We held a radio program at the Cotton Tree News Radio Mount Aureol in Freetown on Monday 8th June 2009 from 1:00pm to 2:00pm; George Reginald Freeman was the studio guest and he was interviewed on the Gender Empowerment Project where he introduced the project and talks lengthily about the concept and outcomes of the intended project. Members of the public were motivated and contributed meaningful opinions that led to massive telephone calls aiming at supporting the campaign of gender equality. At the end of the program people congratulated Peace Child International for creating the platform for a gender equal society.
Tuesday 9th June 2009, Premier talk radio interviewed George Reginald Freeman at their Good Morning Show 7:00am to 7:15 am, he was given an opportunity to disseminate the concept of gender and publicise the Gender Empowerment Workshop to target the mass media so that everyone will know about gender.
Thursday 11th June 2009 at 7:am, George Reginald Freeman and Mahawa Kargbo went to Radio Democracy FM 98.1 in Freetown. We introduced the concept of gender, disseminated the message of the Gender empowerment training workshops and we also talked about the outcomes of the workshop on the first day. Various callers recommended the program and request for us to replicate the Gender training in other communities in Sierra Leone. We received text messages from several people recommending the gender workshops conducted as the best.
Finally, on Monday 15th June 2009, George Reginald Freeman disseminated the outcomes of the gender empowerment workshop to the public for fifteen minutes at the Good Morning show held at the Premier Talk Radio from 7:00am to 7:15 am.
Five newspapers published the Gender Workshops stories on the following dates below:
1. Awoko Newspaper – Wednesday 10th June 2009
2. Concord Times Newspaper – Thursday 11th June 2009
3. Standard Times Newspaper – Thursday 11th June 2009
4. Premier News Newspaper – Thursday 11th June 2009
5. Awareness Times Newspaper – Thursday 11th June 2009
The following are the finding participants came up with at the three days Gender Empowerment workshops conducted in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Gender Empowerment Training Workshop
Day 1 – Tuesday 9th June 2009
Introduction to Gender: for young women only
From the discussions we can safely conclude the following terms as thus:
GENDER
'Gender' refers to the socially constructed roles and relations between men and women, while 'Sex' refers to biological characteristics that define humans as female or male. These biological characteristics are not mutually exclusive however, as there are individuals who possess both.
'Gender relations' are characterised by unequal power. 'Gender norms' assign specific entitlements and responsibilities to men and women - for example, women might be expected to take on caring or domestic duties and remain close to home, while men may be expected to be the main breadwinner, working outside the home, with greater freedom to move around in public places.
Gender inequality persists - this has implications for women's capacity to benefit from community development projects such as social entrepreneurships and business start-ups.
This is known as the gendered division of labour. In all countries of the world, women continue to exist in roles and relationships that often make them subordinate to men, because they are paid less than men for the same work, because their movements are restricted, or because they are not permitted to take on higher status work.
Acceptable 'gender roles', like those outlined above, are often translated into economic policies and activities. Despite the fact that many governments have ratified international gender instruments such as CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women), gender inequality persists. This has implications for women's capacity to benefit from global trade policy.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GENDER AND SEX:
Sometimes it is hard to understand exactly what is meant by the term “gender”, and how it differs from the closely related term “sex”.
"Sex” refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women.
“Gender” refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.
To put it another way:
“Male” and “female” are sex categories, while “masculine” and “feminine” are gender categories.
Aspects of sex will not vary substantially between different human societies, while aspects of gender may vary greatly.
Some examples of sex characteristics:
* Women can menstruate while men cannot
* Men have testicles while women do not
* Women have developed breasts that are usually capable of lactating, while men do not
* Men generally have more massive bones than women
Some examples of gender characteristics:
* In the United States (and most other countries), women earn significantly less money than men for similar work
* In Viet Nam, many more men than women smoke, as female smoking has not traditionally been considered appropriate
* In Saudi Arabia men are allowed to drive cars while women are not
* In most of the world, women do more housework than men
GENDER ANALYSIS
* Examines the differences in women's and men's lives, including those, which lead to social and economic inequity for women, and applies this understanding to policy development and service delivery.
* Is concerned with the underlying causes of these inequities
* Aims to achieve positive change for women
The term 'gender' refers to the social construction of female and male identity. It can be defined as 'more than biological differences between men and women. It includes the ways in which those differences, whether real or perceived, have been valued, used and relied upon to classify women and men and to assign roles and expectations to them. The significance of this is that the lives and experiences of women and men, including their experience of the legal system, occur within complex sets of differing social and cultural expectations'.
