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!