GENDER INEQUALITIES CAN AND MUST BE CHANGED!

Ramjuttun Pranjeewan reminds us that we are social beings who can change gender relations.

For a long time it was believed that the different characteristics women and men exhibited were natural, unchangeable, and were determined by biological differences. These characteristics included both ideas and values of what was masculine and what was feminine and sets of behaviours, attitudes and practices.

However, it is now widely accepted that rather than being pre-determined or natural, these different characteristics of women and men have been shaped and informed by society. This means that the conditions of men and women’s daily lives and their societies are embedded in social, cultural, political and economic frameworks and institutions.

Socially constructed

We use the term ‘gender’ to refer to the socially constructed distinctions between male and female. Thus, although people are born biologically male or female they have to acquire a gender identity. So, although there are biological differences such as men’s and women’s different roles in biological reproduction, the fact that in many societies, for example, women are responsible for domestic work does not mean that men cannot biologically and physically carry out this work. Instead, it is society that has determined that domestic work is ‘women’s responsibility’. So at the analytical level, to use the concept of gender involves operating within a social rather than a biological framework.

Because the differences between men and women are socially determined it means that the relations between men and women and the inequalities that they express, can change. Using the social construction of gender as a cornerstone, we know that relations between men and women can be changed and that specific development strategies can promote and support that change.

Our main aim should be to support and promote changes in unequal gender relations so that men and women can equally benefit from the processes of change.

Pranjeewan works for the Sugar Plantation Workers’ Union in Mauritius