Gender and power

Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity. Depending on the context, these characteristics may include biological sex (i.e. the state of being male, female or intersex), sex-based social structures (including gender roles and other social roles), or gender identity
Introduction

Media play important roles in society. They report on current events, provide frameworks for interpretation, mobilise citizens with regard to various issues, reproduce predominant culture and society, and entertain (Llanos and Nina, 2011). As such, the media can be an important actor in the promotion of gender equality, both within the working environment (in terms of employment and promotion of female staff at all levels) and in the representation of women and men (in terms of fair gender portrayal and the use of neutral and non-gender specific language).
Participation and influence of women in the media
Studies have found that although the number of women working in the media has been increasing globally, the top positions (producers, executives, chief editors and publishers) are still very male dominated (White, 2009). This disparity is particularly evident in Africa, where cultural impediments to women fulfilling the role of journalist remain (e.g. travelling away from home, evening work and covering issues such as politics and sports which are considered to fall within the masculine domain) (Myers, 2009). The Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) reports that throughout the world, female journalists are more likely to be assigned ‘soft’ subjects such as family, lifestyle, fashion and arts. The ‘hard’ news, politics and the economy, is much less likely to be written or covered by women.

The level of participation and influence of women in the media also has implications for media content: female media professionals are more likely to reflect other women’s needs and perspectives than their male colleagues. It is important to acknowledge, however, that not all women working in the media will be gender aware and prone to cover women’s needs and perspectives; and it is not impossible for men to effectively cover gender issues. Recent research from 18 disparate countries shows that male and female journalists’ attitudes do not differ significantly (Hanitzsch & Hanusch, 2012). Nonetheless, the presence of women on the radio, television and in print is more likely to provide positive role models for women and girls, to gain the confidence of women as sources and interviewees, and to attract a female audience.
Media content and portrayal of men and women in the media

Fair gender portrayal in the media should be a professional and ethical aspiration, similar to respect for accuracy, fairness and honesty (White, 2009). Yet, unbalanced gender portrayal is widespread. The Global Media Monitoring Project finds that women are more likely than men to be featured as victims in news stories and to be identified according to family status. Women are also far less likely than men to be featured in the world’s news headlines, and to be relied upon as ‘spokespeople’ or as ‘experts’. Certain categories of women, such as the poor, older women, or those belonging to ethnic minorities, are even less visible.

Stereotypes are also prevalent in every day media. Women are often portrayed solely as homemakers and carers of the family, dependent on men, or as objects of male attention. Stories by female reporters are more likely to challenge stereotypes than those filed by male reporters (Gallagher et al., 2010). As such, there is a link between the participation of women in the media and improvements in the representation of women.

Men are also subjected to stereotyping in the media. They are typically characterised as powerful and dominant. There is little room for alternative visions of masculinity. The media tends to demean men in caring or domestic roles, or those who oppose violence. Such portrayals can influence perceptions in terms of what society may expect from men and women, but also what they may expect from themselves. They promote an unbalanced vision of the roles of women and men in society.

Attention needs to be paid to identifying and addressing these various gender imbalances and gaps in the media. The European Commission (2010) recommends, for example, that there should be a set expectation of gender parity on expert panels on television or radio and the creation of a thematic database of women to be interviewed and used as experts by media professionals. In addition, conscious efforts should be made to portray women and men in non-stereotypical situations.
Participatory community media
Participatory community media initiatives aimed at increasing the involvement of women in the media perceive women as producers and contributors of media content and not solely as ‘consumers’(Pavarala, Malik, and Cheeli, 2006). Such initiatives encourage the involvement of women in technical, decision-making, and agenda-setting activities. They have the potential to develop the capacities of women as sociopolitical actors. They also have the potential to promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media and to challenge the status quo. In Fiji, women who took part in a participatory video project presented themselves as active citizens who made significant contributions to their families and communities. These recorded images improved the status of women in the minds of government bureaucrats.

