Theme VII

Gender and Development

 Gender and Development

At the end of this theme, you will be able to:

 Explain the meaning of gender, sex, gender relations, gender stereotyping,
gender hierarchy, gender identity and other gender related concepts
 Explore the relevance of gender concerns in development
 Identify gender gaps in Tanzania and measures undertaken to address them
 Analyze gender related issues in various socio-economic processes,
scenarios, and strategies (Violation of human rights: sex segregation, sexual
harassment, violence against women and Female Genital Mutilation FGM)
 Discuss gender mainstreaming strategies and the challenges of
mainstreaming gender concerns in development
 Describe International Conventions on Women
 Understanding Gender
• Historically, the terms "gender" and "sex" have
been used interchangeably, but their uses are
becoming increasingly distinct, and it is
important to understand the differences
between the two.
• Gender refers to the socially constructed
relationship/ roles and responsibilities that are
considered appropriate to men and women in
their societies. Such roles are learned, change
over time and vary within and between cultures.
 Examples of gender behaviours

• Who wears the high heels?

• high-heeled shoes are considered feminine
throughout the world. However, there is nothing
intrinsically feminine about the high heel but
social norms have made it so.
• Colours
• Pink for a girl and blue for a boy
• In many societies, pink is seen as a suitable color
for a girl to wear, while boys are dressed in blue.
 Sex
• Sex is the state of being male or female.
• It refers to biologically defined and genetically
acquired differences between males and
females, according to their physiology and
reproductive capabilities or potentialities.
• It is the biological and physiological
characteristics that define men and women
•
 Differences between Sex and Gender
Sex Gender
ogical characteristics (including genetics, Socially constructed set of roles and responsibi
omy and physiology) that generally define associated with being girl and boy or women
ans as female or male. men

with Not born with

ural Learned
ersal- A-historical No variation from culture to Gender roles vary in different societies, cultures
ure or time to time. historical periods depending on socio-econ
factors, age, education, ethnicity and religion
not be changed, except with the medical Although deeply rooted, gender roles can
tment. Example: Only women can give birth. changed over time, since social values and norm
women can breastfeed. are not static
 Gender Roles
• A gender role is a social role encompassing a
range of behaviors and attitudes that are
generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or
desirable for people based on their actual or
perceived sex or sexuality
• These are roles or behaviors learned by a person
as appropriate to their sex, determined by the
prevailing cultural norms
• Society often expects people to look and behave
a certain way, depending on their biological sex.
 Gender Roles

