Gender sensitivity is the process by which people are made aware of how gender plays a role in life through their treatment of others. [1] Gender relations are present in all institutions worldwide and gender sensitivity especially manifests in recognizing privilege and discrimination around gender; women are generally seen as disadvantaged in society. Major strides in international gender sensitivity awareness have been made in recent years, which is helping to improve living and working conditions for members of all gender groups, [2] as well as more effective medical care. [3] Gender sensitivity trainings are used to educate people, usually employees, to become more aware of and sensitive to gender in their lives or workplaces. [1] This type of training is becoming more popular in the United States, particularly in areas of the service industry, such as healthcare and education. [4]
Gender sensitivity in reproductive health is reliant on treating all clients with equal respect, regardless of sex, gender identity, marital status, sexual orientation, or age. Indicators of gender-sensitive service include: refraining from discriminating against or stereotyping clients on the basis of sex or gender, treating all clients with equal respect, offering gender sensitivity training to all employees, and providing adequate representation of female care providers. [1] Gender-sensitive care also depends on informed consent to treatment for all clients. If service providers deliver gender-sensitive care, their clients might be more likely to seek further service from that provider. [1]
Other effective gender-sensitive practices include providing the option of same gender clinician-patient pairing and awareness of gender-specific needs in regards to personal safety and privacy. [5] Addressing the unique needs of the non-binary and gender non-conforming population is another important feature of gender sensitivity in healthcare, as well as breaking down gender stereotypes that exist within the healthcare space.
Gender sensitivity is enacted through a process known as gender sensitization. Gender sensitization promotes equality for men and women by allowing men and women to view what is stereotypical of and reasonable for their gender. Therefore, teachers are in a position to teach children about gender sensitization through how they conduct their classroom and interact with their students. [6] Teachers who are successful at sensitizing their students to gender at a young age can influence a change in children's thought processes, which positions them to break societal stigmas in childhood and throughout life. [7]
Teaching children to be sensitive to gender also relies heavily on the parents or guardians of the children. Children begin to develop their gender identity around two to three years old. At this age, gender identity is reinforced through messages from parents, whether gender sensitive or not. [8] A common phrase that is not gender sensitive and might be heard by young children through their parents is “boys will be boys.” [6] Other examples of non-gender-sensitive reinforcement of gender includes teaching children that pink is an objectively feminine color and blue is an objectively masculine color, as well as influencing young girls to play with dolls and boys to play with trucks. Educating children about gender identities that do not conform to the gender binary helps to break the stigma associated with these identities. [9]
Raising awareness of gender sensitivity issues and helping to combat the stereotypes and misinformation regarding said issues can be done via dedicated gender sensitivity training. [10] Such training programs typically provide information on topics such as gender inequality, stereotypes and stigmas, as well as gender-specific communication skills. Terminology and the history of gender issues are also topics of study in these programs. International collaboration towards developing standards for these training modules has helped to spur progress in gender sensitivity and equality, increasing quality of life and economic growth worldwide. [11]
Some training modalities for these programs include online modules and prerecorded media, in-person lectures and classroom settings, as well as workshops and other group activities. These programs can be single-session or consist of multiple sections spread out over longer periods of time. [12]
Although the effects of gender sensitivity training are mostly positive when analyzed on average, men have been shown to have a lower level of acceptance to these training programs than women in most circumstances.
Although countries in the African continent tend to struggle economically, there have been major strides in improving gender sensitivity in the region. [13] Women have seen success in starting their own successful businesses in countries like South Africa, despite traditional gender norms not having women in consideration for such feats. There is still progress to be made, and much of that can be influenced by government involvement in the efforts to revert laws that hinder women from progressing in their careers.
Gender plays a large role in Indian thought processes. The separation of boy and girl indicators in India creates distance between men and women. [6] Indicators of masculinity in boys include cars, the color blue, and superheroes; indicators of femininity in girls include dolls, the color pink, and princesses.
Countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are historically known to have poor gender sensitivity acceptance rates, despite their high economic standing. [14] Currently, many women in this region are restricted to traditional housewife duties such as homemaking and childcare. Some of this cultural rigidity has been attributed to the dependence of oil for the economies of nations in the Middle East.
Sweden is making a strong effort to become more gender sensitive. Sweden recently added the word “hen”—a gender-neutral pronoun—to their common language. [15] [16] [17] This promotes a gender-neutral way of thinking for children. [6]
Feminist movements in the United Kingdom have led to an increase in gender sensitivity acceptance both for women and for men alike. [18] Expanding social services for all genders and making these conversations commonplace has led to positive progress in the region.
A gender role, or sex role, is a set of socially accepted behaviors and attitudes deemed appropriate or desirable for individuals based on their sex. Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of masculinity and femininity, although there are exceptions and variations.
Gender neutrality, also known as gender-neutralism or the gender neutrality movement, is the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions should avoid distinguishing roles according to people's sex or gender. This is in order to avoid discrimination arising from the impression that there are social roles for which one gender is more suited than another. The disparity in gender equality throughout history has had a significant impact on many aspects of society, including marketing, toys, education and parenting techniques. In order to increase gender neutrality in recent years, there has been a societal emphasis on utilizing inclusive language and advocating for equality.
Gender equality, also known as sexual equality or equality of the sexes, is the state of equal ease of access to resources and opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation and decision-making; and the state of valuing different behaviors, aspirations and needs equally, regardless of gender.
Feminization of poverty refers to a trend of increasing inequality in living standards between men and women due to the widening gender gap in poverty. This phenomenon largely links to how women and children are disproportionately represented within the lower socioeconomic status community in comparison to men within the same socioeconomic status. Causes of the feminization of poverty include the structure of family and household, employment, sexual violence, education, climate change, "femonomics" and health. The traditional stereotypes of women remain embedded in many cultures restricting income opportunities and community involvement for many women. Matched with a low foundation income, this can manifest to a cycle of poverty and thus an inter-generational issue.
Since the 19th century, men have taken part in significant cultural and political responses to feminism within each "wave" of the movement. This includes seeking to establish equal opportunities for women in a range of social relations, generally done through a "strategic leveraging" of male privilege. Feminist men have also argued alongside writers like bell hooks, however, that men's liberation from the socio-cultural constraints of sexism and gender roles is a necessary part of feminist activism and scholarship.
Gender inequality is the social phenomenon in which people are not treated equally on the basis of gender. This inequality can be caused by gender discrimination or sexism. The treatment may arise from distinctions regarding biology, psychology, or cultural norms prevalent in the society. Some of these distinctions are empirically grounded, while others appear to be social constructs. While current policies around the world cause inequality among individuals, it is women who are most affected. Gender inequality weakens women in many areas such as health, education, and business life. Studies show the different experiences of genders across many domains including education, life expectancy, personality, interests, family life, careers, and political affiliation. Gender inequality is experienced differently across different cultures.
Feminist psychology is a form of psychology centered on social structures and gender. Feminist psychology critiques historical psychological research as done from a male perspective with the view that males are the norm. Feminist psychology is oriented on the values and principles of feminism.
Gender sensitization is the process teaching of gender sensitivity and encouragement of behavior modification through raising awareness of gender equality concerns. In other words, it is the process of making people aware of gender equality or the lack of to the need to eliminate gender discrimination. It involves understanding and challenging the existing gender roles, stereotypes, and biases that are prevalent in society. Gender sensitization aims to create a more equal and just society where individuals are not discriminated against based on their gender.
An implicit bias or implicit stereotype is the pre-reflective attribution of particular qualities by an individual to a member of some social out group. Recent studies have determined that "implicit bias" towards those of the opposite gender may be even more influential than racial implicit bias.
