Rediscovering Gender - Micah Network · Rediscovering Gender through the Lens of God’s ... speak...

Rediscovering Gender

through the Lens of God’s

Image

Elnora B. Avarientos

“Oh, God, I beg you,

I touch your feet time and again,

Next birth don’t give me daughter,

Give me Hell instead….”

Folk Song From Uttar Pradesh

(From: Because I am a Girl, The State of the World‟s Girls 2007, Plan)

Cultural Context

Gender does not simply mean

male or female.

It refers to the different roles that

society assigns to women and men.

different roles

Cultural Context

To get to the bottom of the issue of gender,

we must:

• understand and address the inequalities

that arise from the different roles of women and

men,

• the unequal power relations between

them;

• the consequences in people‟s lives, and

well-being.

inequalities

unequal power relations

consequences

Cultural Context

Gender inequality is

pervasive and it

begins before a girl

child is ever born.

Cultural Context

In many cultures, being born

a girl leads to being killed in the

womb or upon birth, being

deprived of nutritious food,

education, and the opportunity to

develop her God given potentials

to earn and to participate in

decision making.

Cultural Context

There are an estimated

100 million missing girls

because of the practice of

female foeticide. Millions of

girls and women suffer from

violence due to abuse, rape

and effects of war.

.

Five binds ensnaring women that continue

to shape contemporary culture by Kathleen Hall Jamieson in “Beyond the Double Bind”

• Women can exercise their wombs or their brains, but not both.

• Women who speak out are immodest and will be shamed, while women who are silent will be ignored or dismissed.

• Women are subordinate whether they claim to be different from men or the same.

• Women who are considered feminine will be judged incompetent, and women who are competent, unfeminine.

• As men age, they gain wisdom and power; as women age, they wrinkle and become superfluous.

Millennium Development Goals

Millennium Development Goal 3

Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women

“With implementation lagging,

progress is lagging…”

•it is still a woman‟s face we see when we

speak of poverty, of violent conflict and social

upheaval, of trafficking in human beings, and

increasingly a young woman‟s face when we

speak about HIV and AIDS.

Ms. Noeleen Heyzer, the Executive Director of UNIFEM

Targets

1. ½ between 1990 and

2015 the proportion of

people living on less that

$1 per day

2. ½ between 1990 and

2015 proportion of people

suffering from hunger

Goal 1

Eradication of extreme poverty

and hunger

Gender Gaps To Date

70% of those living on less

than $1 a day are female.

Girls and young women are

not fulfilling their potential &

this is impacting on the

world’s poorest economies

in particular. An extra year

of education can boost a

girl’s eventual wages by

between 10 and 20 percent.

Targets

3. Ensure that by 2015,

children everywhere,

boys and girls alike, will

be able to complete a full

course of primary

schooling

Goal 2

Achieve universal primary

education

Gender Gaps To Date

This target will not be

reached if initiatives that

encourage girls to remain in

school are not implemented.

62 million girls are out of

school.

Targets

4. Eliminate gender disparity

in primary and secondary

education preferably by

2005 and to all levels of

education no later than

2015

Goal 3

Promote gender equality and

empower women

Gender Gaps To Date

In Asia, at least 60 million

girls are missing from the

population;

96 million women aged 15-

24 can not read or write;

In Sub-Saharan Africa, two-

thirds of newly infected

youth aged are girls and

females;

Targets






2015

Goal 3


empower women

Gender Gaps To Date

82 million girls in developing

countries who are aged 10-

17 will be married before

their 18th birthday. In India

and Nepal more than 50%

of the girls between these

ages marry before the reach

18 years old;

Targets






2015

Goal 3


empower women

Gender Gaps To Date

Worldwide, some 14 million

girls between ages 15-19

both married and unmarried

give birth each year.

Pregnancy is a leading

cause of death for young

women at this age;

In most Asian countries,

only 45% of girls are in

secondary schools.

Targets

5. Reduce by two-thirds,

between 1990 and 2015,

the under-five mortality

rate

Goal 4

Reduce child mortality

Gender Gaps To Date

Despite girls’ natural resilience

at birth, more girls than boys

die before the age of five in

many parts of the world. An

important factor here is that

the preference of boys is a

major concern in the two most

populous countries on earth,

and these countries are in Asia

– China and India.

Targets

6. Reduce by three-

quarters, between 1990

and 2015, the maternal

mortality ratio

Goal 5

Improve maternal health

Gender Gaps To Date

Complication from

pregnancy and childbirth are

the leading cause of death

among young women aged

15 to 19 in the developing

world.

7. Have halted by 2015, and

begun to reverse, the

spread of HIV/AIDS

8. Have halted by 2015, and

begun to reverse, the

incidence of malaria and

other major diseases

Goal 6

Combat HIV/AIDs, malaria

and other diseases

Gender Gaps To Date

Young women have less

knowledge than young men on

HIV in the first place.

Reversing the spread of AIDS

is dependent on reducing the

infection rates of young

women and tackling the

gendered behaviour which

determines women’s lack of

choice in decision about sex.

Actions to Promote Gender

– Women’s participation promoted in national

Poverty Reduction Strategies

– Actions taken to promote greater involvement

by women in public life

– Wider use made of sex-disaggregated data for

planning, monitoring and impact assessment

– Gender budget initiatives used to inform public

policy and allocation of resources

– Reforms of legal systems and land and

inheritance laws favoring greater security and

protection for women

(From: Leaflet as a result of a collaborative effort by UNDP, UNIFEM, UNFPA, The World Bank and the OECD/DAC Network on Gender Equality)

Actions to Promote Gender

(From: Leaflet as a result of a collaborative effort by UNDP, UNIFEM, UNFPA, The World Bank and the OECD/DAC Network on Gender Equality)

– Legal and social programs, including for sexual and reproduction health rights, give women and girls greater protection from violence and sexual harassment

– Promotion of social change supporting greater autonomy for women and more equitable sharing of burdens in the domestic economy

– Needs and rights of girls and women given greater priority in reforming and improving public services

– Girls and women enabled to gain greater access to technical training and information and communication technologies.