• Men are usually expected to act and look

‘masculine’, and women, ‘feminine’
• Collectively, gender roles often determine the
traditional responsibilities and tasks assigned to
women, men, girls and boys (gender division of
labour).
• Each society emphasizes particular roles that
each sex should play, although there is wide
latitude in acceptable behaviors for each sex
 How Gender Roles are Learned and influenced
• Gender roles in society means how we’re expected to
act, speak, dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based
upon our assigned sex. For example, girls and women are
generally expected to dress in typically feminine ways
and be polite, accommodating, and nurturing.
• Gender roles are passed on through generations. basing
on the actions of the parents (Family) and the nature of
their environment.
• Girls normally learn from their mothers and other
females relatives while boys learn from fathers and other
male relatives
• The behavior is reinforced when the parents praise or
reward their children for their actions.
 Cont..
• They can also be punished and challenged to
change, if it's considered inappropriate.
• For example hen girls cook well their mother
may tell them that's great ‘one day you will
be a great cook for your family.
• 'Conversely, when boys cry's, his father may
tell him, stop that, Boys don't cry..
• Boys are often encouraged to exert
themselves in physical activity, and girls are
typically given more attention to how they
look and present themselves.
 Cont..
• In schools teachers and supporting staffs may
continually differentiate boys and girls in
terms of dressing, subjects, kind of games,
behaviours and the like
• As the children grow they start learning what
behavior is appropriate and expected to them
according to their sex
 Cont..
• Institutions Large gender differences in the
propensity to choose challenging tasks … appear
to be driven by gender differences in risk
aversion and in confidence about the ability to
perform a new and potentially difficult task.".
• This could be driven by gender differences in
beliefs about how much performance of the
initial task corresponds to luck versus real ability,
for example. Specifically, women may attribute
success to luck and failure to ability, while men
attribute success to ability and failure to luck.
 Cont..
• Environment ; When local farmers plant trees,
a separation of labor is clear, While men
plants the small seedlings, women takes care
of older trees, sweeps away old leaves from
the ground, collects firewood for cooking and
harvests the fruit.
 Cont..
• Media plays a large role in creating social
norms, because various forms of media,
including advertisements, television, and film,
are present everywhere in current culture
solely because society as a whole chooses to
accept them, but they are perpetuated by the
media.
• Society is Traditional roles in society have
been shouldered by people based on their
biological orientation.
 Understanding Gender Concepts
• Gender Equality
• Gender equality means that both men and
women are given the same opportunities in life
and can all contribute to shaping a society with
their own ideas.
• Gender equality denotes women having the
same opportunities in life as men, including the
ability to participate in the public sphere so as
to contribute fully in business and economic
decision-making
 Cont..
• Gender equality is not only a women’s issue, but
should concern and fully engage men and boys
who can and do contribute to advancing gender
equality, as individuals, within the family,
community and in all spheres of society.
• Men and boys also face discriminatory barriers
and practices themselves which may need to be
addressed.
• Equality is treating everyone the same. It aims to
promote fairness.
 Gender Equity
• Gender Equity is fairness of treatment for women and
men, according to their respective needs. This means
treatment may be different but is considered
equivalent in terms of rights, benefits, accessing
resource, obligations and opportunities.
• .
• Gender Equity is the process of being fair to women
and men. To ensure fairness, measures must be taken
to compensate for historical and social disadvantages
that prevent women and men from operating on a
level playing field.
• Equity is giving every person what they need to be
successful in their endeovers.
 Gender Mainstreaming
• Gender Mainstreaming is the process of
incorporating a gender perspective into
policies, strategies, programs, project
activities, and administrative functions, as well
as into the institutional culture of an
organization.
 Gender Stereotypes
• Gender Stereotypes are ideas that people
have on masculinity and femininity
• What men and women of all generations
should be like and are capable of doing. (e.g.,
girls should be obedient and cute, are allowed
to cry, and boys are expected to be brave and
not cry,
• women are better housekeepers and men are
better with machines, or boys are better at
mathematics and girls more suited to nursing).
 Gender-Based Violence
• This includes, but is not limited to, physical,
sexual, and psychological harm (including
intimidation, suffering, coercion, and/or
deprivation of liberty within the family or within
the general community).
• Gender-Based Violence is derived from unequal
power relations between women and men.
Violence is specifically targeted against a person
because of his or her gender roles, and it affects
women disproportionately.
 Empowerment
• Empowerment refers to the expansion of people’s
capacity to make and act upon decisions and to
transform those decisions into desired outcomes,
affecting all aspects of their lives, including decisions
related to health.
• It entails overcoming socioeconomic and other
power inequalities in a context where this ability
was previously denied.
• Interventions often focus specifically on
empowering women because of the inherited
inequalities in their socioeconomic status.
 Gender Blindness
• This is all about Ignoring or failing to address the
gender dimension.
• Failure to recognize that the roles and
responsibilities of women/girls and men/boys are
ascribed to, or imposed upon, them in specific
social, cultural, economic and political context.
