Write up on Gender

Lingaraj
30-03-09

Introduction:
We had a session on gender which had been taken by shahina, fellow cohort I. She explained how the gender issue is sensitive. It was an interactive session and we presented many case studies. These case studies helped us to understand current situation of women in many countries and the mindset or stereotypic concept on women. As we came across in several case studies all over the world gender discrimination is present and women are being exploited.
Module description:
We have discussed on both sex and gender. Before this we just thought how they differ each other and answered some questions and gone through of some slides.
Sex refers to the biological differences between men and women, which are universal and do not change. It’s a physiological characteristic that we can differentiate both men and women and it defines anatomical features of human body.
Gender refers to social attributes that are being followed from many centuries. These are imposed facts and state that go on changing. Gender identity determines how men and women perceived and how they are expected to think and act as men and women. Even more, gender varies along with race, caste and creed deployed in the distribution of privilege, prestige, power and a range of social and economic status of a particular region.
Here are some of the misconceptions about gender.
Girls wear feminine cloths and boys wear masculine, boys don’t cry ,women do not go to higher education, married woman wear “sindoor”, women should do domestic work only etc.

Key points:
We have discussed many points such as female Infanticide, dowry death, rape, case studies on women exploitation in various part of the world etc and realized that how women facing terrible situation everywhere.
Learning:
I came to know that how to distinguish between sex and gender and what is the difference between them. Before the module my understanding was wrong that women exploitation is only in underdeveloped countries but after the case studies I realized the fact and current status of women. We should come over the misconception that women are unable to do the things and unfit for work that man can do.