The Social Construction of Gender

Acronyms

1. CEDAW- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against

Women.

2. 2.ILO- International Labour Organisation
3. TGNP – Tanzania Gender Network Programme.
4. SAP- Structural Adjustment Programme.
5. PRSP- Poverty Reduction Strategy
6. MDG’s – Millennium Development Goals
7. MKUKUTA – Mkakati wa Kukuza Uchumi na Kupunguza Umaskini
8. TGNP – Tanzania Gender Networking Programme
9. FemAct- Feminist Positive Action
10. SOSPA- Sexual Offences and Special Provision Act
11. GBI – Gender Budgeting Initiative
12. IMF- International Monetary Fund
13. WB- World Bank
14. HIV-Human Immuno Deficiency Syndrome AIDS- Acquired Immunodeficiency Virus
15. GEWEF- gender and Women Empowerment Framework.
16. PLHA’s – People living with HIV and AIDS.
17. OVC’s Orphans and vulnerable children

1.0 Introduction and Conceptual Framework

This paper is an assessment of the social construction of gender as one of the variables of poverty. The social construction of gender as an historical outcome of cultural processes lying in the different social units like the community, the workplace, and the religious organizations is discussed. This is followed by a theoretical gender analysis using some Analytical Frameworks, also what has transpired in the history of gender and development. Then there are some examples, studies and policies that affect gender inequalities. The paper ends with my own perspective on the implication of the social construction of gender on community economic development.

Gender is a social attribute recognizing norms, practices, relationships in a society which are liable to change over time in a society. Gender Analysis is the examination of causes for socio and economic inequality for women .Gender Equity is the end result of treating men and women fairly. Gender Empowerment is a process through which men, women. boys and girls acquire knowledge, skills and willingness to critically analyze their situation and take appropriate action to change their status. Gender gap arises when there is gender disparity in development opportunities, rights and roles. Gender stereotyping is the assigning of roles, tasks and responsibilities to particular gender on the basis of preconceived prejudices. Gender Mainstreaming, is addressing gender issues in all development policies and projected programmes irrespective of sector. Gender transformative policy, targets women, men, or both and recognizes the existence of gender specific needs per group, but also seeks to transform the existing gender relations in a more equitable direction. Gender resources and HIV/AIDS, there is a relationship between poverty, lack of resources and the burden of AIDS care work for women.

( Concepts adapted from the TGNP Gender Awareness Training Manual )

Social Construction of Gender has been defined by TGNP as referring to gender roles, attributes and activities which are deliberately and systematically cultivated in females and males over time through cultural processes embedded in the social units around which society is organized. These include the family, the school the community, religion, media and workplace. Porvadarson (2007) shares that social constructivism is a branch of epistemology defining a weak social construction as a social theory of knowledge which implies certain behaviour being taken for granted leading to emergence of arbitrary language and social constructivism.

2.0 A Theoretical Literature Analysis:

2.1 Historical perspective: The Global instruments for facilitating gender equality and women empowerment started in 1948 with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights followed by the Women Global meetings in Mexico, Beijing and Nairobi. Tanzania has ratified and domesticated CEDAW and ranked first out of 115 countries in terms of women’s economic participation. and has formulated ”The National Strategy for Gender Development specifying how mainstreaming is to be implemented. However, there is neither political will nor gender conscientisation to policy makers for increased access and resources for implementation of the policies to inform economic development.

2.2 Social Construction of gender as manifested in the community as a social unit: Gender construction has its roots in the home. A girl child is socialized that she is inferior to her brother in privileges and status. There are different birth rituals, initiation, life cycles for boys and girls and confirming male also differential access to education and marriage. According to TGNP (2007) community values are perceived through the common history, traditions, economic systems and political order. Also the patriarchal system which gives males precedence and ownership of power over women. The matriarch system exists in parts of south Tanzania. Disparity in social relations is also manifested in labour patterns, management of community functions, decision making, owning means of production and visibility of males’ roles over those of women. Men tend to do technical jobs at a pay and women are never paid for domestic chores, traditional birth deliveries, AIDS patients care, taking children to hospital etc. PMTCT implies mothers transmitting HIV to babies and not both parents and men do not attend MCH clinics to facilitate discussion on sexuality. Other unhealthy practices in the community include Female Genital Mutilation, Bride Price and early Marriages. Both Life cycle and Social relations frameworks can analyse the community inequalities.

