GENDER • M.Shekinyashi
GENDER
• M.Shekinyashi
What is Gender?• Basically the term
gender refers to male and female.• The concept of gender
here refers to socially and culturally constructed characteristics and norms which are then attributed to the different biological sexes.
Gender and Sex• People have been
misuses these two concepts.• They look similar
while in the real sense are different.• The similarity exists
because both of them involves human characteristics.
But the difference are:Gender• Is the difference exists
between male and female in the social and psychological bases.
Sex• Is the biological
differences between males and females.
Gender Issues• For many years the world has
been experiencing sexual discrimination between males and females.
• Mostly, women are discriminated and oppressed in most nations.
• Different nations are aware of this problem and they have started to deal with it.
• The concept of gender does not intends to describe women’s rights but humanity.
Different Gender Concepts
The following are gender concepts
• Gender Balance• Gender Roles• Gender Blindness• Gender Discrimination• Gender Stereotyping• Gender Equity• Gender Analysis• Gender Mainstreaming
Gender Stereotyping• It is the way men and
women are portrayed in the society.• It includes how men
are perceived as well as women.• This situation resulted
to inferiority complex to women .
Gender Discrimination • It is an act of treating
people unfairly based on their gander.• Isolating people on the
bases of sex.• Gender discrimination
happen in many sectors, like in labour market, decision making and education.
Gender Oppression• Refers to the
situation where by one sex dominates everything from the household level, society, community to the national level.• In some community
it involve violence against women.
Gender Roles• Refers to the defined
activities which can be performed by an individual according to his or her sex.
• Gender role differ from one society to another.
• Basically , it a division of labour according to sex.
• In most societies the role of woman can be seen in domestic duties while men in political and other useful economic activities.
Gender Blindness• It is inability of a society
to understand or perceive that there are different roles and responsibilities which are supposed to be performed by both; men and women.• It is a situation where by
the society does not know that all activities can be done by both: men and women
Gender Balance • It is the state whereby
there is equal access to social and economic needs between men and women.• Tanzania is trying to
implement gender balance through leadership, employment opportunities , education and inheritance of natural resources
Gender Equity• Refer to process being fair
to both; men and women based on the principle of fairness and justice which can lead into gender equality.• In Tanzania there are some
principles which are based on gender equity.• Restriction on the forced
marriage and FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) are some of the principles which based on gender equity.
Gender Equality• It is a situation where
by there is positive relationship between men and women.• In this situation men
and women enjoy the equal rights and potentialities and contributing to the national development.
Gender Analysis• It is a process of making
exploration and highlighting on the relationship exists between men and women in a given society.
• Through data collection and analysis the relationship exists between men and women will be realized and more steps might be made to ward gender equality.
Gender Mainstreaming• It is the process of
integrating gender perspectives into policy stage.• As a strategy,
mainstream intends to promote equality between men and women.
Social-cultural practices that hinder equal participation in Tanzania
Social-cultural Practices• Social-cultural practices in
Tanzania support gender inequality among the social members.
• Some society in the world had already reached the goal of eradicating the gender imbalance and other issues concerning negative social-cultural practices toward gender.
• Mostly, in our society, women are disfavored with our socio-culture practices.
• The following are some social-culture practices which hinder equal participation in Tanzania.
Woman discrimination• Social-cultural practices in
Tanzania has undermined women for quit sometime to the extent that women are perceived as objects in the society.
• Due to that there is unequal participation between man and women in the process of getting social services.
• This situation is what we can term it as woman discrimination.
• In our society there are some practices that deny woman right and discriminate her.
Women Oppression • There are some practices
in our society which degrade and humiliate women.
• This is what we term as gender oppression.
• In some societies men are very cruel to women.
• Men beats women, traditionally they believe that they make women submissive to them.
Prohibiting Pregnant woman from Eating some Foodstuffs• Some society prohibit
women from eating some kind of nutrient food.• Especially pregnant
women.• They believe that when
woman eat those kind of food the child will be born with a lack of hair and he/she will be thief.
Wife Inheritance• In some society the
widow is remarried by the relative of her x-husband.• A married women is
regarded as property of husband’s family, so in order to take care of her and the kids left the widow is remarried by on of male family member.
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)• It involve the removal of
clitoris in the female genitalia.
• The reason for FGM includes: controlling women’s sexuality and in some society it is prestige and a sigh of maturity.
• In Tanzania areas FGM is commonly practiced in Dodoma, Kilimanjaro, Arusha , Manyara, Morogoro and Mara .
Early Marriage• It is a situation where
by a person is forced to get married before the right age.• Young girls have been
forced to be married to men who they do not want and who are more aged than them.
In your own opinion, what are measures that can be taken to abolish social-cultural aspect which hinder the equal chance in Tanzania?
Thank YOU!