Overview
• Gender: what and why?• CARE’s Women’s Empowerment (WE)
framework & key concepts• Men and Boys
Gender is a social construct
Courtesy of: National Geographic Channel
WHY focus on gender?
• “We seek a world of hope, tolerance and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity and security.”
• CARE’s core values of Respect, Integrity, Commitment and Excellence promotes diversity and gender equity, choice and dignity for all.
• We believe we can more effective in our programs.
CARE’s efforts to advance Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
• 4 year investment in a Strategic Impact Inquiry• Development of a women’s empowerment
framework• Institutional commitment: GED trainings• CI Gender Policy
•Her own aspirations and capabilities
AGENCY
•The environment that surrounds and conditions her choices
STRUCTURE
•The power relations through which she negotiates her path
RELATIONS
WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT is the sum total of changes needed for a woman to realize her full
human rights – the interplay of changes in:
• Long-term goal• Absence of discrimination
based on sex• Equality between men and
women exists when both sexes are able to share equally in the distribution of power and influence
Gender Equality
• Gender equity is the process of being fair to women and men.
• To ensure fairness, strategies and measures must often be available to compensate for women’s historical and social disadvantages that prevent women and men from otherwise operating on a level playing field.
• Equity leads to equality.
GENDER EQUITY
equal treatment before the law
equal access to social provisions
Equal access to education
Quota for female representatives
GENDER EQUALITY
GENDER EQUITY
Gender equity leads to gender equality
Women’s empowerment & girls’ leadership is a critical aspect of promoting gender equality
Engaging men and boys
WHAT DO MEN AND BOYS HAVE TO DO WITH IT?
Important part of the equation
A domain in the WE framework is RELATIONS
Programming in Action: Burundi