What does “gender responsive” mean?

Let us think first of another term: gender blindness. A gender blind person treats women and men, girls and boys in the same way, often thinking that this is great from the point of view of equality. This attitude – that all people should receive exactly the same treatment – is actually a big barrier on the way towards full equality between women and men.

It means closing your eyes to the fact that women do not, for historical and also for biological reasons (e.g. only women give birth to children, and till now they have been doing most of nurturing of the young) have the same access to opportunities as men.

And, as a matter of fact, we do not treat men and women equally, even though we tend to believe that we do. Remember the anonymous CVs? Remember the Indian villagers that rated a talk given by a man better than exactly the same talk given by a woman? A similar study was carried out in Yale University.22 Scientists there were given an application by a student applying for a lab manager position. A part of the scientists got the application with a male name, another with a female one. The result was that the “female” applicants were rated clearly lower than “male” applicants. The “female” applicants were also offered a much lower pay. The scientists doing this rating were both men and women. Scientists generally take pride in being objective, but clearly, this was not objective behaviour and not equal treatment of women and men.

These studies and experiments show that we all, both men and women, suffer of a gender bias, which for many of us is not conscious. It is very difficult to get rid of it: since the day we were born we have been receiving (often very subtle) messages and learning norms which teach us that men are of more value. And yet many of us believe that we treat men and women equally, and that this is how it should be.

We have to put on new spectacles: instead of gender blind we have to learn to be gender sensitive. We have to keep opening our eyes to the barriers that women face – and, in some cases also men –, and we have to find ways of changing the attitudes and practices that make us hold on to the status quo. And this is where “gender responsive” comes in. Let’s have a closer look at these words.

We know what “gender” means. Simply put it is what culture adds to biology. The World Health Organisation defines gender in the following way: “Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men, such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and can be changed.”

How we see gender norms – what is suitable for men and women – has also varied across time. For instance, these days only women wear shoes with high heels. Initially high heel shoes were designed for upper-class men to wear when hunting on horseback.

We are used to thinking that man equals human being, a representative of human kind. Because of this attitude, on some level prevalent in every culture and deeply engrained in us, we tend to picture in our minds a woman when we talk of gender. Yet it is important to remember that the word gender also refers to men. Every person has a gender role. Usually our culture, beliefs and norms determine for us, what gender role we have – and recognizing and identifying this is essential, both for women and for men.

The term “gender” is also helpful in another context. The fact that we have a concept like “gender”, which is wider than biological sex, helps us widen our understanding of what it is to be a human being. For example, not all individuals fall in to the category of boy or girl. Some are intersex. Also, there are different sexual identities, which are said to be LGBT (short for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender). So, on the one hand, gender refers to the norms that turn us into women or men in our given societies, in a given time; on the other, it gives space to people who have a different identity.

And what does “responsive” mean? It means a sensitive, easily reacting attitude, a state of mind where you do not ignore the other person and her or his needs. Thus “gender responsive” means that we: identify the presence of norms and stereotypes imposed on boys and girls, women and men, understand that these norms and stereotypes may restrict us from fully being what we want to be, behave and act, e.g. write policies, in ways which take into consideration the often varying needs of men and women, girls and boys, but also people belonging to the LGBT group.