Project

“Looking in a different way”

  Formulating and training out processes, methodologies and tools for training in the gender approach

Community Action programme to promote Gender equality (2001 - 2005)

 VP/2003/31 – SI2.390377

 

 

 

GLOSSARY

 

 

Legend:

: Selection from the “100 Words for

Equality” Glossary

(ME): Selection from Training Materials

    of ENAIP in MOODLE

 

 

 

1.     ASSERTION (ME)

It is the capacity of completely expressing one’s own opinion, needs and sentiments, to manifest one’s own existence as a subject in a relationship, even if conflictual. It implies the capacity of managing to express oneself in an authoritative way and to relate oneself with others’ power or authority.

 

 

 

  1. CARE ( “unpaid work at home”, “ care and domestic work”, “ unpaid care and family work”)

This is the term that is most commonly used to describe all the work (paid or otherwise) that is geared, directly or indirectly, towards persons and their (material and nonmaterial) welfare.

In its wider connotation, this term refers to the “care” component that is present in many professions. There is a tendency to downplay this concept, not to recognize its complexity and the skills it demands and to take for granted the fact that it is provided free of charge. Even where it is a component of professional work, it generally remains “invisible” in the sense that it is not one of the elements that is properly assessed.

By highlighting the skills that it involves and its economic value, studies on women and policies on women have called for this “work” to be made visible.

 

 

 

  1. CULTURE OF GENDER DIFFERENCE

The expression 'gender difference', which is often used as a synonym for 'sexual difference', extends the definition from mere physical sexual difference to the idea of two symbolic worlds: the male world and the female world (seen as a social construct). Gender difference is often regarded as one of the many subjective variables such as age, ethnic-sociocultural belonging, cognitive, relational and motivational styles, etc.

In contrast, CULTURE OF GENDER DIFFERENCE postulates the original and primeval nature of the difference between men and women, which is such that this difference underpins all the other forms of diversity and cannot be neatly categorized. This is the reason for the partiality of each sex and the fact that relations between the sexes must involve the encounter of two individuals that cannot be reduced to a question of superiority/inferiority.

 

 

 

  1. EMPOWERMENT

By EMPOWERMENT we mean the process of enhancement (through better use by the individual of current resources and attainable potentiality) of the possibilities that the individual can utilize and operationalize and from which the individual can choose. This term, along with Mainstreaming, is one of the key concepts that was launched by the Fourth World Conference on Women (held in Peking in 1995). It refers to the idea of giving power and responsibility to women, not through a top-down process but by highlighting the experience and skills developed by women themselves.

 

 

 

5.     EQUAL TREATMENT FOR WOMAN AND MAN  

Ensuring the absence of discrimination on the grounds of sex, either directly or indirectly (see Sex discrimination).

 

 

 

6.      FEMINIZATION OF WORK

The expression “feminization of work” carries profoundly different meanings. The first has to do with the number of women in the job market (given the massive influx - from the 1970s on - of women in the labour market), while the second refers to the qualitative characteristics of women’s “mode of production”. The latter definition refers in particular to the skills (referred to in some quarters as transversal skills and in others as meta-skills) which are regarded as necessary for organizational contexts and akin to the characteristics which - historically and/or through stereotyping - can be categorized or are categorized as part and parcel of women's experience and mode of production.

 

 

 

7.     GENDER  

A concept that refers to the social differences between women and men that have been learned, are changeable over time and have wide variations both within and between cultures.

 

 

 

  1. We propose a more complex definition of the term GENDER

An English term that refers to a system of roles and relations between men and women that are determined by the social, political and economic context. Gender is a social construct that can be defined as the process whereby individuals who are born male or female come to belong to social categories (men and women).

Bearing in mind that gender issues refer to roles which are based on biological differences but are learned and continuously change over time and according to individual cultures, they are closely tied up with the differences between what men and women do and the way in which they are benefited by or, on the contrary, disadvantaged by socially defined roles.

 

 

 

  1. GENDER ANALYSIS

This consists of a systematic examination of the different roles, relations and processes, focusing on inequality between men and women in terms of power, income and work in all societies. When applied to vocational training, it provides a means of assessing the different impact that training programmes and strategies have on women and on men and is an essential element when it comes to directing actions and interventions towards a GENDER APPROACH.