2.3 Gender Analytical Frameworks as they apply to development: There are several frameworks that have been develop Like the Gender Role Framework, gender Planning and Gender Development Framework by Moser, The Life Cycle Approach, Gender Equality and Women Empowerment Framework (GEWEF) and the Social Relations Framework. What matters for all the frameworks is that women’s triple roles have to be analysed , recognized and quantified , gender needs assessment for male and female and the other marginalia groups have to be sorted out in terms of practical and strategic needs to allow a transformation in policies which oppress women and the girl child. Also the issue of resources allocation and decision making processes have to be addressed to allow more control by women.

3.0 Analysis of Social Gender Construction:

3.1 Community/Situation Analysis 1: Professor Ruth Meena (1996) of the University of Dare s salaam made a Situation Analysis of Education of Girls/Women globally and in Tanzania. In 1990, 130 million children had no access to primary school and of these 81million were girls. Also she found out that the majority of children in Tanzania in rural areas do not go to a pre school. .

3.2 Community/Situation Analysis 2 (Masuki etal) indicate that in Tanzania women who make up 52% of the population produce 60-70% all food consumed and account for 70% of the agricultural labour force.This shows relationships and visibility of women’s’ work.

3.3 Community/Gender based study – Porvadarson, conducted a study whose aim was to evaluate the gender policy of the male sexual and reproductive programs. The conclusion was that for sustainable behaviour change for sexual and reproductive health it is not good to focus on single sex exclusion since it empowers one side only but good to include all community members. This is men’s involvement in reproductive health.

3.4. Community/A study on gender division of labour was conducted in Zanzibar by Eliufoo H.K (2007) entitled “Gendered division of labour in construction sites in Zanzibar”, whereby the purpose was how gendered division of labour influences earnings, resource ownership and wellbeing of female and male construction workers. It was found that through gender division, women are subordinated and do not access construction skills.

3.5 Community/A study on community beliefs and norms. Masuki etal conducted a study on gender dynamics in the Adoption of Interventions for Increasing Agricultural Water Productivity in Makanya Catchments, Same. The study assessed gender participation in issues related to water resource management . It was found out that the sources were owned by men and culturally it was a taboo for women to visit water sources believing that the water would dry.

3.6 Gender and the Workplaces: Workplaces also reinforce the structural construction of gender caused by the socialization in the community and patriarchal system whereby power through distribution of gender roles stereotyping of social and occupational responsibilities giving and decision making to men and women get subordinate roles. We seldom see women managers, engineers, architect, doctors or bosses. We see women secretaries, cleaners, nurses, teachers, housekeepers and the like. In schools, teachers are the main agents of constructing gender thus programming girls for failure. School drop out is higher for girls mainly due to pregnancy and nothing is done to boys. A combination of GEWEF and Social relations frameworks can analyse these imbalances.

3.7 Workplace/Facilities for people with challenged abilities: The ILO Reported on assisting such people to access the ILO office in Lima by putting facilities suitable for their use. This is also seen at KCMC hospital, The NBC, branch and the YWCA premises all in Moshi. This relates to inclusion of the marginalized in planning.

Vatican feels very challenged by this , Paul clarified this in (1Cor. 14:33 and 1 Tim. 2:11)

3.8 Gender Imbalance at the University of Dar- es- Salaam. Possi (1999) reports gender imbalances and discrimination at the university which have existed since its inception. In 1997/98 out of 4,101 students only 763 (17.9%) were women, in the Faculty of Arts and Social Science. Gender discrimination led to the suicide of Levina Mukasa. This is both differential access to education and oppression.

3.9 Gender and religious organizations: The quran shows a great respect for a gender balance in writing but the women’s role is only dealing with social welfare activities in the mosque. The bible stipulates the inferior role of women due to Eve’s deeds so even the women who appear to have assumed leadership in the bible are not visible. Although Catholic women do not become ministers Catholicism greatly honors the Blessed Virgin Mary as the mother of God. In Muslim Women’s League (1999 – 2007) reference is made of “I shall not lose sight of the labour of any of you who labours in my way, be it man or woman, each of you is equal to the other ( 3;195) Also Al- Adl (2006) insists that while men and women have some physical differences, spiritually they enjoy absolute equality before God. Conversely, the bible expects women to be submissive, Rutazaa (2005) Peter 1:1a. However, Adam B (2007) writes on the veil or Hijab as the status of women in Islam (33:59) and he compares with the bible ( Cor. 11:4-10).

