Gender roles

Are roles within which are classified by sex, where this classification is social and not biological. For example, if child-rearing is classified as a female role, it is a female gender role, not a female sex role since child-rearing can be done by men or women.

Sex roles

May therefore be contrasted with gender roles, since sex roles refer to an occupation or biological function for which a necessary qualification is to belong to one particular sex category. For example, pregnancy is a female sex role because only members of the female sex may bear children.

Gender role stereotyping

Is the constant portrayal, such as in the media or in books, of women and men occupying social roles according to the traditional gender division of labour in a particular society. Such gender role stereotyping works to support and reinforce the traditional gender division of labour by portraying it as "normal" and "natural".

Gender division of labour

Means an overall societal pattern where women are allotted one set of gender roles, and men allotted another set. Unequal gender division of labour refers to a gender division of labour where there is an unequal gender division of reward. Discrimination against women in this sense means that women get most of the burden of labour, and most of the unpaid labour, but men collect most of the income and rewards resulting from the labour. In many countries, the most obvious pattern in the gender division of labour is that women are mostly confined to unpaid domestic work and unpaid food production, whereas men dominate in cash crop production and wage employment.

Gender equality

Means that there is no discrimination on grounds of a person's sex in the allocation of resources or benefits, or in the access to services. 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.

" Equality between men and women exists when both sexes are able to share equally in the distribution of power and influence; have equal opportunities for financial independence through work or through setting up businesses; enjoy equal access to education and the opportunity to develop personal ambitions, interests and talents; share responsibility for the home and children and are completely free from coercion, intimidation and gender-based violence both at work and at home.

Gender equity

Is a set of actions, attitudes, and assumptions that provide opportunities and create expectations about individuals. Gender is never separate from race, ethnicity, language, disability, income, or other diversities that define us as human beings. It is equal chance between men and women

An approach using gender equity is directed towards ensuring that development policies and interventions 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; provision of fuel. water, etc. This approach tries to 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.

Gender equity, as a goal, requires that specific measurements and monitoring are employed to ensure that, at a minimum, programmes, policies and projects implemented do not leave women worse off than other sections of the population, in particular the men in their peer group and families.

Gender discrimination

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.

Gender sensitivity

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. Bu here we define gender sensitivity as the beginning of gender awareness, where the latter is more analytical, more critical and more "questioning" of gender disparities.

Gender awareness

Means the ability to identify problems arising from gender inequality and discrimination, even if these are not very evident on the surface, or are "hidden" - i.e. are not part of the general or commonly accepted explanation of what and where the problem lies. In other words, gender awareness means a high level of gender conscietisation.

Gender issues

Arise where an instance of gender inequality is recognized as undesirable, or unjust. There are three aspects of gender issues, namely: gender gap, discrimination and women's oppression.

Gender analysis

Means 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 programme 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 programme - in project objectives, in the choice of intervention strategy and the methods of programme implementation.

Gender planning

Means taking account of gender issues in planning. In development planning, it means that gender issues are recognized in the identification of the problem and addressed in development objectives.

Gender training

Means providing people with formal learning experiences in order to increase their gender awareness. In the case of UNICEF staff, the overall purpose of training is to provide the knowledge and skills necessary to recognize and address gender issues in the programming process. At the centre of this learning process is conscientisation, involving the ability to recognize the underlying issues of gender inequality which forma pervasive obstacle to programme progress.

Gender relations

Gender balance

are the ways in which a culture or society defines rights, responsibilities, and the identities of men and women in relation to one another

Representation of females in a course or degree program at a level equal to their representation in the population of the corresponding institution.

Patriarchy

Is the male domination of ownership and control, at all levels in society, which maintains and operates the system of gender discrimination. This system of control is justified in terms of patriarchal ideology - a system of ideas based on a belief in male superiority and sometimes the claim that the gender division of labour is based on biology or even based on scripture.