and the concept was officially endorsed by the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995 The Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing 1995 pushed the dialogue on gender mainstreaming to the fore at an international level and was endorsed by the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action as the approach by which goals under each of its Critical Areas of Concern are to be achieved (Pradhan, 2004). The mainstreaming strategy emerged as a result of dissatisfaction with earlier approaches to narrowing gender gaps. These earlier strategies often focused on women (providing them with more education, more resources, etc.) and on specific targeted initiatives. Since the Fourth World Conference, all players are in agreement that gender issues matter. From then on, widespread commitment has been made by governments, donor agencies, non-government organizations and other international and national players to identify gender equity as a priority objective. For example, each donor agency has a gender strategy paper. Some donors require organizations receiving funds to have a gender and development (GAD) policy. The Kenyan government has addressed the gender issue in the Sessional No. 5 of 2005. Gender mainstreaming seeks to ensure that, across the entire policy and issue spectrum: the analysis of issues and the formulation of policy options are informed by a consideration of gender differences and inequalities; and Opportunities are sought to narrow gender gaps and support greater equality between women and men (UN, 2002).

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Take Note Gender equality is the goal while gender mainstreaming is the strategy to achieve that goal. This goal is enshrined in international agreements and commitments if most governments. Despite the tremendous progress in policy development and the abundance of information available on gender mainstreaming, all players in the sector, are the first to say that translating gender mainstreaming policy objectives to true outcomes in the field are challenging. This lecture aims to identify some of the factors that result in gender still being an add-on as opposed to being an integral part of the process.

10.4 Important Factors to be considered before Mainstreaming Policy. According to the United Nations (2002), there is no set formula or blueprint that can be applied in every context. However, what is common to mainstreaming in all sectors or development issues is that a concern for gender equality is brought into the mainstream of activities rather than dealt with as an add-on. The first steps in the mainstreaming strategy are the assessment of how and why gender differences and inequalities are relevant to the subject under discussion, identifying where there are opportunities to narrow these inequalities and deciding on the approach to be taken. a) Obtain data on how household resources are distributed. Studies have shown, for example, that people respond to economic changes in gender-specific ways. Gender is a major influence on their access to resources, responsibilities and alternatives. Obtain information on whether it is equitably distributed among household members, or whether there is equitable decision-making about the use of these resources. b) Obtain the data or information to allow the experiences and situation of both women and men to be analyzed. Sex-disaggregated data should be used at all times to gain a more informed understanding of an issue or situation and to allow gender differences and inequalities to be identified and addressed. For example,

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there is a better basis for developing agricultural policy and targeting extension programs if there is information that goes beyond the number of farmers and what they produce. Disaggregating this data by sex, and asking questions about who produces what, would not only provide information on the number of women and men farmers, but would also allow for assessments of whether there are differences and inequalities between women and men in the crops they produce and the work they do. c) Seek the inputs and views of women as well as men about decisions that will affect the way they live. There are often significant differences between women and men on priorities. For example, in a post-disaster situation women may place immediate priority on clean water and shelter while men may prioritize the reestablishment of economic activities. This is not to say that one priority should be privileged over another, but that there should be an awareness (obtained through specific investigation) of the potential differences between women and men so that all issues can be factored in to an understanding of a situation. Since womens participation in decision making is generally lower than that of men, specific strategies are generally required to ensure that womens voices are heard. d) Ensure that activities where women are numerically dominant (including domestic work) receive attention. Although there has been increased recognition of the productive input of domestic and caring work in recent years, these activities are still often overlooked, unmeasured and undervalued. Similarly, womens agricultural tasks and crops have also received less attention than those of men in policies and programs to improve productivity. e) Avoid assuming that all women or all men share the same needs and perspectives. There are differences among women and among men that relate to class, religion, age, ethnicity and other factors. Women and men are not homogenous groups. It is important not to generalize across diverse populations, but rather to consider the ways that needs and perspectives of individuals are influenced by a range of factors, including gender

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f) Given gender differences and inequalities within societies, it cannot be assumed that women and men will have equal opportunities for participation or will benefit equally from development inputs. Special attention is needed to ensure that initiatives are not assumed to affect all people in the same manner, as this could unintentionally increase gender.

Take Note In order to achieve Gender Equality set targets for the Millennium, we need to focus more on programmes aiming at empowering women, increase the financial support, improve on accountability and reporting on results as well as seek strategic involvement of men. This will also require design and implementation of programs to transform gender related norms and behavior in relation to care, work and responsibilities. Awareness programs will require pre- and/or co-requisite transformation of mindsets within government, decision makers, young girls and boys, men and even women themselves on the gender consequences of policies and programs in the country. A more wholesome approach based on genuine political willingness, involvement of religious, media, family units, private sector agencies and civil societies in intense action oriented activism in transforming and nurturing positive attitudes and appreciation of unique roles played by women is recommended.