3.10 Gender and Customary Law: Rutazaa shares that among the Chagga if an unmarried daughter dies at home she is buried at the border to indicate non belongingness of “clans land”.

3.11 Community/Social Exclusion: Tibaijuka and Kaijage(1990s) writing on poverty and social exclusion in Tanzania observed the relationship between women’s marital status and their economic welfare whereby this was tied to the institution of marriage or to the presence of a male partner in a household, widowed mothers, divorced or never married. This was consistent to the “feminization of poverty” for female headed households in rural areas. Married mothers were constrained with the allocation of resources to healthcare for themselves and their children. This is gender as related to poverty.

4.0 Social Construction of Gender and Policies:

(i) The National Employment Policy,1997, includes a specific statement advocating equal rights for women in the workplace. Section10 (6). Employment promotion. However the policy has been criticized for excluding those activities that are carried out at the house hold level which do not generate income directly but necessary for sustaining and production of human resources. (ii) The National population Policy (2006) has an objective” To promote the generation of gender disaggregated data”, although few publications display this currently. (iii)The National land Policy, (1995) has a section on women’s access, ownership and use of land”……women will be entitled to acquire land in their own right…” This culminated in the Land Act, 1999 and the Village Land Act , 1999. However the fruit are yet to be reaped due to persistent bureaucracy and patriarchy.

(iv) The National Gender Policy (2000) is waiting approval and no resources are allocated for implementation to replace the Women in Development Policy 1992, directs government institutions at all levels to forms Gender Focal Points, and each institution to develop an institutional framework for gender mainstreaming. (v) The National AIDS Policy (2001) claims that PLHA’s and OVC’s will have holistic health care and adds that children heading homesteads will get social support. The question is where are the resources allocated for this? Who participated in deciding on behalf of these groups, and how many of them have accessed the policy document? TGNP insists that AIDS cannot be separated from the extreme poverty, lack of resources and the burden of work for women. (vi) Sokoine University of Agriculture established a Gender Policy within the Strategic Plan of Action but there is no literature on its implementation. (vi) TGNP and its FemAct partners have been pioneering a Gender Budget Initiative (GBI) since mid 1997 responding to the cost sharing and retrenchment policies as part of the 1980s SAP, which cut social services in health and education and privatization caused massive layoffs of government workers, and also civil social was excluded in policy and budgetary processes, since objectives of GBI - to examine policy decision making processes and resource allocate with a gender perspective to facilitate gender mainstreaming of budget policies and budgets. However, after Beijing and the pressure of the Civil society especially FemAct there have been some developments reflected in the SOSPA whereby women’s sexuality rights are protected, although gender based violence remain rampant, MKUKUTA reflecting enhancement of women’s’ economic participation, although access to credit is still a blocked by men, and abiding by the SADCC women’s’ political participation through a declaration on Gender and Development by Southern African Development Community (1997). As a result, Tanzania currently has 30.3% women in political decision making. However, TGNP regrets that despite gender equity policies, women in Tanzania continue to access fewer rights and privileges than men in terms of position of power, education and training and right to property resources allocation for women based welfare

5.0 Own perspective: The implication of Social Construction of Gender on Community Economic Development, requires us to be development activists. Gender inequality and disparities were born in a family grew up in community, religion, workplaces and probably will die in the policies. Policies decide how resources will be generated and distributed in the community. Policies, budget and institutional gaps ultimately interplay with patriarchal structures and impact the household, which is the centre of the community. Look at women’s equity issues from a human rights perspective since the outcome of social construction of gender is inequality. Empower primary school teachers to facilitate early knowledge on gender issues in the community. Synergies have to be built in the communities. For example, the hand hoe has to be replaced by an oxen plough in the community to support the overburdened women. For community economic development depends on peoples’ empowerment, participation and resource utilization to lead their own development ventures for their own economic wellbeing.

Bibliography:

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2. Eliufoo H.K (2007) Gender Division of Labour in construction sites in Zanzibar. Journal: Women in Management Review ISSN:0964 – 9425 Vol. 2 :112-121. Emerald group Publishing.
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