 

 

 

  1. GENDER APPROACH ( or gender dimension or gender perspective)

Adopting a gender approach means making a GENDER ANALYSIS - i.e. a systematic study of the roles, relations and processes connected with inequalities between men and women in different situations (income, work and training) - a pivotal element in the planning of policy and training programmes and strategies, whereby this is not confined to emphasizing the roles that are traditionally assigned to women and their real or assumed “ghettoization” in more traditional professions. Indeed, for a society to be said to be moving towards a more balanced GENDER APPROACH, it is not enough for groups of women to be given access to what are traditionally male professions.

 

 

 

11. GENDER CONTRACT  

A set of implicit and explicit rules governing gender relations which allocate different work and value, responsibilites and obligations to men and women and is maintained on three levels - cultural superstructure – the norms and values of society; institutions - family welfare, education and employment systems, etc.; and socialisation processes, notably in the family.

 

 

 

12. GENDER GAP  

The gap in any area between women and men in terms of their levels of participation, access, rights, remuneration or benefits.

 

 

 

13. GENDER IMPACT ASSESSMENT  

The assessing of policy proposals on any differential impact on women and men, with a view to adapting these proposals to make sure that discriminatory effects are neutralised and that gender equality is promoted.

 

 

 

14. GENDER PERSPECTIVE  

The consideration and attention to the differences in any given policy area/activity.

 

 

 

  1. GENDER SKILLS

Term used to define all the skills that the different key figures involved in training should acquire in connection with GENDER and the related aspects. It can also mean the attention that is given to GENDER in the context of professional skills that have up till now been regarded as neutral.

 

 

 

16.  GENDER STEREOTYPES

The term stereotype means the generalization of a simplified image of reality due to limited knowledge. Stereotypes are simple and are very often based on “clichés”, because they provide a means of artificially simplifying a reality that is too complex to take in. Stereotypes can have positive or negative characteristics (in the latter case they are referred to as “prejudices”).Gender stereotypes are negative and positive stereotypes expressed about men and women. Gender stereotypes are diametric opposites: the negative characteristics of women generally mirror the positive characteristics of men.

 

 

 

  1. LEARNING ORGANIZATION

This term refers to an objective that is important for every organization: to implement a continuous process of learning through which the persons who are part of the organization change the organization itself and accordingly modify their own.

 

 

 

18. MAINSTREAMING  

The systematic integration of the respective situations, priorities and needs of women and men in all policies and with a view to promoting equality between women and men and mobilising all general policies and measures specifically for the purpose of achieving equality by actively and openly taking into account, at the planning stage, their effects on the respective situations of women and men in implementation, monitoring and evaluation(Commission Communication COM (96) 67 final of 21/02/96).

 

 

19.  As a synonymous of “mainstreaming”, we propose also the definition related to Ireland context: EQUALITY PROOFING

Equality Proofing in Ireland was defined by government in 2000 as ‘The (re) organisation, improvement, development and evaluation of all policy processes… so an ...equality perspective is incorporated in all policies at all levels and at all stages, by the actors normally involved in policy-making’.

 

 

 

20. MENTORING  

A sheltered relationship that allows learning and experimentation to take place and personal potential and new skills to flourish through a process in which one person, the mentor, supports the career and development of another, the mentee, outside the normal superior/subordinate relationship. Mentoring is increasingly used to support the personal/professional development of women.

 

21.   We propose even this definition of the term MENTORING (ME)

Training methodology of “accompanying” in which an expert (the mentor) transfers his/her ability, knowledge and experience to an “apprentice” with the scope aim of assisting him/her in the starting and development of his/her activity. Until now, mentoring has found application above all in the creation of businesses.

 

 

 

22. RECONCILIATION OF WORK AND FAMILY/ HOUSEHOLD LIFE FAMILIARE  

The introduction of family and parental leave schemes, child and elderly care arrangements, and the development of a working environment structure and organisation which facilitates the combination of work and family /household responsibilities for women and men.

 

 

 

23. WOMEN’S STUDIES/ GENDER STUDIES  

An academic, usually interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of women’s situation and gender relations as well as the gender dimension of all other disciplines.