http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e1/Combotrans.svg

Gender Symbol

Female (left), Male (right).

From symbols for Venus and Mars.

Gender Concept

Gender, in common usage, refers to the differences between men and women.

Encyclopaedia Britannica notes that gender identity is "an individual's self-conception as being male or female, as distinguished from actual biological sex."

Historically, feminism has posited gender roles to be socially constructed, independent of any biological basis.

Many languages have a system of grammatical gender. The word gender in English means kind. In Modern French word genre (type, kind) and the Greek root

gen- (to produce), appearing in gene, genesis and oxygen. As a verb, it means breed in the King James Bible. The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED1,

Volume 4,1900) notes that original meaning of gender as 'kind' is already obsolete.

Gender = masculinity or femininity. The use of gender to refer to masculimity and feminity as types is consided in Modern English from about 14th century.

Gender Concept

Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, used the terms masculine, feminine, and neuter to classify nouns, introducing grammatical gender. Gender became attested more widely in context of grammar than in making sexual distinction.

Gender = sexual stereotype. Over 1970s, feminist movement took the word gender into their own usage to describe their theory of human nature.

Earlier gender was used consistent with English and its derivation of the root.

By the end of the decade, consensus was achieved in both theory and terminology. The theory was that human nature is essentially epicene (stage of loss of gender distinction) and social distinctions based on sex are arbitrarily constructed. Matters pertaining to this theoretical process of social construction were labelled as matters of gender.

Gender Concept Biology of Gender became subject of studies over the late 20th century.

One of the earliest areas of interest was Gender Identity Disorder (GID). The term "gender role" appeared in print first in 1955. The term "gender identity" was used in a press release, November 21,

1966, to announce the new clinic for transsexuals at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. It was disseminated in the media worldwide and soon entered the vernacular (language or dialect).

The definitions of gender and gender identity vary on a doctrinal basis. Popularized and Scientifically debased usages are:

Sex is what you are biologically; Gender is what you become socially; Gender Identity is your own sense or conviction of maleness or

femaleness; and Gender role is the cultural stereotype of what is masculine and feminine. Causality to gender identity disorder might be subdivided into genetic,

prenatal hormonal, postnatal social, and post-pubertal hormonal determinants, etc. There is no comprehensive and detailed theory of causality.

Gender coding in the brain is bipolar. In gender identity disorder, there is discordancy between the natal

(birth) sex of one's external genitalia and the brain coding of one's gender as masculine or feminine.

Gender and Social Categories

Freedom from traditional U.S. female Gender Roles during World War II

Gender and Social Categories John Money termed gender role in 1955: "The term gender role is used to signify all those things that a person

says or does to disclose himself or herself as having the status of boy or man, girl or woman, respectively. It includes, but is not restricted to, sexuality in the sense of eroticism."

Elements of gender role include clothing, speech patterns, movement, occupations and other factors not limited to biological sex.

Social aspects of gender can normally be presumed to be the ones of interest in sociology. So, as closely related disciplines, gender role is often abbreviated to gender in literature, without leading to any ambiguity in that context.

Most societies have only two distinct gender roles — male and female — and these correspond with biological sex.

However, some societies explicitly incorporate people who adopt the gender role opposite to their biological sex, for example the Two Spirit people of some indigenous American peoples.

In sociological terms they comprise a third gender, more or less distinct from biological sex (sometimes the basis for the role does include intersexuality or incorporates eunachs. One such gender role is that adopted by Hizras of India and Pakistan. The Bugis people of Sulawesi, Indonesia have a tradition incorporating all of the features above. Joan Roughgarden argues that in some non-human animal species, there can also be said to be more than two genders, in that there might be multiple templates for behavior available to individual organisms with a given biological sex.

Gender and Social Categories

Dynamics of societies mentioned above prompted debate over the extent to which differences in male and female gender roles are learned socially, or reflect biology.

Social constructionists argued that gender roles are entirely arbitrary, and biological preferences and aptitudes are irrelevant.

Social constructionism essentialists (the view that, for any specific kind of entity, there is a set of characteristics all of which any entity of that kind must have) argued that gender roles are entirely determined by biology, unmodified by social adaptations.

Both are now rare in the peer reviewed literature published by SSSS — Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality).

Contemporary sociological reference to male and female gender roles typically uses masculinities and femininities in the plural rather than singular, suggesting diversity both within cultures as well as across them.