Gender as a Gift from God

Self Reflection:

Do these actions really address the

issue that is before us?

What guarantee do we have, that in the

next five years or so, the issues that

are before us today would have been

minimized and that real progress would

have been achieved?


“The starting point of the Christian view of transformational development is the

Gospel

It is our reflection about reality from the Bible: the relation of God to the world, creation, humanity, history, future, all open up challenges to human action particularly Christian action.”

Dr. Vinay K. Samuel in his article, “Transforming Cultures: A Gospel Agenda”


“Any Christian response to human need, poverty and

suffering must arise from the Gospel of our Lord

Jesus Christ and must be thoroughly shaped from the

whole world view of the Gospel narrative…..

God‟s grand design of creation in Genesis creates an

order – a moral order and social order in which

humans fulfill the responsibility of stewardship of all

creation..” including relationship between men

and women

Dr. Vinay K. Samuel in his article, “Transforming Cultures: A Gospel Agenda”


God‟s created order destroyed by the Fall was redeemed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:13 and 28


If we look at Gender from the

vantage view of male and female

completing the image of God, then

gender can be viewed as a gift . that helps us know and .

understand deeper who God is .

and His character and His .

relationships with His people.


“Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the cradle and last at the cross. A prophet and teacher who ……

• never nagged at them

• never flattered or coaxed or patronized

• never made arch jokes about them

• never treated them as „The women, God help us!‟ or „The ladies, God bless them!‟

• rebuked without querulousness

• praised without condescension

• who took their questions and arguments seriously

Dorothy Sayers said of Jesus‟ high regard for women


A prophet and teacher who…

• never mapped out their sphere for them

• never urged them to be feminine or jeered

at them for being female

• had no axe to grind and no uneasy male

dignity to defend

•took them as he found them and was

completely unselfconscious.

Dorothy Sayers said of Jesus‟ high regard for women

Our Christian Response

Reflection

Why must we as a Christian

community be genuinely

concerned about gender equality

and the empowerment of women

and girls?


1. We need to deal with the cultural constructs

of our various context.

2. Refute strongly-yet sensitively those cultural

biases that devalue a girl child and a woman

as an invisible part of society

3. Recognize and optimize the unique gifts

women and men bring to the body of Christ

4. Affirm our commitment to participate in the

building of God‟s Kingdom on earth by

translating our convictions into visible

programs of action.

What then is our Christian Response to the Issue of Gender?


UN Millennium Development Goals…

1. Ensuring postprimary education for girls

and young women.


former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has repeatedly said,

“Study after study has taught us that there is no tool

for development more effective than the education

of girls and the empowerment of women.”

For us in World Vision, we see to it that all our sponsored

children, without any gender bias, get at least secondary

education.


UN Millennium Development Goals…:

2. Guaranteeing sexual and reproductive

health and rights.


Christian churches and NGOs can advocate for the

improvement of health systems and facilities. For one, the

church can use its moral ascendancy to change traditional

gender norms and practices as well as deeply entrenched

attitudes and behaviors related to gender roles and

women’s status.



3. Ensuring equal rights.


The church should lead in campaigns to abolish

discriminatory laws and practices relating to women and

girls. Where laws protecting them already exist, the church

should advocate for their enforcement.

Christian communities must be able to create models of

gender equality in our homes.



4. Improving employment opportunities and

working conditions, especially for poor

women.


We should advocate for passage of laws that guarantee

equal employment opportunities for women. We

should, likewise, work for repel of laws that

discriminate against women.

The Christian community should support the creation of

and support family friendly policies i.e. paternity leave



5. Combating all forms of violence against

women and girls.


The Christian church should be at the frontline of fighting

all forms of violence against women and girls.

• create safe places for women

•Hotlines

•organizing neighborhood watch groups



6. Improving women’s representation in

political bodies, especially at the local

level.


The church should actively participate in political exercise

to ensure election of women and pro-women candidates.

Ensures that women occupy leadership positions in the

church.

At the local or community level, churches, church-based

institutions and Christian non-government organizations

can establish alliances to champion the participation of

girls and young women in policy and decision-making.

Conclusion

We need to affirm and celebrate the gift of Gender.

Female + Male = Image of God

or vice versa

Male+ Female = Image of God.


Gender is an amazing gift

(Jean Bearden and Lorie Schleck, Affirming And Celebrating The Gift of Gender)

Conclusion



or vice versa



As a Christian Community our framework for

analysis, the direction for our strategy and

action to transform cultures must be rooted

and founded by the Gospel Agenda – God‟s

purpose for creation.

Conclusion



or vice versa



As God‟s image bearers, we are the light of this

world. Matthew 5:16 issued us this call to action,

“Let your light shine before men, that

they may see your good deeds and

praise your father in heaven.”

Conclusion

Dr. Melba Maggay said it aptly in her book Transforming Society,

“We bear witness, not only by what

we do, but more by what we are, a

redeemed people whose personal

sanctity and corporate dealings

reflect God‟s own concern for

justice and righteousness in the

world.”

God bless you!

Rediscovering Gender - Micah Network · Rediscovering Gender through the Lens of God’s ... speak...

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