Gender analysis recognises that:
* Women’s and men's lives and therefore experiences, needs, issues and priorities are different
* Women’s lives are not all the same; the interests that women have in common may be determined as much by their social position or their ethnic identity as by the fact they are women
* Women’s life experiences, needs, issues and priorities are different for different ethnic groups
* The life experiences, needs, issues, and priorities vary for different groups of women (dependent on age, ethnicity, disability, income levels, employment status, marital status, sexual orientation and whether they have dependants)
* Different strategies may be necessary to achieve equitable outcomes for women and men and different groups of women
GENDER EQUITY AND EQUALITY
Gender analysis aims to achieve equity, rather than equality.
GENDER EQUALITY
Is based on the premise that women and men should be treated in the same way. This fails to recognise that equal treatment will not produce equitable results, because women and men have different life experiences.
GENDER EQUITY
Takes into consideration the differences in women and men's lives and recognises that different approaches may be needed to produce outcomes that are equitable.
Gender analysis provides a basis for robust analysis of the differences between women and men's lives, and this removes the possibility of analysis being based on incorrect assumptions and stereotypes.
GENDER EQUITY
Gender equity is a set of actions, attitudes, and assumptions that provide opportunities and create expectations about individuals. In our definition of gender equity, gender is never separate from race, ethnicity, language, disability, income, or other diversities that define us as human beings. It offers a framework for educational reform in which all females and males:
* Are engaged, reflective learners, regardless of the subject
* Are prepared for future education, jobs, careers, and civic participation
* Set and meet high expectations for themselves and others
* Develop as respectful, inclusive, and productive individuals, friends, family members, workers, and citizens
* Receive equitable treatment and achieve equitable outcomes in schools and beyond.
GENDER MAINSTREAMING
If health care systems are to respond adequately to problems caused by gender inequality, it is not enough simply to "add in” a gender component late in a given project’s development. Research, interventions, health system reforms, health education, health outreach, and health policies and programs must consider gender from the beginning.
Gender is thus not something that can be consigned to “watchdogs” in a single office, since no single office could possibly involve itself in all phases of each of an organization’s activities. All health professionals must have knowledge and awareness of the ways gender affects health, so that they may address gender issues wherever appropriate and thus make their work more effective.
The process of creating this knowledge and awareness of - and responsibility for - gender among all health professionals is called "gender mainstreaming”.
Gender and Good Governance:
Gender refers to the culturally and socially determined differences between men and women, the relationships between them, and their roles in the community at large. But in many societies, women are afforded a lower status than men, leading to a 'denial of rights' such as access to information, adequate nutrition, health services, education, finances, property, reproductive rights, family planning, etc to which they are entitled. Looking at governance structure - whether local or global - is useful as good governance policies (that has accessibility, accountability transparency and efficiency as its four pillars), also ensures that gender equality is built upon.
EMPOWERMENT
Empowerment refers to increasing the spiritual, political, social or economic strength of individuals and communities. It often involves the empowered developing confidence in their own capacities.
Empowerment is the development of knowledge, skills and abilities in the learner to enable them to control and develop their own learning.
Definitions
The term Human Empowerment covers a vast landscape of meanings, interpretations, definitions and disciplines ranging from psychology and philosophy to the highly commercialized Self-Help industry and Motivational sciences.
"Marginalized" refers to the overt or covert trends within societies whereby those perceived as lacking desirable traits or deviating from the group norms tend to be excluded by wider society and ostracised as undesirables.
Marginalized people who have no opportunities for self-sufficiency become, at a minimum, dependent on charity or welfare. They lose their self-confidence because they cannot be fully self-supporting. The opportunities denied them also deprive them of the pride of accomplishment, which others, who have those opportunities, can develop for themselves. This in turn can lead to psychological, social and even mental health problems.
Empowerment is then the process of obtaining these basic opportunities for marginalized people, either directly by those people, or through the help of non-marginalized others who share their own access to these opportunities. It also includes actively thwarting attempts to deny those opportunities. Empowerment also includes encouraging, and developing the skills for, self-sufficiency, with a focus on eliminating the future need for charity or welfare in the individuals of the group.
The process of empowerment:
The process which enables one to gain power, authority and influence over others, institutions or society. Empowerment is probably the totality of the following or similar capabilities: -
* Having decision-making power of one's own
* Having access to information and resources for taking proper decision
* Having a range of options from which you can make choices (not just yes/no, either/or.)
* Ability to exercise assertiveness in collective decision making
* Having positive thinking on the ability to make change
* Ability to learn skills for improving one's personal or group power.
* Ability to change others’ perceptions by democratic means.
* Involving in the growth process and changes that is never ending and self-initiated
* Increasing one's positive self-image and overcoming stigma
* Increasing one's ability in discreet thinking to sort out right and wrong
In short, empowerment is the process that allows one to gain the knowledge, skill-sets and attitude needed to cope with the changing world and the circumstances in which one lives.
Motivations are increased when people have a more positive attribution style. This influences self-belief, resilience when faced with setbacks, and the ability to visualize one-self overcoming problems. The implication is that 'empowerment' suits some more than others, and should be positioned in the broader and wider context of an 'enabling' work environment.
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