5. GENDER

Meaning of Gender

Gender refers to the social relationship in terms of roles and responsibilities between male and female in the societies. In this context, gender involves the roles and responsibilities, behaviors that are performed by both male and female in our communities. There is difference between Gender and sex

Gender involves the social relation between male and female in the society in terms of role and responsibilities

Sex refers to the biological differences between male and female in the societies in terms of structures and body organs that differentiate them, for example reproductive organs of male and female are different also reproductive roles between male and female are different

Gender Related Concepts

There are various concepts which are used in relation to the concepts of gender. It is important to know how they interrelate or differ in the whole process of dealing with gender issues. These concepts are

i. Gender Equality. This is the exercise of fairness and justice to all sexes without discrimination or considering whether one is born male or female. It is based on the beliefs that all people are equal and should therefore have equal access to opportunities and resources. It is practiced in giving equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities to both male and female

ii. Gender Equity. This is the principle based on the measures to be taken to bridge the gap between men and women. This involves giving priority to women in order to reduce imbalance that already exists. For example empowering more women, special seat in the parliament or recruit more girls in science subjects

iii. Gender Stereotype. This is the assignment of tasks and duties to a particular gender. To stereotype is to have fixed ideas about a community, group or person, but which is usually not true in reality. In this context, the society grades activities according to sex and it based on capable of doing a particular task. For example some people believe that boys are more capable in science subjects than girls.

iv. Gender Roles. Gender roles refer to the adult duties of a particular sex as determined by a society. Those roles have been based on the division of labour according to sex. Gender roles can be divided into reproductive roles that include child-bearing and productive roles such as domestic related tasks and other economic activities.

v. Gender Discrimination. This is the situation where one sex (male or female) is treated either better or worse than other. In this context, there are beliefs and obstacles that hinder a certain gender to be accepted to perform a certain activity. For example some people do not believe that girls should go to school, instead they are prepared for marriage at their tender age. They are even forced to be married to husbands without true love.

vi. Gender Analysis. This is the systematic effort to identify and understand the role of women and men within a given society. It involves the collection of gender specific information and data from the community. This analysis is first step towards making the gender sensitive planning needed for promoting gender equality in the society.

vii. Gender Bias. This the positive or negative attitude practiced either to men or women with the specific purpose.

viii. Gender Mainstreaming. This is the taking into consideration gender issues in the development activities at all levels. For example in making laws, policies and programs. It help men and women to benefit equally from development projects.

ix. Gender Balance. This is the ensuring that, men and women participate equally at their work places.

x. Gender Blindness. This is inability to know that, there are different gender roles, gender responsibility and gender based hierarchy. This lead to the failure to realize that policies, programs and project can have different impacts on men and women

GENDER ISSUES IN THE SOCIETY

Gender issues are all ideas that rise for discussion because there is inequality between the two sexes (male and female) in the society. The following are some of the gender issues in the society

i. Sexual harassment such as verbal harassment

ii. Unequal distribution of domestic or economic tasks

iii. Male dominance in the family or community

iv. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)

v. Inequality between male and female in terms of welfare, participation and control

vi. Inheritance of the widow

vii. Payment of bride price

viii. Violence against women especially in the family levels

ix. Women are regarded as the sexual object

x. Early and forced marriages

NEGATIVE SOCIO-CULTURAL PRACTICES

Culture refers to the totality ways of people's life in a given society. It include customs, beliefs, language, arts and social organizations of a particular group of people. In many of the African societies, there are some negative socio-cultural practices that hinder equal participation between men and women. These are;

i. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Female Genital Mutilation is a collective name which means the partial or total removal of the clitoris in the female reproductive organ (vagina). Female Genital Mutilation is a violation of basic human rights. This is practiced by some societies in Mara, Manyara, Dodoma and Morogoro regions. In Dodoma for example, 12613 out of 16789 (75%) of women who went for delivery between 1998-2000 were mutilated.

Reasons for FGM

i.To control women's sexuality or sexual desire. Societies who practiced FGM know that, biologically, there are some organs of woman body which are very sensitive during sexual intercourse. One of them is clitoris. So to prevent a girls from developing interesting in sexuality, they are mutilated (cut off clitoris).

ii.Promote the young girls to adult hood. FGM goes with initiation of ceremonies that promote young girls to women hood. So it considered as a prestige and a sign of maturity among girls

iii.Beliefs of preserving the traditional culture. Some societies believe that, female genital mutilation is one among of the important African traditional culture that the societies must practice it in order to preserve their culture. So people from outside the community should not question or stop it.

iv.Beliefs of improve women fertility. Some societies believe that, female genital mutilation develop women fertility and improves a woman's ability to endure the pain during delivery.

v.Beliefs of making a girl clean. Some societies practiced female genital mutilation because they believe that the young girls will be clean all the time because due to FGM, the girls could develop the sense of adult hood.