Gender and development is an interdisciplinary field of research and applied study that implements a feminist approach to understanding and addressing the disparate impact that economic development and globalization have on people based upon their location, gender, class background, and other socio-political identities. A strictly economic approach to development views a country's development in quantitative terms such as job creation, inflation control, and high employment – all of which aim to improve the ‘economic wellbeing’ of a country and the subsequent quality of life for its people. In terms of economic development, quality of life is defined as access to necessary rights and resources including but not limited to quality education, medical facilities, affordable housing, clean environments, and low crime rate. Gender and development considers many of these same factors; however, gender and development emphasizes efforts towards understanding how multifaceted these issues are in the entangled context of culture, government, and globalization. Accounting for this need, gender and development implements ethnographic research, research that studies a specific culture or group of people by physically immersing the researcher into the environment and daily routine of those being studied, in order to comprehensively understand how development policy and practices affect the everyday life of targeted groups or areas.
Many scholars and policymakers have noted that the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) have remained predominantly male with historically low participation among women since the origins of these fields in the 18th century during the Age of Enlightenment.
Feminist aesthetics first emerged in the 1970s and refers not to a particular aesthetic or style but to perspectives that question assumptions in art and aesthetics concerning gender-role stereotypes, or gender. Feminist aesthetics has a relationship to philosophy. The historical philosophical views of what beauty, the arts, and sensory experiences are, relate to the idea of aesthetics. Aesthetics looks at styles of production. In particular, feminists argue that despite seeming neutral or inclusive, the way people think about art and aesthetics is influenced by gender roles. Feminist aesthetics is a tool for analyzing how art is understood using gendered issues. A person's gender identity affects the ways in which they perceive art and aesthetics because of their subject position and that perception is influenced by power. The ways in which people see art is also influenced by social values such as class and race. One's subject position in life changes the way art is perceived because of people's different knowledge's about life and experiences. In the way that feminist history unsettles traditional history, feminist aesthetics challenge philosophies of beauty, the arts and sensory experience.
Gender plays a role in mass media and is represented within media platforms. These platforms are not limited to film, radio, television, advertisement, social media, and video games. Initiatives and resources exist to promote gender equality and reinforce women's empowerment in the media industry and representations. For example, UNESCO, in cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists, elaborated the Gender-sensitive Indicators for Media contributing to gender equality and women's empowerment in all forms of media.
Gender has historically played an important role in public administration. Gender perception and other factors influence the ways in which people think about public administration and bureaucracy. In today's society, public administration remains widely segregated in regard to gender, though it has become commonplace to advocate for greater numbers of equality and non-discrimination policies.
Alpha male and beta male are pseudoscientific terms for men derived from the designations of alpha and beta animals in ethology. They may also be used with other genders, such as women, or additionally use other letters of the Greek alphabet. The popularization of these terms to describe humans has been widely criticized by scientists.
Gender inequality in curriculum exposes indications that female and male learners are not treated equally in various types of curriculum. There are two types of curricula: formal and informal. Formal curricula are introduced by a government or an educational institution. Moreover, they are defined as sets of objectives, content, resources and assessment. Informal curricula, also defined as hidden or unofficial, refer to attitudes, values, beliefs, assumptions, behaviours and undeclared agendas underlying the learning process. These are formulated by individuals, families, societies, religions, cultures and traditions.
Foreign aid for gender equality in Jordan includes programs funded by governments or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that aim to empower women, close gender based gaps in opportunity and experience, and promote equal access to education, economic empowerment, and political representation in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Sustainable Development Goal 8 is about "decent work and economic growth" and is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals which were established by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. The full title is to "Foster sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all." Progress towards targets will be measured, monitored and evaluated by 17 indicators.
Sustainable Development Goal 5 concerns gender equality and is fifth of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by United Nations in 2015. The 17 SDGs recognize that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Sustainable Development Goal 4 is about quality education and is among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in September 2015. The full title of SDG 4 is "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all".