• Gender-blind projects, programmes, policies and
attitudes do not take into account these different
roles and diverse needs. They therefore maintain
status quo and will not help transform the unequal
structure of gender relations.
•
 Gender Analysis
• Gender analysis is the study of differences in
the conditions, needs, participation rates,
access to resources and development, control
of assets, decision-making powers, etc.,
between women and men in their assigned
gender roles
 Gender Awareness
• The recognition of the fact that life
experience, expectations, and needs of
women and men are different, that they often
involve inequality and are subject to change
• Ability to view society from the perspective of
gender roles and understand how this has
affected women’s needs in comparison to the
needs of men.
 Gender Discrimination
• Gender Discrimination is the systematic,
unfavorable treatment of individuals on the
basis of their sex, which denies them rights,
opportunities or resources
• A situation in which someone is treated less
because of their sex, usually when a women
are treated less well than men or men than
women.
 Gender Balance
• Gender Balance is having the same (or a
sufficient) number of women and men at all
levels within the organization to ensure equal
representation and participation in all areas of
activity and interest.
 Gender Division of Labour
• Gender Division of Labour is the socially determined
ideas and practices which define what roles and
activities are deemed appropriate for women and men
• The way work is divided between men and women
according to their gender roles.
• This does not necessarily concern only paid
employment, but more generally the work, tasks and
responsibilities that are assigned to women and men in
their daily lives, and which may, on their turn, also
determine certain patterns in the labour market.
 Cont..
• Gender division of labour is a result of biological
traits; however, it is noticed that in some
societies women perform tasks and jobs that in
some other societies are traditionally considered
as men’s jobs, and vice versa. Thus division of
labour has much to do with what each society
perceives as appropriate for both sexes.
• In most societies, house chores – like cleaning,
cooking, washing clothes are typically women’s or
girls’ tasks, even when they have a paid job
outside the home.
 Cont…
• On the other hand, more technical house tasks, like
dealing with electrical or mechanic equipment, is
traditionally a man’s job.
• In the labour market (as well as education and
training) is heavily segregated along gender lines,
with differences between regions and cultures.
• Men dominate certain sectors and occupations and
women others. For example, there is a
concentration of women in services and of men in
manufacturing.
 Gender Concerns in Development
• The United Nations has organized four world
conferences on women. These took place in Mexico
City in 1975, Copenhagen in 1980, Nairobi in 1985
and Beijing in 1995. The last was followed by a series
of five-year reviews.
• The effort to consider women in development stated
from 1979 in the Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW),
adopted by the UN General Assembly.
• The major objective was to ensure elimination of all
acts of discrimination against women by
persons, organizations or enterprise
 Cont..
• The Convention provides;
• realizing equality between women and men
through ensuring women's equal access to, and
equal opportunities in, political and public life
including the right to vote and to stand for
election as well as education, health and
employment.
• The reproductive rights of women
• women's rights to acquire, change or retain their
nationality and that of their children
 World Conferences on Women
• 1. Mexico City, 1975. The conference defined a
World Plan of Action for the Implementation of the
Objectives of the International Women’s Year,
which offered a comprehensive set of guidelines
for the advancement of women through 1985.
• 133 governments participated and 6,000 NGO
representatives
• 4. Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action for
Equality, Development and Peace (BPfA). It was an
agenda for women's empowerment.
 Cont..
• 2. Copenhagen, 1980.
• It aimed to review progress in implementing the
goals of the first world conference, focusing on
employment, health and education.
• A Programme of Action called for stronger
national measures to ensure women’s ownership
and control of property, improvements in
protecting women’s rights to inheritance, child
custody and nationality.
• 145 government attended
 Cont.
• 3. Nairobi, 1985.
• The world conference to review and appraise the
achievement of the UN Decade for women took
place in Nairobi Establish concrete measures to
overcome obstacles to achieving the Decade’s
goals.
• Outlined measures for achieving gender equality
at the national level and for promoting women’s
participation in peace and development efforts.
• 157 government member states and 12,000 NGO
Forum attended.
 Beijing Platform of action
• This marked a significant turning point for the
global agenda for gender equality.
• Adopted by 189 countries,
• It is an agenda for women’s empowerment and
considered the key global policy document on
gender equality.
• It sets strategic objectives and actions for the
advancement of women and the achievement of
gender equality in 12 critical areas of concern
 Cont.
• Women and poverty
• Education and training of women
• Women and health
• Violence against women
• Women and armed conflicts
• Women and the economy
• women in power and decision making
 Cont..
• Institutional mechanism for the advancement
of women
• Human rights of women
• Women and the media
• Women and the environment
• The girl child
 Reasons as why gender is important in
Development
•
1.Women are part of the solution
• Although women are playing a crucial role in
developing sustainable development solutions,
their contributions are often not recognized.
• women comprise around 43per cent of the
agricultural labour force in developing countries.
• The percentage is higher than, 80 per cent in
some countries in sub- Saharan Africa.
• This makes women the principle agents of food