Feminism and Gender Studies

The philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir applied existentialism to women's experience of life: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one.“ In context, this is a philosophical statement, however, it is true biologically — a girl must pass puberty to become a woman — and true sociologically — mature relating in social contexts is learned, not instinctive.

Within feminist theory, terminology for gender issues developed over the 1970s. In the 1974 edition of Masculine/Feminine or Human, the author uses "innate gender" and "learned sex roles",but in the 1978 edition, the use of sex and gender is reversed. By 1980, most feminist writings had agreed on using gender only for socioculturally adapted traits. Trait theory is an approach to personality theory in psychology.

In gender studies the term gender is used to refer to proposed social and cultural constructions of masculinities and femininities. In this context, gender explicitly excludes reference to biological differences, to focus on cultural differences. This emerged from a number of different areas: in sociology during the 1950s; from the theories of the psychoanalyst; and in the work of feminists.

Feminism and Gender Studies

A person's sex as male or female has legal significance — sex is indicated on government documents, and laws provide differently for men and women. Many pension systems have different retirement ages for men or women. Marriage is usually only available to opposite-sex couples.

The question then arises as to what legally determines whether someone is male or female. In most cases this can appear obvious, but the matter is complicated for transgender people.

Different jurisdictions have adopted different answers to this question. Almost all countries permit changes of legal gender status in cases of intersexualism, when the gender assignment made at birth is determined upon further investigation to be biologically inaccurate.

Gneder Assignment, when there are indications that genital sex might not be decisive in a particular case, is normally not defined by a single definition, but by a combination of conditions, including chromosomes and gonads. Thus, for example, in many jurisdictions a person with XY chromosomes but female gonads could be recognised as female at birth.

Gender and Development

Gender, and particularly the role of women is widely recognized as vitally important to internationalm development issues. This often means a focus on gender-equality, ensuring participation, but includes an understanding of the different roles and expectation of the genders within the community.

Directly addressing inequality, attention to gender issues is regarded as important to the success of development programs, for all participants. For example, in microfinance it is common to target women, as besides the fact that women tend to be over-represented in the poorest segments of the population, they are also regarded as more reliable at repaying the loans. Also, it is claimed that women are more likely to use the money for the benefit of their families.

Some organizations working in developing countries and in the development field have incorporated advocacy and empowerment for women into their work.

Gender and God In Taoism, Yin and Yang are considered feminine and masculine, respectively.

In Christianity and Islamism, God is described in masculine terms. In theKabbalh (Jewish mysticism) the Shekhinah represents the feminine

aspect of God's essence.

Gender and God

In Hinduism: One of the several forms of the Hindu God Shiva, is

Ardhanarishwar (literally half-female God). Here Shiva manifests himself so that the left half is Female and the right half is Male. The left represents Shakti (energy, power) in the form of Goddess Parvati (otherwise his consort) and the right half Shiva. Whereas Parvati is the cause of arousal of Kama (desires), Shiva is the killer. Shiva is pervaded by the power of Parvati and Parvati is pervaded by the power of Shiva.

This mythology projects the inherent view in ancient Hinduism, that each human carries within himself both male and female components, which are forces rather than sexes, and it is the harmony between the creative and the annihilative, the strong and the soft, the proactive and the passive, that makes a true person. Such thought, leave alone entail gender equality, in fact, obliterates any material distinction between the male and female altogether.

Gender Approach to Water

Our water is better managed when women and men make decisions together

We can be different AND be equal

United We Stand and Divided We Fall

For Sustainable Water Development, both Men and Women must be Involved in Decision

Making

At All Decision Making Levels and Processes, a Gender Perspective is essential and not Additional

Together We are Stronger

Conceptual Framework

Equity as goal, Gender Ideology as force, Human Resources as part of Agricultural

System and Gender Relations (more or less equal) as

Outcome.

Gender and Water

“Water resources management should be based on a participatory approach. Both men and women should be involved and have an equal voice in managing the sustainable use of water resources and sharing of benefits. The role of women in water related areas needs to be strengthened and their participation broadened.”

Gender and Water

Why Gender and Water relationship is so important in water resources management?

Water and Civilization

Ancient Civilization in Africa and Asia was developed around rivers.

River played the most vital role in the development of all civilizations.