There are limitations to participatory community initiatives, however. If unaccompanied by changes in structural conditions, participation may not be sufficient to foster substantive social change. Baú (2009) explains that the establishment of a women’s radio station (run and managed by women) in Afghanistan faced constraints in that women engaged in self-censorship in order to avoid criticism from local male political and religious leaders.
Gender and Agriculture
Women in agriculture
Gender inequalities exist across the spectrum. Women farmers make up to half of the agricultural workforce in some developing countries. On average, they achieve yields that are 20-30% lower than that of their male counterparts, in great part due to unequal access to resources, such as land and technologies. Bridging this significant gap would not only boost agricultural productivity but also improve food security, health and nutrition.

Social, economic and cultural dynamics all have a part to play in barriers to access for women in agriculture. It is also important to recognize that gender empowerment should not solely focus on women alone. Gender includes women, men and children. To create real impact and empower women in agriculture it is important that the role of men is acknowledged and that efforts are made to better understand local gender dynamics.
By considering the role of gender in the design, implementation, and evaluation of agricultural innovations, we can deliver concrete benefits to poor rural women and men, girls and boys. Greater attention to gender in agricultural research is expected to contribute to the achievement of all four of the system-level outcomes – reducing rural poverty and improving food security, nutrition, health and sustainable management of natural resources, according to Brooks. Beyond the positive effect on women themselves, there is evidence that removing barriers to women’s contributions will increase productivity, that increasing women’s status improves outcomes for their children and that increasing women’s agency reduces stress on natural resources.

Specifically, eliminating barriers to women’s labor participation in some sectors would reduce the gender productivity gap by one-third to one-half. Equalizing access to agricultural resources could increase yields by 20-30% and reduce the world’s hungry by 1
(www.cgiar.org/consortium-----)
Women play a vital role as agricultural producers and as agents of food and nutritional security. Yet relative to men, they have less access to productive assets such as land and services such as finance and extension. A variety of constraints impinge upon their ability to participate in collective action as members of agricultural cooperative or water user associations. In both centralized and decentralized governance systems, women tend to lack political voice.

Gender inequalities result in less food being grown, less income being earned, and higher levels of poverty and food insecurity. Agriculture in low-income developing countries is a sector with exceptionally high impact in terms of its potential to reduce poverty. Yet for agricultural growth to fulfill this potential, gender disparities must be addressed and effectively reduced.
(www.genderinag.org/content/.........)
Gender based violence
Gender-based violence (GBV) is violence that is directed against a person on the basis of gender. It constitutes a breach of the fundamental right to life, liberty, security, dignity, equality between women and men, non-discrimination and physical and mental integrity.

Gender-based violence reflects and reinforces inequalities between men and women.

Gender-based violence and violence against women are often used interchangeably as most gender-based violence is inflicted by men on women and girls. It is estimated that 20 to 25% of women in Europe have suffered physical violence[1]. The number of women who have suffered from other forms of gender-based violence is much higher.

The Council of Europe defines violence against women as ‘all acts of gender-based violence that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.’[2]

Although it is difficult to distinguish between different types of violence since they are not mutually exclusive, gender-based violence includes: domestic violence, sexual harassment, rape, sexual violence during conflict and harmful customary or traditional practices such as female genital mutilation, forced marriages and honour crimes; [3] trafficking in women, forced prostitution and violations of human rights in armed conflict (in particular murder, systematic rape, sexual slavery and forced pregnancy);[4] forced sterilisation, forced abortion, coercive use of contraceptives, female infanticide and prenatal sex selection.[5]

While the EU does not have a common policy to deal with gender-based violence, it does have a mandate[6] to take action against one of the most severe forms of gender inequality. In fact, gender-based violence cannot be understood outside the social structures, gender norms and roles that support and justify it as normal or tolerable. According to a 2009 Eurobarometer on Gender Equality, 62% of Europeans think that gender-based violence should be a priority action in the area of gender inequality, and 92% believe that there is an urgent need to tackle it.
(www.eige.europa.eu........)
Defining Gender-Based Violence
Gender-based violence (GBV) or violence against women (VAW)?

