Gender-related Development Index

Examples of Gender-related Development Index in the following topics:

• Gender

  • In a given society, sexual beliefs, values, and attitudes reflect the accepted norms of that society, and individual feelings and opinions are largely bypassed in the assignment of gender and gender roles.
  • Gender-related intersections and the crossing of defined gender boundaries are generally unaccounted for in socially constructed notions of gender.
  • Gender, and especially the role of women, is generally regarded as critical to international development.
  • Development efforts therefore address issues of gender equality and emphasize the participation of women; they also incorporate an understanding of the different gender-based roles and expectations within a particular community.
  • The Gender-related Development Index (GDI), developed by the United Nations (UN), aims to illuminate the inequalities between men and women in the following areas: health and length of life, knowledge, and standard of living.

• Gender and Health

  • Researchers also find health disparities based on gender stratification.
  • Gender, and particularly the role of women, is widely recognized as vitally important to international development issues.
  • This often means a focus on gender-equality, ensuring participation, but includes an understanding of the different roles and expectations of the genders within the community.
  • The Gender-related Development Index (GDI), developed by the United Nations, aims to show the inequalities between men and women in the following areas: long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living.
  • Examine the role gender plays in health care services, particularly for women

• Education and Liberty in the Developing World

  • There is currently a gender discrepancy in education.
  • A lack of access to education is one of the primary limits on human development and is closely related to every one of the other sectors.
  • Gender contributes to a child's lack of access and attendance to education.
  • Currently, there is a gender discrepancy in education.
  • Countries fall into three broad categories based on their Education Index: high, medium, and low human development.

• The Social Construction of Gender

  • Social constructivists propose that there is no inherent truth to gender; it is constructed by social expectations and gender performance.
  • Gender is never a stable descriptor of an individual, but an individual is always "doing" gender, performing or deviating from the socially accepted performance of gender stereotypes.
  • Gender is maintained as a category through socially constructed displays of gender.
  • Social constructionists might argue that because categories are only formed within a social context, even the affect of gender is in some ways a social relation.
  • Social constructionists would say that gender is interactional rather than individual—it is developed through social interactions.

• Gender Socialization

  • Gender socialization is the process of teaching people how to behave as men or women.
  • In regards to gender socialization, the most common groups people join are the gender categories male and female.
  • Even the categorical options of gender an individual may choose is socialized; social norms act against selecting a gender that is neither male or female.
  • This clearly demonstrates the influence of socialization on the development of gender roles; subtle cues that surround us in our everyday lives strongly influence gender socialization.
  • Analyze how the process of gender socialization has an impact on the lifespan development of a person, specifically related to stereotypes between men and women

• Gender and Research

  • Sociological research will study such things as social stratification between genders, the socialization of gender, influences of sexism on educational performance, gender and mass media, inequality in the workplace, gender roles and social norms , and other gender-related topics and social phenomena.
  • Social theorists have sought to determine the specific nature of gender in relation to biological sex and sexuality.
  • This led to the development of a two-dimensional gender identity model, in which masculinity and femininity were conceptualized as two separate, orthogonal dimensions, coexisting in varying degrees within an individual.
  • Other conceptions of gender influenced by queer theory see gender as multidimensional, fluid and shifting; something that cannot be plotted linearly at all.
  • It is important to note that, though sex and gender are terms often used interchangeably, they are actually very different (though sometimes related) concepts.

• Defining Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

  • But have you ever been asked to provide your sex and your gender?
  • It may not have occurred to you that sex and gender are not the same.
  • Sex includes both primary sex characteristics (those related to the reproductive system) and secondary sex characteristics (those that are not directly related to the reproductive system, such as breasts and facial hair).
  • Gender identity is a person's sense of self as a member of a particular gender.
  • For example, persons of the female sex, in general, regardless of culture, will eventually menstruate and develop breasts that can lactate.

• Group-external and group-internal ties

  • Some macro-structures are social agents (like voluntary and formal organizations); some macro-structures are categorical units (like gender and ethnic groups).
  • Krackhardt and Stern (1988) developed a very simple and useful measure of the group embedding based on comparing the numbers of ties within groups and between groups.
  • If we re-scale the observed value of the E-I index (.563) to fall into this range, we obtain a re-scaled index value of -.167.
  • E-I index output for the Knoke information network - groups and individuals
  • E-I index output for the Knoke information network - whole network

• Theories of Gender Differences

  • In this perspective, which was developed in the 1940s and 1950s, genders are viewed as complementary - women take care of the home while men provide for the family.
  • In so doing, Symbolic Interaction researchers have demonstrated the shifting "biological beliefs" about gender in relation to women's movement activities as well as the processes whereby gender socialization occurs.
  • This approach seeks to excavate the origins of gender beliefs and patterns while paying specific attention to the ways these meanings change in relation to shifting power dynamics and social norms.
  • Blending aspects of Conflict and Symbolic Interaction theories, Feminist Theory critiques hierarchical power relations embedded within existing gender structures, cultures, beliefs, discourses, identities, and processes of self presentation.
  • Central to these efforts, Feminist Theories typically examine past and present gender relations shaped by patriarchy and intersectionality.

• The Functionalist Perspective

  • The functionalist perspective of gender roles suggests that gender roles exist to maximize social efficiency.
  • The functionalist perspective of gender inequality was most robustly articulated in the 1940s and 1950s, and largely developed by Talcott Parsons' model of the nuclear family.
  • A structural functionalist view of gender inequality applies the division of labor to view predefined gender roles as complementary: women take care of the home while men provide for the family.
  • This view has been criticized for reifying, rather than reflecting, gender roles.
  • While gender roles, according to the functionalist perspective, are beneficial in that they contribute to stable social relations, many argue that gender roles are discriminatory and should not be upheld.