Water and Society was inherently correlated. Water, culture and religion were also interrelated. Destruction of old civilization was also due to inability of

proper water management. In the context of complex inter-sectoral water demand, the

role of society in water management has been felt more intensively than ever before.

Only Engineers are not capable to handle the problems related with water management in the society.

Society is to come forward, where social value, perception, culture, attitude, social knowledge, etc. are the basic indicators, which are to be taken into consideration through social studies or surveys.

WORLD WATER SCARCITY MAP

Water Condition in India India’s Water Economy: Bracing for a Turbulent Future, by John

Briscoe, senior water adviser at the World Bank. India may run out of water by 2020: World Bank. “Unless water management practices are changed — and changed

soon — India will face a severe water crisis within the next two decades,” the report says.

“The implicit philosophy has been aptly described as Build-Neglect-Rebuild. Much of what currently masquerades as ‘investment’ in irrigation or municipal water supply is, in fact, a belated attempt to rehabilitate crumbling infrastructure,” the report says.

Some 90 per cent of India’s territory is drained by inter-state rivers. The lack of clear allocation rules imposes high economic and environmental costs.

Sewage and waste water from rapidly growing cities have turned many rivers into smelly sewers. Climate change projections show that India’s water problems are only likely to worsen.

Urgent Actions Needed India’s dams can store only 200 cubic metres of water per person.

Other middle-income countries like China, South Africa, and Mexico can store up to 1000

New infrastructure needs to be built, especially in underserved areas such as the water-rich Northeast

India has used only about 20 per cent of its hydropower potential, as compared to 80 per cent in developed countries

Water Activities in India and Effects in Bangladesh

Farakka Barrage, Ecological Hazards and International Dispute

Indian River Linking Project and Ecological Disasters in Bangladesh

Tipaimukh Barrage and Disaster in North-Eastern Region of Bangladesh

Water Interventions in international rivers from India to Bangladesh

Any kind of water related activities in the upper riparian country is to impact on the lower riparian country.

Environmental hazards, ecological hazards are to lead to social hazards and instabilize the society as a whole.

BANGLADESH AND RIVER SYSTEM

Aral Sea in the Central Asia

The Aral Sea after

Cross-Cutting Water Thematic Issues

Key messages for Gender Inclusions are:1. Women’s substantial contribution to agriculture needs to be

recognized and consequently rights to land, water and services to be granted.

2. Women’s knowledge needs to be tapped for more efficient, effective and sustainable NRM management.

3. For high water productivity, sustainability and poverty reduction policies should be supportive to small mix farming systems with integrated management of water resources.

4. The future investment in terms of money, energy and time should be in institutional development, capacity building, policy strengthening and stakeholders accountability rather than water infrastructure.

5. Water management in agriculture needs to take women’s and men’s interest in domestic water use into account, therefore an Integrated Water Resource Management approach is preferred.

6. All data regarding agriculture and water use need to be collected in a gender segregated way.

Water Sectors and Gender

1. Rainwater management in Agriculture2. Irrigation3. Groundwater 4. Fish 5. Rice & Vegetables 6. River Basin7. Water Productivity 8. Ecosystems 9. Livestock 10. Water Supply & Sanitation11. Poverty12. Policy and institution 13. Climate Change, Health and Gender meet

Most of the literature on gender and water highlight the hardship and concerns of women in water management in access, control, and use of water resources, as well as the ways that water affects lives, health, and well-being of men and women.

Approaches in 1990s were largely to promote a package of tubewell installation, latrine provision, and hygiene education in order to address the water and sanitation (watsan) goals of development. Such programs targeted women, due to their roles in household hygiene and water provision tasks.

There is less involvement of women in the stages water management involving design/conceptualization, technology choices, location, and formation of institutions. Women are generally seen as rational users of water, who will benefit from whatever water options are made available.

In studying gender-water relations, it is important to look at who does what with which type/source of water and why, where, and what such relations mean for broader social relations. Women’s interests in water management are generally linked to livelihoods concerns (both material and symbolic) and not some natural affinity to water.

There is the danger of tokenism in the ‘gender component’ of many water projects without real attention to gender relations in context.

Mark Distribution on Gender and Water

1. Class Attendance 10

2. Class Test 15

3. Class Performance/Presentation 10

4. Mid Term Exam 25

5. Final Exam 40