The programmatic package available on this website uses the term gender-based violence (GBV).

“Gender-based violence (GBV) is the general term used to capture violence that occurs as a result of the normative role expectations associated with each gender, along with the unequal power relationships between the two genders, within the context of a specific society.” (Bloom 2008, p14).

While women, girls, men and boys can be victims of GBV, the main focus of this resource package is on violence against women and girls.

This is not to say that gender-based violence against men does not exist. For instance, men can become targets of physical or verbal attacks for transgressing predominant concepts of masculinity, for example because they have sex with men. Men can also become victims of violence in the family – by partners or children. (Bloom 2008, p14)

However, it has been widely acknowledged that the majority of persons affected by gender-based violence are women and girls, as a result of unequal distribution of power in society between women and men. Further, women and girls victims of violence suffer specific consequences as a result of gender discrimination. As summed up by UNFPA:

“The primary targets of GBV are women and adolescent girls, but not only are they at high risk of GBV, they also suffer exacerbated consequences as compared with what men endure. As a result of gender discrimination and their lower socio-economic status, women have fewer options and less resources at their disposal to avoid or escape abusive situations and to seek justice. They also suffer (…) consequences [on their sexual and reproductive health], including forced and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions and resulting deaths, traumatic fistula, and higher risks of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV.” (UNFPA Strategy and Framework for Action to Addressing GBV, 2008-2011, p. 7)

Definitions of GBV/VAW under international human rights law

For a long time, international human rights law has been silent on the issue of GBV/VAW. This is because until the late 1980s/early 1980s, VAW, in particular domestic violence, was not considered a matter to be dealt with by human rights law. For instance, the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) adopted in 1979 – the major UN women’s rights treaty – does not contain a provision on violence against women. This gap was closed in 1992, when the CEDAW Committee, the body responsible for monitoring the implementation of CEDAW, adoptied General Recommendation No. 19 on VAW (GR 19). In this document the Committee clarifies that GBV against women is a form of discrimination and therefore covered by the scope of CEDAW. GBV is defined as “violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately”, thereby underlining that violence against women is not something occurring to women randomly, but rather an issue affecting them because of their gender. Further, GBV is defined as including “acts that inflict physical, mental or sexual harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion and other deprivations of liberty.” GR 19 also specifies that GBV may constitute a violation or women’s human rights, such as the right to life, the right to equal protection under the law; the right to equality in the family; or the right to the highest standard attainable of physical and mental health. (Source: CEDAW General Recommendation No. 19 on VAW). For more information on CEDAW, please refer to the handout atthe bottom of the page.

The UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women (DEVAW) adoptedby the UN General Assembly in 1993 has been influenced by CEDAW General Recommendation No. 19. It defines VAW as: “Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likley to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.” (Article 1) The declaration encompasses all forms of gender-based violence against women (physical, sexual and psychological), no matter in which context or setting they occur: in the family (such as battery, marital rape; sexual abuse of female children; dowry-related violence; ; female genital mutilation/cutting and other traditional practices harmful to women); in the general community (such as rape, sexual harassment and intimidation at work, in school and elsewhere; trafficking in women; and forced prostitution), and violence perpetrated or condoned by the state, wherever it occurs (Article 2).

Further, DEVAW specifies that violence against women is a manifestation of unequal power relationships between men and women and a violation of women’s human rights (preamble). Article 3 lists examples of these rights, such as the right to life, the right to equality, the right to the highest standard attainable of physical and mental health, or the right not to be subjected to torture, or other inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. (Source: 1993 UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women).