Effects of FGM

i.Marital conflicts due to sexual dissatisfaction. This can result from two reasons, one, some men dislike the women who are mutilated. Second, circumcised women do not enjoy the sexual activity, thus they lack sexual satisfaction, so they dislike sexuality altogether.

ii.Can lead to death. FGM can cause the death to the circumcised women and girls due to the prolonged bleeding during and after mutilation

iii.Disturbance of the natural vaginal elasticity during delivery. Female genital mutilation disturb the vagina elasticity due to the scar left after the mutilation

iv.Spread of HIV/AIDS. Female genital mutilation can lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS because FGM is practiced under unsafe condition. Sometimes, a single knife is used to circumcise several girls.

v.Circumcised women can develop feeling of anxiety and depression. Women who are mutilated develop a feeling of anxiety and depression due to the deformation of their genitalia or due to the pain they feel during circumcision.

ii. Inheritance of widow or wife inheritance. . This is the process of taking one's wife after the death of her husband this process has been discouraged in many societies in order to avoid the rate of transmission of HIV/AIDS.

Reasons for wife inheritance

i.Beliefs of promoting and protection culture. Some societies in Tanzania believe that, inheriting the widow is one among of the way of promoting and protecting their traditional culture

ii.Management and retention of family wealth. Some societies in Tanzania practicing this traditional culture as the way of preserving the wealth of a family after the death of a husband. They believe that, brother of deceased husband is a right person to take care on the family of his brother

iii.Continuation of clan bloodline. Some societies practice wife inheritance in order to continue the clan bloodline and family lineage after the death of a husband

iv.Comforting a widow from loneliness. Inheritance of wife in some societies in Tanzania is practiced in order to bring comfortably to a widow and free from loneliness.

v.Continuation of the bond between the families. Some societies in Tanzania inherit the widow in order to make the continuation of the bond between the families of the widow and deceased husband

Effects of FGM

i.Wife inheritance lead to the spread of HIV/AIDS. This is because, may be a husband dead with HIV/AIDS, and a widows may be victims, so a person who inherits a widow will be affected. So the government put efforts to abolish wife inheritance in order to avoid the rate of transmission of HIV/AIDS.

ii.Wife inheritance leads to the violation of human rights. Sometimes, inheritance of a widow is termed as violation of human rights because it has turned women as a sexual object or leisure. A woman is to be there only to satisfy a man who inherits her.

iii.Wife inheritance leads to the psychological problem to a widow. Sometimes, inheritance of a widow may lead to the psychological problem to a widow because she was forced to be married with a man without her willing.

iv.Wife inheritance may cause family conflicts. Inheritance of a widow may cause family conflicts between the inherited wife and husband's family, especially in the inhering the wealth left behind by deceased husband

v.Wife inheritance may lead to the increase street children. Sometimes inheritance of a widow may lead to the street children. This is because, the children of deceased husband may lack good parental care from a man who inherit their mother.

iii. Early marriages. Early marriages are those marriages in which a person who gets married he or she does not reach the proper age of getting married. Normally, in Tanzania the suggested right age for marriage is 18 years and above. Early marriages are not required because they can lead to the increase of girls drop out from school as they get married at a tender age. This can lead to the increase in the number of people who do not know how to read and write.

i.Payment of bride price. Bride price is a gift receives the parents of a girl in terms of money, livestock or land. This convinces parents to be greedy hence force their daughters to marry in immaturity age.

ii.Maltreating the girls who live within the families. This may encourage Early marriages because the girls who are maltreated may not able to tolerate such treatment hence decided to get marriage to leave the family.

iii.Gender discrimination in education. Some educating boys rather than girls and some parents believe that, educating girls is wastage of resources. The parents forced their girls to drop out from school in favor of their brothers. After leaving school, the next step for girls is usually marriages.

iv.Tradition initiation. Traditional practices such as "unyago" prepare the girls for marriage because it taught the girls how to take care of a marriage at early age. This makes them to know that they are grown up hence married at immaturity age.

v.Inheritance of the properties. In some societies do not allow a boy to inherit a property if he is not married. This encourages some boys to enter into early marriages as a condition of inheriting the property.

vi.Ignorance of some parents. Some parents marry off their young daughters because they do not know the dangers of earl marriage that may encounter their young daughters.

vii.The beliefs of living the descent life. The belief of married early lead to the living the descent life. Some society believe that if a young will late to get married will involved into prostitution.

