-254000-228600PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MAYNILA
College of Education
Professional Education
REACTION PAPER
On
Gender and Development
Gender and Development (GAD) refers to the development perspective and process that is participatory and empowering, equitable, sustainable, free from violence, respectful of human rights, supportive of self-determination and actualization of human potentials. It seeks to achieve gender equality as a fundamental value that should be reflected in development choices and contend that women are active agents of development, not just passive recipients of development.
Gender equality gives women and men the same entitlements to all aspects of human development, including economic, social cultural, civil and political rights, the same level of respect, the same opportunities to make choices, and the same level of power to shape the outcomes of these choices. And coming from a research, around the world has shown that gender inequality tends to slow economic growth and make the rise from poverty more difficult. And research also shows that women and girls tend to work harder than men. And also Women’s empowerment is particularly important for determining a country’s demographic trends which affects its economic success and environmental sustainability.
In our country there is an issue about gender inequality. Wherein the talk about gender has really been prominent worldwide and as it thrives in a newer environment through time, many concerns have been discussed it its different aspects. The advent of cases involving gender harassment and other violations have been widespread throughout the country through media influences and other factors. All the way through, the obvious uprising of advocacies upholding the rights of one’s gender, for example, feminist groups and LGBT advocacy have been really evident and are mostly considered as important matters in society. Along with these issues are contradictory notes regarding gender empowerment and equality. Gender, inequality, for instance, has been a very sensitive issue in society which is frequently talked about.
In Philippine history, our country approach towards feminism was not evident until the 1900’s just after the colonization of Spain. The Philippines as we know of, has different periods, the pre –Hispanic period, before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Spanish period, the American period, the Japanese occupation, and contemporary period, what we refer to as the free democratic Philippines. Different views about gender have been prominent in each period, due to the influence of cultural, political, emotional, and other aspects. Feminism groups here in the Philippines have based the different changes in sociological views towards women in its historical dimensions.
Through history, is an evident that there is a clear distinction in the notions of diverse people in different eras towards gender, specifically women. For example, as discussed in our history, the Pre- Hispanic era was a period where women enjoyed just as much equal rights as the men, the Spanish period however, many women were deprived of their rights while men, on the other hand, were given enough privileges in so many things. The situation continually change with the arrival of the Americans, being a democratic country they influenced the Philippines in such a manner of liberation. Liberal ideas and attitudes affected manners, dress and thinking about women especially in the urban areas (Gender in Historical Perspective)”. And also for the mark of the Japanese came and women were sexually abuse. There is a turning point nowadays, women are much liberated and fight for their rights rather than staying silent. At this point, led to the idea that women should, like men, be imparted with equal rights of education, which was absent during the early and mid-years of Spanish colonization. Education is a right rather than a privilege, women deserve to be educated so as to develop their mental capacity, leading to much bigger job opportunities and positions in society. Nowadays, education is a free public right for people of all genders.
Gender stereotyping is defined as the belief humans holds about the characteristics associated with males and females. As related to this discussion, in early gender socialization is one of the most related issues in early childhood, affecting both and girls. The foundations for stereotypes in gender roles are laid through early gender socialization. Right from beginning, boys and girls are treated differently by different member of their own environment. They even learn the differences between boys and girls, women and men. At an early age, I was exposed to an environment where gender is varied. As an innocent young girl, I have no idea on how differences between boys and girls are identified. I can still recall how I would say that girls have long hairs or can play dolls while boys have short hairs or can play toy cars, simple as that, no more questions and back to playing. The innocence of a child results to its young mind, being easily influenced by people he/she is usually with.
For instance, in my case, my family has been one source of my socialization during childhood. As an eldest girl child, my parents usually buy me dolls. For an innocent girl, I would be questioning why I have those dolls while my brothers have toy cars. And then they would answer, because I am a boy. The household ahs an extremely great influence, in a child, identifying his/her gender. Second is my personal gender socialization is society itself. I would be hand-picking my friends, well normally, a girl would have also boy peers. Friends would say are asked not to be demanding, to be forgiving and accommodating and “ladylike”. Boys on the other hand are told not to cry, not to fear, not to be forgiving and instead to be assertive, and strong. These early exposure to gender roles and expectations have large scale effects, especially to me, as a child. And now, I can identify my gender as ladylike due to these influences in my childhood.