Both, CEDAW GR 19 and DEVAW explicitly encompass violence perpetrated by either, state officials or private persons such as family members, acquaintance or employers. In doing so, they close an important gap under international human rights law which originally excluded from the human rights agenda the so-called private sphere in which many women’s rights violations occur. The Beijing Platform for Action adopted in 1995furtherexpanded on the definition of DEVAW to include: violations of the rights of women in situations of armed conflict, including systematic rape, sexual slavery and forced pregnancy; forced sterilization, forced abortion, coerced or forced use of contraceptives; prenatal sex selection; and, female infanticide. It further recognized the particular vulnerabilities of women belonging to minorities; the elderly and the displaced; indigenous, refugee and migrant communities; women living in impoverished rural or remote areas, or in detention. 1995 Beijing Platform for Action
Gender and power
Since gender entered the development discourse in the Seventies, African countries have increasingly taken the concept on board in policy and practice. As Anyidoho and Manuh (2010) indicate in their analysis of the discourse of women' s rights and empowerment in selected Ghanaian institutions, the concern with gender may be due to either one or a combination of the following factors: the ideological positioning of African countries, demands by their donors and development partners, and demands by organised local groups and NGOs.

Gender in the development discourse ought to transform power relations between men and women and shift them to social relations that reflect their equal access to productive resources, opportunities, and social and material benefits. The result of such actions should be an achievement of comparable status of women and men. Gender equality must be underscored by actions that seek to even out imbalances based on the principle of fairness (equity). Ideologies and attitudes that perpetuate gender inequality should shift in the process. It has been said that there can be no gender equality without gender equity. Depending on the reasons behind the state's acceptance and its operationalisat ion of the gender discourses in development, as well as the balance of power and the political will to initiate change, gender inequalities might shift or stagnate. Gender equality is enshrined in many African constitutions and countries such as South Africa, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nigeria and Kenya but the extent to which the constitutional provisions are adhered to varies'. After at least thirty years since the uptake of gender in development and poverty reduction agendas, some progress has been made in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the buildup of media reports leading to the celebration of International Women's Day on 8th March 2012, an article that was published in the UK newspaper The Independent caught my attention2. It was titled "Revealed: The best and worst places to be a woman." Curious to find out whether African countries were featured in the list, I quickly downloaded the article. Sarah Morrison (2012), the writer, began by stating that according to the World Economic Forum, eighty-five percent of countries have improved conditions for women over the past six years, but in economic and political terms there is still a long way to go.
(www.publication.ossrea........)
Gender and Power Relations- ከላኛዉ የተሻለ አማራጭ By smeads | May 2012
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Gender and power relations continue to be at odds with each other in the post-millennium era. Critically review how we still live in a male dominated society where patriarchal power still holds the ‘key’ to the door (s) and windows of ‘freedom’, self-identity and expression. Critically engage with this statement drawing on key writers in the field of religion, ethnicity and gender relations The most accepted definition for the term patriarchy is the social structure of society based on the father having primary responsibility for the welfare of and authority over their families. Patriarchy does not mean that all men are powerful and women are powerless, but it does indicate that the most powerful roles are held mostly by men. According to Johnson (2005) positions of authority are held by men due to their ability to exert control through threat of violence, any personal attributes and social activities linked to men, are highly regarded in society. Men serve in the highest levels in all areas of society therefore, this is crucial when examining women’s rights of equality and freedom. In patriarchal systems, women are unrepresented or underrepresented in the economic, political, military, educational and criminal justice arenas. Within these patriarchal systems, men decide the extent of freedom afforded to women; she only has the freedom he has willingly given to her. The role of the man is to provide financially and is responsible for the security of the woman and children in traditional patriarchal societies. Men can participate in the public realm through education, business and religious activities whereas, child-bearing and sex has always been the woman’s role (Sharmon, 2011, p. 161). Gender roles define every aspect of life that includes dress, sexual expression and language. Both men and women are strongly attached to the gender roles assigned by society; socialization determines that women look best wearing a dress and men to wear trousers. Addressing...