Gender and Development Theories, Wid, Wad and Gad, Their Strengths and Weaknesse

In many regions of Africa it is still common to practice female genital mutilation and other forms of violence against women in patriarchal societies and through the IAW many women and girls have been saved from such mutilation. Other programs include the provision of contraceptives for women, in particular those in poorer undeveloped nations. Pre and post natal care as well as other programs which foster the development and growth of women in leadership roles and avenues for women to create and develop businesses. These programs and campaigns have fostered the growth of so many women whether tangibly through their successes or intangibly through their improved self confidence and belief to know they can do better and should expect better despite their past. It has empowered women to overcome boundaries decades ago were impenetrable. As with any other process of change, they too have encountered challenges. Some of these are the same obstacles they try to overcome; gender biases and discrimination. Others include effecting a change in the mindset of individuals and in gaining support for their cause in male dominated countries and cultures where it is the status quo for women to 'know their place' and stay at home and 'raise' the kids. They also face economic and political challenges from governments and corporations who still believe the best senior executives should be males as opposed to promotions based on

This books focuses on things that influence gender roles such as Sociological Perspectives, Social Stratification , Sex and Gender, Race, Ethnicity and Nationality, Poverty and Social Exclusion , Crime and Deviance, Religion , Families and Households, Power, Politics and the State, Work, Unemployment and Leisure, Organisations and Bureaucracy, Education, Culture and Identity and Methodology.

Gender inequality is a massive problem for women and girls and development has begun to take place to over come this injustice to the female population in North Africa and the Middle East. Gender inequality has become an important and visible issue for economies of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). I have researched on how women of North Africa are deprived from many opportunities as well as being under educated. The female population has suffered immensely in Africa. Presently, women of Africa, like many women in third world countries have not been included as equal and effective stakeholders in processes that determine their lives.

Amongst societies, there is a great variety of means of survival, all of which are dependent upon factors influencing the community—geographical location and structure of authority, to name a few. Such factors and the community’s ways of survival create the underlying basis of other complex issues, including the relationship between the sexes. Many anthropological papers that concentrate on the modes of production of specific groups of people have shown a connection between the modes of production and the presence or absence of gender inequality. Futhermore, there is also evidence of a further causality between the two: as a society adopts a more complex mode of

Women and men have had certain roles in society that were understood amongst them to be specified for their particular gender. Males were known to have the leading role as head of the house hold and the bread winner while the woman’s duty was to stay at home and take care of the house and children. While many people years ago deemed this way of life and practice to be the right and ethical thing to do, times have changed and so this kind of treatment towards a woman’s equality must be questioned. Even though times have changed, this mindset of a woman’s ability to be as good as a man has not completely gone away. In today’s society a woman contributes to the economy and her family as equally as that of a man. Therefore, women should share equal rights and opportunities as their gender counterparts.

“The social construction of gender comes out of the general school of thought entitled social constructionism. Social constructionism proposes that everything people "know" or see as "reality" is partially, if not entirely, socially situated. To say that something is socially constructed does not mitigate the power of the concept. These basic theories of social constructionism can be applied to any issue of study pertaining to human life, including gender. This is

This article addresses four main points. First, at the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995, the significance of women’s contribution was emphasized by the World Bank. However, according to the authors, the perception of women as goods was strengthened by the World Bank because of its emphasis on economic outcomes and its consequent failure to pay attention to the meaning of women’s empowerment and gender equality. Second, the World Bank, UN agencies and other institutions were observed to value only young women and girls, thus completely ignoring men’s role . Third, despite the existence of programs encouraging women empowerment such as microfinance and conditional cash transfers, women are forced to work for their livelihood coupled with the burden of housework. The authors also cast doubt on the notion that investing in young women and girls leads to the promotion of women’s empowerment and gender equality, or actually improves the economy as they are often unconsciously regarded as cheaper labor . Therefore, they underscored that while smart economics might

Women have experienced a historic situation of inequality in the social as well as professional aspects. Women were normally the ones that would take care of children, do the chores in the house, and in rural areas; they would work in the field with the rest of the family. However, today’s women have become more self-sufficient and independent from the predominant male figure within every historical family. Gender inequality in the workplace is becoming less common; yet, gender is a factor that affects men and women. Especially women have been subjected to a historical discrimination that has influenced society to decide which job is more suitable for women than men. However women have confronted and tried to break down the barriers that

Social status and structures have definitely shaped the construction and experience of gender inequality. Men and women are constantly analyzed, compared, and grouped together in society. The result of this yields discrepancies in how sexes are viewed by society. Throughout my examination and explanation of gender inequality, I concluded both men and women are victims to gender inequality.

