GENDER SENSITIVITY

Submitted by: Rempillo, Ma. Katrina F.

Submitted to: Prof Zorina Pendon

In nearly all societies, men and women, boys and girls, have a different status
and play different roles. Men and women behave differently, dress differently, have different attitudes and interests, and have
different leisure activities.
Contrary to traditionally held beliefs that these differences between male and female behaviour are

biologically or genetically determined, recent research has revealed that they are to a large extent socially constructed, or based
on the concept of gender.
What is gender? The word was used by Ann Oakley and others in the 1970s to describe those characteristics of men and women
which are socially determined, in contrast to those which are biologically determined.
This distinction between gender and sex has important implications, which are elaborated throughout this manual. Essentially, the
distinction between gender and sex is made to emphasize that everything
men and women do, and is expected of them, with the exception of their sexually distinct functions (impregnation, childbearing
and breast-feeding), can change, and does change, in time and according to changing and different cultural factors.
Gender is a dynamic concept. Gender roles for men and women vary greatly from one culture to another, and from one social
group to another within the same culture.Race, class, economic circumstances, age - all of these influence what is considered
appropriate for men and women. As culture is dynamic, and socio-economic conditions change over time, so gender patterns
change with them. Sudden crisis, like war or
famine, can radically and rapidly change what men and women do. Sometimes, however, the old attitudes return after the crisis
(as women ex-combatants in liberation struggles have found). Sometimes, the changes have a permanent impact. This module
deals with gender training. Gender training is a development activity
which aims at changing awareness, knowledge, skills and behaviour in relation to gender. It differs from training in other subjects
in that it touches on personal and political issues, even when this is not deliberately planned.
The first step in understanding is gender awareness. Gender awareness is not a separate or additional issue. It is a way of
seeing, a perspective - insights which form our understanding of people and society. Gender awareness means looking at things
with new eyes, which are constantly open to learning more.
It is now generally accepted that the future of the African continent will depend on the establishment of a new relationship
between the sexes in the overall economic process, hence the concept of cultural adjustment. Cultural adjustment applies to all
socio-cultural values, which govern the very notion of the relationships between men and women in society Cultural adjustment
will be effected mainly by making men and
women aware of the loss to society by discrimination on the grounds of sex
It must also come about as a result of appropriate training focused on considerations of gender and an upgrading of the image of
women. In targeting this, training priority must be given to schools, which are vital centres for building a new equal gender
concept
Gender sensitivity is the act of being aware of the ways people think about gender, so that individuals rely less on assumptions
about traditional and outdated views on the roles of men and women. In language and the humanities, this is often expressed
through peoples language choice. People can choose more inclusive language that doesnt define gender, and many new words
that are gender neutral have entered languages like English to substitute for more gender specific terms.
For centuries, many words referring to all people were specifically masculine. Terms like man, and mankind, which are used to
describe all human beings, exclude females. While some people argue that such terms do include women, its been argued that
these words have a belittling effect on women. True gender sensitivity, it is said, moves past these terms to include all and
exclude none.

It is further contended by experts that the use of such terms is by no means innocent, and they have a negative cultural effect felt
beyond the words. By making women either absent or non-apparent in terms like mankind, they become worth less and society
will see them as possessing less value. This societal view in extreme forms is of detriment and corresponds to discrimination and
even, arguably, things like greater violence against women.

The phrase gender sensitivity is perhaps an unfortunate piece of jargon, but it is a convenient
shorthand since a better, simpler and less loaded phrase does not yet present itself. As
most people know, but many still do not fully grasp, sex refers to biological differences,
while gender describes the characteristics that a society or culture defines as masculine or
feminine.

So in one sense, being sensitive to gender is not a matter of nicety or manners, but
very much correlated with being sensitive to culture. It will help an analyst to understand where
power lies and how it is operated, how things get done, or indeed prevented, in particular
cultures.
Gender relations may not be intuitive but need to be learned by observation of and interaction
with a culture. Further to that, women and gender are not synonymous any more than women
are naturally more gender sensitive than men. The agenda of gender issues (across subjects
and sectors) is still so largely driven by women because their participation in most arenas
has been so unequal for so long that they are simply more motivated to be gender sensitive.
However, this is changing as more men recognise both the value of paying attention to gender
and equality, and the fact that this is not an exercise that exacts unbearable costs.