Gender Equality- Advocacy and Empowerment

Introduction

The module on Gender Sensitization presents a compilation of information on gender   Awareness, bringing forward the distinction between sex and gender whilst defining other gender-related terminology. The module reflects upon how gender and other gender-related terminology are socially constructed and the important role that education can play in sensitizing people to change their mindset.

Knowing these ideas is essential because "the gender question is not just about women and men and how they interact, but understanding these ideas would aid in sensitizing individuals to reduce the gender prejudices present in society and would help in empowering girls and women to achieve their goals."

Are Boys & Girls Equal????

No, not at all in terms of biology, as males and females have different sexual organs and different biological abilities, and because of all these differences males are more muscular than women -------- all this made sense thousand years ago because human beings lived then in a world in which physical strength was the important attribute for survival but today, we lived in a vastly different world --- person need to qualify in terms of intelligence, knowledge, creativity, and innovations. and a man likely as a woman to have all these things.

             -------THINGS WE ARE NOT AWARE AT ALL ---------------------

         &

             ---------NEED TO WORK ON------------------

Gender Stereotypes

Gender Stereotypes are ideas that people have about masculinity and femininity: s what men and women of all generations should be like and are capable of doing.

Male & Female stereotype is described through the three Ps:

• Provider, Protector, and Procreator
• motherhood and wifehood, be loving, compassionate, caring, nurturing, and sympathetic

Gender-Based Roles

A woman is homely while a man is an outsider. Good wife material - many times woman pretends to be:

• Teach girls shame, stigma, and inferiority --- sometimes police them while teaching boys to be muscular, hard as a rock, put boys inside the cage of masculinity---- a hard man

Gender Division of Labour

• results from the social differentiation introduced by the relations between men and women that attributed activities and roles according to the person’s sex

Poor Access to Healthcare

• Since women are considered physically and emotionally “weak”, they tend to hide their health-related concerns, even from family members. Since it is taboo for women to talk about menstruation, we can often observe women around us suffering from cramps, and chronic pains (headaches, backaches, etc.) but never voicing out their issues.

• Sometimes even when they reach out to family members, relatives, friends, etc. to talk about health-related concerns they are advised to ignore their condition and focus on their household.

• Due to this dilemma, they often go through the immense hardship of facing illnesses and ailments alone and reach out for medical care only when their condition worsens. As a result, medical help reaches them too late.

• There have been several accounts where women have kept quiet about their health problems and later discovered that they had life-threatening ailments like breast cancer, HIV, AIDS, etc.

• Moreover, women are often criticized for opening up about sensitive issues such as sexual health and well-being, mental health problems, etc. Doctors with outdated thought processes victimize clients for “revealing too much information” and “being shameless”.

Gender Pay Gap

• According to a recent study, in India’s labor market women’s work in corporations and organizations is undervalued. This means that even in regular salaried jobs women are paid substantially lower salaries as compared to their male counterparts.

• Female workers are getting substantially lower wages than their male counterparts in almost all sectors and occupations despite having the same experience, education, geographical differences, and other individual characteristics. 

• It was found that around two-thirds of the pay gap is attributed to pure gender-based discrimination and only one-third is attributed to differences in ability. In simple terms, women are paid lesser incomes because they are “women” and not because their skills and abilities are any less than a man’s.

• This is the case for not only India but several other countries (including developed nations). Women's working conditions are often worse than men's- they have small offices, uncomfortable working environments, have to run errands for others, don’t get the credit they deserve, face sexual exploitation in the workplace, and whatnot.

• Workplace harassment leads to mental and physical stress, a lack of proper balance between employment and family care, and stressful life due to unfair treatment and discrimination in the workplace. Commonly faced challenges include- tackling prejudiced and stereotyped thinking, safety and security issues, ego hassles with colleagues, etc.

Occupational Segregation

• The tendency of women and men to work in different occupations more suitable to their endowments has led creation stereotyped mindset in terms of what jobs women should pursue.

• This has bound them to work in certain selected professions which are more appropriate according to societal norms.

• In a study, it was found that occupational segregation was lower in more educated people (e.g. - university graduates were more evenly distributed across different sectors of occupations as compared to high-school dropouts).

• The study suggests that there is a clear relationship between the level of education and the choice of flexibility in a career.

• Thus, educating girls is a necessary step to ensure that they can pursue a career in varied fields and don’t stick to basic career options- like teaching, personal care workers, nursing, etc. – that are expected of them.

• This also leads to a reduction in the incidence of workplace harassment as educated women are more likely to know right from wrong and are aware of their rights at the workplace, thus they can take action and step up for themselves.

Rights to Ancestral Property

• Women regardless of their caste, class, race, religion, etc. have always been denied a right that should be inherently theirs’ by birth- the right to their ancestral property. Ancestral property is always assumed to be the son’s property.

• Various reasons why women do not deserve an actual share of the property- “they’re already born with a burden of being given away along with dahej to another house”, “giving them property would be a waste, they should demand their husband’s property” are the most common one’s stated.

• Unmarried women are refused a share in their ancestral property and married women are refused a share in their husband’s ancestral property. This way women are denied financial independence which is the most important step toward practicing freedom of choice and expression.

• A study revealed that women who leave their legal share of the ancestral property do it under emotional pressure from their siblings and in fear of losing them permanently. As a result, they regret it in later periods since these women are financially dependent on others and therefore in case of any financial emergency, they feel helpless and regret their decision of leaving ancestral property share.

• On the contrary educated and independent women are much more vocal about their legal rights and negotiate successfully to get their share and above all, they don’t even regret that decision.

• For improving the women’s economic condition and social status ensuring that they get a share of their ancestral property is crucial. It will also go a long way in eradicating the evils of the dowry system prevailing in our society.

Everyday Practices That Are Gender Biased

• A mandatory step towards enlightening women about the dire circumstances of discrimination they face every day is to make them aware of the fact that they are receiving the short end of the stick. Many of us have become so conditioned to be treated like inferior beings that we have started to consider it “normal”.

• In many parts of the world, the marital relationship dominates the husband, dependence, and obedience of the wife, who submits/surrender seven as she loses the opportunity for her advancement, her self-esteem, and even at the risk of her health.

• Women shoulder most of the burden of everyday household chores of the family, without decision-making power. The only time their responsibilities lessen a bit is when they get pregnant as they are nurturing the progeny of the family.

• As children, we often suffer from a lack of sensitivity toward issues related to gender. Particularly in schools, e.g. - most of the sports teams are made up of boys, and girls are denied exposure to sports due to being considered physically inferior, girls are often made to designate special guests that come to school events (they are involved in inaugurating the event, doing the pooja, serving refreshments to other’s, etc.).

• We cannot change everyone’s innate biases as they are inbuilt and have been practiced for centuries. The best course of action is to teach our young ones- both boys and girls- to carry a fresh mindset, to inculcate values about carrying a gender-free approach towards life and not being restricted to fit into a society based on what it expects from them.

Loopholes in Awarding People

• Media &Communication

• Sexist Songs

• Objectification of men and woman

• Marketing & Advertisement

• Body Shaming concerns both

• Rape Cases are not reported when it comes to boys  

 Written by Riya Sharma