Gender is the characteristics of people as females and males. During preschool years, children begin to fall into their cultures gender roles. Gender roles are the expectations that society has in regards to how females and males should think, act, and feel. Two social theories that are central to children’s gender development are psychoanalytic theory of gender and social cognitive theory of gender. Freud proposed in the psychoanalytic theory of gender that children develop a sexual attraction to their opposite-sex parent, but eventually loses this attraction causing them to identify with their same-sex parent. In the social cognitive theory of gender, children’s gender develops through the rewards and punishments from their parents for gender-appropriate behavior. Both theories rely heavily on the influence of parents. Moreover, children in both theories learn about gender roles through observation. They adopt the sources characteristics and imitate what they see. In contrast, social cognitive theory contains other sources from which children learn gender roles such as culture, school, peers, etc. Also, psychoanalytic theory believes that children are aware of their gender much earlier, while social cognitive believes that children become aware through the negative or positive experiences they encounter. Bandura believed in reinforcement, while Freud took a biological approach.

The modern world has resulted in earnings, wages and salaries for the women similar to that of men, but the women are continuously facing inequalities in the work force (Andal 2002). This can be attributed to the pre-established notion that women shall not be given access to finance or communication with the world outside of the home which is highly unethical and unfair (Eisenhower, 2002). In the past, they were considered as the underprivileged ones which were not thought of having equal rights but this fact has changed now. For instance, the status of women can be explicitly defined as the equality and the freedom of the women.

Gender is the socially- constructed role and explanation of relationships between men and women. (Sport & Dev) In my opinion, I define Gender inequality as the unfair treatment amid both sexes. According to Sage Knowledge, "Gender inequality is allowing individuals of different opportunities due to perceived differences based solely on issues of gender."

Cultural and economic capital among others are a large part of determining the opportunities that and individual will have. Therefore social inequality in terms of gender inequality etc. is an issue which needs to be addressed. Social inequality is not only bad for the individual but also for society as a whole. In that sense men are also victims of gender inequality in a relative way. (Bourdieu,

This approach basically linked to feminism, an idea that support of social equality for women and men. The importance of gender-conflict approach is to make us aware that men are usually placing in position of power over women and the importance of women to the development sociology. The example of Gender-Conflict Approach is the gender pay gaps between men and women in the workforce. Research shows that women only make just 77 cents to the men’s dollar. Why do gender gap in pay and wealth exist? Simply put, they are the product of historically rooted gender biases that still thrived today. The assessment of labor value is strongly by biased perception of individual qualities though to be determined by gender. These often break down as gendered binary that directly favor men, like the idea that men are strong and women are weak. The next example is the role of woman in conflict. Research examined that the contributions of women to society has produced some observation that are generalized to many culture. In fact, women are ubiquitous to most cultural settings and “where there are not, it is not because they lack the ability or interest in a situation but because there have been deliberate efforts to exclude them”( Lengermann et al in Ritzer (2008), pg. 451). In western country for example, regardless of their demograpghic consideration, women constitute or are forced into

In order to answer the question above this essay will discuss in depth what exactly sex is and what gender is and the differences between the two terms. The research carried out will display that we live in a patriarchal society without a doubt as we look at how gender links to inequality in society. A patriarchal society can be clearly seen from the gender inequality in the labour force which is paid labour and also in unpaid labour which occurs in the household. Another area the answer will reflect on is how gender inequality links to education which overall links to society. Finally the answer below will show how the media also portrays gender inequality and how it affects the people in society.