Problems Associated with Early Marriages

i.Complication during delivery. This is because, the reproductive organ of the young girl is not matured for bearing the baby. This lead to the destruction of the girl's body.

ii.Increase of poverty. This is because the couple are young and do not able to have reliable means of getting income which become difficult for caring their children

iii.Spread of HIV/AIDS. This is due to the fact that, the young are not able to make good decisions on marital issues like going to check up for their health in turn lead to acquire diseases like AIDS.

iv.Break down families. This is because, the couple are young and do not have experience, knowledge and tolerance of rearing the children and handling the family problems. This lead to the separation of the family.

v.Increase of illiterate people. This is because early marriages prevent the girls to continue with their education since they were forced to get married earlier. In some societies the young girls are forcefully removed from school to be married off.

vi.It accelerates unplanned pregnancy. This is due to the fact that, the girls are not well educated about family planning therefore a couple will have the big number of children in their family.

Solutions / Prevention of Early Marriages

i.Public education must be provided. Provision of education about the danger of early marriage to both young boys and girls

ii.To stop negative cultural practices. Abandon negative cultural practices that encourage the early marriages like female genital mutilation and inheritance

iii.To enact the laws that defends the girls. Enacting the laws that will prevent the existence of early marriages

iv.Effective implementation of poverty alleviation strategies. Poverty alleviation strategies must be effectively strengthened that will help to prevent economic hardship to the parents

v.Provision of education opportunities to the girls. Increasing formal education opportunity to the girls and give them first priority in all aspects of life

vi. Cruelty or violence against women. This is the situation which involves oppression and humiliation against women. This is because men have the power in the community, so they can do whatever they want against women. Domestic violence such as wife beating is common in many societies in Tanzania

v. Excluding women from decision making in social, political and economic matters as well as in a family level.

vi. Dowry payment of bride price. Some people considered that, payment of dowry is like buying of that girl or woman, thus the women were put under the control of men.

vii. Food taboos. Food taboos affect reproductive health to a woman because some societies deny women to eat certain kind of food such as fish and eggs. This may cause poor nutrition to a woman which lead to a poor health.

Corrective Measures t against Negative Socio-cultural Practices

i.Provision of mass education. To educate the people through various mass media on the negative impacts of the negative socio-cultural practices, this will help them to take the necessary measures to avoid those bad traditional culture.

ii.Empowering women Organization. Some of the organization that defend the rights of women like TAMWA. TGNP, WAMA and TAWLA must be encouraged and protected in the country because they help to defend the rights of the women.

iii.Enacting the laws to defend the women. The government should take the legal actions to those who entertain negative aspects of our cultural values that affect the women status in a community

iv. Prohibiting those harmful cultural practices. The government should take necessary action to prohibit those harmful cultural practices that affects the right of the women in Tanzania such as early marriages, FGM, wife inheritance etc.

v. Provision of reproductive education. The reproductive education should be offered to both girls and boys so that they can know on how to take care of their reproduction system by avoiding those bad cultural practices that affect their reproductive health.

Women Empowerment

Women empowerment refers to the initiatives taken by the government or organizations to promote the role of women in Tanzania to engage themselves in political and socio-economic affairs. Women in Tanzania are regarded inferior to men in all aspects of life.

Ways of women empowerment

i. Improving and increasing education opportunities to women. There must be the increase the educational opportunities to the girls. If the women get education development will be achieved

ii. Improving access to the resources. There must be improving equal access to women such as land and other properties in order to encourage women to liberate themselves economically

iii. To allow women to establish various social organizations. The women must be allowed to establish various social organizations that will deal with the liberation of women in the country.

iv. Enact strict laws against negative cultural practices. The government should commit itself to the prohibition of all cultural practices and customs that oppress women

v. To ensure equal access to women in national affairs. The government has to ensure that, women receive equal opportunities as men in all social, political and economic issues within and outside country

QUESTIONS

1. What do you understand by following terms?

a. Gender b. Sex c. Female Genital Mutilation d. Early Marriages e. wife inheritance

2. In five points, argue against the statement that "female genital mutilation is important"

3. "Some girls and women in Tanzania are the victim and were affected with Female Genital Mutilation." As civics experts, assess five driving forces that lead to this cultural practice

4. "Some societies in Tanzania pressurize the widow inheritance after the death of her husband." This statement was said by chairperson of LHRC when he homiletic the congress of women in Nkrumah Hall at University of Dar es Salaam. As one among of the member who attended the congress, provide five driving factors for the practice of this traditional culture in Tanzania

5. If you have given the chance to explain the reasons that, why there are many efforts which are put forward to abolish the traditional culture of wife inheritance to some societies in Tanzania, which five points you will explain?

6. Consider yourself as an expert from Tanzania Gender Network Program (TGNP), explain to the community five cultural practices that should be prohibited in Tanzanian societies