security and household welfare in rural areas.
 Cont..
• Yet this highly significant contribution is too
often under estimated or invisible
• Women and girls may be vulnerable in many
ways due to inequitable social and cultural
factors, but they should also be seen as rights-
holding citizens, recognized for the agency, skills
and experience they can contribute.
 Cont..
• There is often a significant gender disparity in
decision-making at all levels: from local communities
to international governance. For example, women
make up just 23-30 percent of the world’s MPs. Not
only does this gender imbalance result in
unrepresentative policies, but it denies women the
right to participate and have a political voice.
• ‘Women’s knowledge, agency and collective action
are key to exploring and creating more economically,
socially and environmentally sustainable
development pathways.’
 2. Resource shortages are gendered
• The worsening shortage of, and lack of access to,
resources such as water, energy and food sources.
This could have huge implications for gender
equality.
• The rising threat of food insecurity, with both the
production and consumption of food being highly
gendered. In many cases women are increasingly
carrying the burden of the additional work resulting
from a more unpredictable climate and worsening
crop failures.
• Women’s lack of access to resources, such as land
and finance, make them more vulnerable to food
shortages and to fluctuations in prices.
 Cont..
• Women are forced to spend more time and energy searching
for affordable, nutritious food.
• They may also be reducing their own food intake to ensure
their family members don’t go hungry.
• There are also clear gender dimensions of energy poverty,
meaning that women are often the primary users of household
energy.
• Water security is another gendered issue; many poor women
access water from ‘common property’ such as rivers, but the
freedom to use these sources is being restricted as water
becomes scarce. Water has turned into a marketable
commodity, with supply increasingly being contracted out to
private providers.
• As a result women may be forced to walk longer distances for
a supply that is free to access.
 3. Climate change is hitting women and
girls harder
• The environment and climate are often most
associated with sustainability. Women and men
do not experience the impacts of climate
change and environmental degradation equally.
For example, economic constraints and cultural
norms can restrict women’s access to paid
employment mean that their livelihoods are
particularly dependent on climate-sensitive
sectors, such as subsistence agriculture or water
collection.
 Cont..
• In many ways climate change acts as a
magnifying glass which exposes and risks
exacerbating pre-existing gender inequalities
in women’s access to and control of resources
and decision-making power, making women in
poverty, or other marginalized groups, more
vulnerable to its effects and preventing them
from participating equally in its solutions.
 It’s not just about women
 It is often understood as being only about
women’s needs, rather than about the unequal
social relationships between women and men
that are invested with power.
 This results is less effective policies, institutions
and processes and means that the potential of
these to contribute to social change is missed.
 Working for sustainability presents
an opportunity to challenge these inequalities
and, by doing so, contribute to social and gender
transformation
 Gender and development status in
Tanzania
• Tanzania has made notable progress on
Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
(GEWE). The Vision 2025 for Tanzania
Mainland stipulates equality between men
and women as laid down in the Constitution
and recognizes gender equality and the
empowerment of women in all socio-
economic and political relations and cultures
as one of the strategies to attain the vision.
 Achievement
• The URT is committed to the implementation of the
(BPfA) Millennium Declaration Goals.
• In 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women
adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for
Action for Equality, Development and Peace
• The BPfA is an agenda for women's empowerment.
• The concentration was on, enhancement of women’s
legal capacity, economic and political empowerment,
poverty eradication; decision-making, access to
education, training and employment, health, media.
 Cont..
• The Ministry of Community Development, Gender and
Children (MCDGC) is charged with coordinating and
providing guidance for mainstreaming gender in all
development processes.
• The government has also introduced Gender Responsive
Budgeting (GRB), led by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) for
improved allocation and tracking of financial allocations in
support of gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• In 2010 the governments adopted the SADC Protocol on
Gender and Development which calls for a 50/50
representation in all decision-making organs.
 Cont..
• In response to Violence Against Women and
Girls (VAWG) the government adopted a
Gender Based violence (GBV) Policy and
Management Guidelines in September 2011.
• November 2011 set up a stakeholder owned
instrument to guide a multi-sectoral
prevention and response to VAWG, to end
Violence against Women and Girls
 Cont..
• The Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) has
also launched a Gender Operational Plan for HIV and
AIDS Response in Mainland Tanzania.
• The Sexual Offences Special Provisions Act (SOSPA)
specifically addresses sexual and gender based
violence and seeking to safeguard the dignity and
integrity of women
• There has also been a notable achievement in
women’s economic empowerment and access to
social services such as health, education and water.
 Cont..
• The Land and Village Land Acts, both of 1999
are key pieces of legislation
• The introduction of gender focal points in
sectoral ministries and other government
structures like Universities were gender
centres were introduced
 Obstacles
• In some societies women and girls are prevented
from going to school or attaining health care, or
are subject to harmful traditional practices such
as FGM.