10.5 Challenges facing gender Mainstreaming. a) Involving and defining responsibilities of parties directly concerned, in particular the political and administrative leadership The success of a gender mainstreaming project goes through a process of mobilization and involvement of the various actors concerned: from civil servants to political representatives. It is not enough to have a minister and a department

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responsible for equality. Collective, transversal and preventive action is needed by everyone in the whole of the process. To make a success of a gender mainstreaming project requires identifying these partners, raising their awareness of the importance of taking gender into account, and also getting them to make reports on how gender was encountered in their work. Finally, commitment at the level of policy makers is absolutely necessary. If they convey the message, support within the ministries will be strengthened. However, at times the commitment and the support is not there. b) Mobilizing resources, instruments and expertise Gender mainstreaming is an investment in the overall quality of policy and for it to be implemented by all members of the policy-making staff (who are also normally involved in that policy), extra resources are needed. The costs of this quality improvement should therefore be counted as regular policy costs. Staff and budgets should be made available. In addition it is important that there are adequate instruments for gender mainstreaming, if necessary tailored to the needs of the specific ministries. Amongst the most important instruments we can mention Sex-disaggregated statistics and gender indicators. Carrying out gender mainstreaming projects requires having disaggregated data available, but that goes beyond using the sex variable as an independent variable. It is a matter of using these disaggregated data and sex-differentiated analysis to tackle the sources of inequalities between women and men, which are the feminine and masculine stereotypes or the roles and representations customarily assigned to the sexes. Another type of instruments is manuals designed to provide support for implementing gender mainstreaming that make it possible to verify that concerns about equality between women and men have been integrated into the different phases of a policy. The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development has a Manual on Gender Mainstreaming which was launched in June, 2008.

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Activity Identify other instruments that policy makers may use for Gender Mainstreaming.

c) Establishing adequate internal structures There have been a number of individuals who are sceptic on the idea of gender mainstreaming. It is therefore important that it is clear to everyone who is responsible for gender mainstreaming within his or her department, and how the internal gender mainstreaming structure is organized. Without an executive and without a structure it is difficult to get things regulated. For this reason the lines of responsibility must be clear to everyone, including such things as who the contact person is and who bears the ultimate responsibility. There should be gender mainstreaming coordinators in each department with a final responsibility in the hands of the top management d) Defining key concepts and clear objectives There is low in-house knowledge in gender mainstreaming.If clear objectives are not defined, it is hard or even impossible to design or employ appropriate instruments and to keep people motivated to pursue a cause. The goals and plans should be clear and available for all concerned within and outside the ministry. This is the only way by which the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming can be measured and can contribute to more awareness and support within the ministries and government departments concerned. Other challenges are: e) Womens access to equal opportunity and equal pay in work, labor and organizing rights have been severely eroded in the global economy.

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f) Inexistence or very few concrete programs that aim at lifting women from structural poverty and discrimination. g) The absence of synergy between the various programs initiated by the government and the gap between policies and practices. Sometimes there is conflict between women machinery and women organizations. The gap between the policies and practices can be addressed by: Increasing investment in human capital for women Support Government in developing and implementing an action plan including a regular monitoring of the achievements Support Women Machineries to play a strategic role in positioning Gender Equality into key strategies (PRSP) and budgeting processes. Improve accountability mechanisms for both Donors and Governments. Increase financial support for women issue

h) Gender national policy is a standalone document i) Donor community does not effectively commit resources for gender equality: Intext Question Is gender mainstreaming a success? In our own country, give relevant examples to show that gender mainstreaming and not male-streaming is a government agenda

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10.6 Activity Bridging the gaps to address the inequalities between men and women through effective. Discuss ways in which gender inequalities can be addressed using the following headings: Economic participation of women Economic opportunity Political empowerment Education attainment Health and well-being

10.7 Summary In this chapter we have looked at the definition of gender mainstreaming and the factors that should be considered before a country comes up with a gender mainstreaming policy. We have also discussed the relevance of gender differences

References 1. Snyder, M.; Tadesse, M. 1995. African women and development: a history. Zed Books, London, UK. 2. Tibaijuka, Anna (1994). The Cost of Differential gender Roles in African Agriculture. A Case Study of Smallholder Banana-Coffee Farms in the Kagera Region, Tanzania. Journal of Agricultural Economics , 45 3. United Nations Economic Commission for Africa The ECA and Africa. Accelerating a Continents Development, 1999 United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, 2003, 2004 Economic

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Reports on Africa

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Marchand, M.H. and Partpart, J.L. (1995). Feminism/Post modernism/ Development. Routledge London. Momsen, J.H. (1991). Women and Development in the Third World. Routledge. London. Moser, C.O.N. (1993). Gender Planning and Development. Routledge. USA. Parpart, J.L., Rai, S.M. And Staudt, K. (2002). Rethinking Empowerment. Gender and Development in a Global/ Local World. Routledge. USA. Rai, S.M. (2008). The Gender Politics of Development. Zubaan. New Delhi. Rocheleau, D. and Thomas Slayter, B. (1995). Gender, Environment and Development in Kenya. A Grassroots Perspectives. Lynne Rienner. USA. Royal Netherlands Embassy. (1994). Kenya Country Gender Profile. Women in Development Policy and Programmes. Scott, C.V. (1995). Gender and Development. Rethinking Modernization and Dependency Theory. Lynne Rienner. London. Snyder, M.C. And Tadesse, M. (1995). African Women and Development. Zed. South Africa. Synder, M. (1995). Transforming Development. Women, Poverty and Politics . Intermediate Technology Publications. London. Vygotsky, C. S. (1978). Mind in Society. The Development of Higher Psychology Processes Harvard. London. West, C. and Zimmerman, D.H. (1987). Gender and Society, Vol.1 No.2 June 1987 125151

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