• Discrimination in employment and elections

• violence against women and girls still persist and
are fueled by patriarchal norms and traditions
and impunity before the law.
 Cont..
• The effectiveness and sustainable law
enforcement to ensure the protection of human
rights of women is still less.
• The coverage of legal awareness and services has
not reached the majority of the people,
especially those in the rural areas
• To facilitate women to progress from the
informal sector to the formal sector, particularly
in the more productive sectors of the economy
has been a problem.
 Cont..
• Enhancing women capacities to produce enough
quality products required by the markets.
• Women have managed to participate in trade
fairs and secure orders, but failed to meet large
orders due to limited production capacities.
• Access to information and technology to the
majority of women especially those in the rural
area is still lagging behind
• In politics.
• The leadership structure of political parties is still male
dominated and most of their Constitutions do not
provide for women’s quotas.
• In education
• The traditional gender stereotyped roles and
psychological factors still limit girls’ access to formal
education, especially in higher institutions of learning.
• Women’s access to higher levels of education has been
constrained by other reasons, such as lack of financial
resources and early marriage.
 Cont…
• Most Vocational Training Institutions were
established to cater for men and boys, the
majority of girls and women have been left
out of the mainstream of vocational training
 Way forward
• To invest more in awareness creation, training
and provision of paralegal services particularly
in the rural areas.
• To encourage girls and women to take up non-
traditional or male dominated trades.
• More vocational trades need to be established
to cater for the female dominated trades.
• women should join vocational training
colleges offering non-traditional skills such as
plumbing, mechanics and masonry, are still.
 Cont…
• Update the Action Plan for the implementation of
the Beijing Platform for Action. ·
• Facilitate data collection and establishment of a
gender disaggregated database.
• Empowering families to take responsibility for
gender equality.
• Continue advocacy for policy change, women’s
empowerment and gender equality.
• Develop human resource and build capacity for
gender mainstreaming including engendering
curricular
 Cont..
• Using monitoring and evaluation indicators,
training of staff on gender planning, gender
analysis as well as monitoring and evaluation
with a gender perspective.
• Develop a guide for planning with a gender
perspective to guide gender mainstreaming in
sectors.
• Building the capacity of the Ministry of
Community Development, Gender and Children
to strengthen gender as a cross cutting issue.
 Cont..
• Engender the training offered in Community
Development Training Institutes (CDTIs) and
Folk Development Colleges (FDCs). ·
Strengthen the capacity of the Women’s
Information Centre. ·
• Continue the mobilization of resources for
women’s empowerment and gender equality.
 Cnt…
Review Questions for Theme vi
1.In the view that gender is sometimes confused with women issues and sex, conceptualize the
term gender showing clearly how it is not synonymous to sex and about women issues.
2. Analyze the gender gaps/state of gender, the factors contributing to the observed gaps and
the steps taken to bring about gender balance in developing countries using Tanzania as a
case study.
3. In your views, do you think it is rational to study gender in consideration of your career
development?
4. Critically examine gender based violence among African societies and explain its impacts
5. Conceptualize the following terms;
Gender mainstreaming, gender empowerment, gender needs, sexual harassment, gender
balance, gender equity, gender equality, gender sensitivity, gender bias and gender
discrimination.
6. Discuss the gender roles for men and women and reveal its impact on the development
process to men and women.