Gender on the agenda

Of every 10 people who are HIV positive, 6 are women. In some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the HIV prevalence of girls aged 15 – 19 is six times higher compared to boys the same age.
Such statistics, released annually by bodies like UNAIDS clearly indicate the gender dimension to the HIV epidemic. Men and women are affected differently – for physiological reasons and because gender inequalities drive infection rates disproportionately towards women. Not surprisingly, HIV response programs are often designed to address gender disparities.
Figures released this week at a CSW 53 session titled “Integrating Gender into a Locally-Owned HIV/AIDS Response “indicate women also take up HIV services more keenly. Analysis of data by the President’s Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) shows women represent 63% of those who are on ARV treatment. Women make up 64% of those going for voluntary testing. PEPFAR says the good news about this is that its gender strategy is paying off. The Fund says its programs aim to
· Increase gender Equity in HIV services
· Address Male Norms and Behaviors
· Reduce Violence and Coercion
· Increase Access to Income and Resources for Women
· Increase Women’s legal Rights and Protection
The bad news is: the figures highlight a problem – that men are not accessing services. And their reluctance to get tested and treated affects both men and women negatively.

Keep it local

In addition to addressing gender concerns, HIV programs should also be “local and grassroots”, says Faith Meitiaki, a young woman from Kenya. Faith’s story of courage and luck fascinated delegates at CSW 53. She is 1 of six daughters, born into a traditional Maasai community. She ran away from home to escape female genital mutilation and early marriage.

Faith says countries with ethnic diversity like Kenya cannot have a one-size-fits-all gender and HIV response. The pressures which a young Maasai girl experiences are completely different to those of a woman from Kenya’s Coastal area. Gender issues aside, the HIV risks are also different, she says. At the Coast, girls easily fall into sex tourism and risk HIV infection. In Maasailand, the HIV risk comes from re-using knives used for female genital mutilation and from early marriage to a man who may already have other wives.

But whatever the local circumstances, young girls and women will continue to need support – from the donor community and the media, says Faith.




Faith says the trouble is: media messages often fall on deaf ears – and that means a whole lot of work lies ahead to change mindsets.

Widows claiming their voice

India has 43 million widows. The vast majority of these face stigma, simply by virtue of the fact that their husbands had died. Widows in many parts of Africa, too, face marginalization from their communities. At CSW53, groups working for widows claiming their voice gave feedback on some progress made with widows’ rights.
It is hard to overcome the centuries-old traditions which have led to the shame women experience when their husbands die, says Dr Akanksha Dutt;


Guild of Service is an NGO, which supports widows in India and creates awareness about their rights in traditional communities. In time, the widows regain their self-esteem and start reclaiming life.
In Nyanza, Western Kenya, widows traditionally also lose their inheritance, land and housing rights – unless they get married to their deceased husband’s brother. A grassroots community, GROOTS Kenya, has done some landmark work to make women aware that this tradition conflicts with the rights of widows. Women and traditional leaders from the area are encouraged to work together to make the widows ‘ voices heard.

An Internews-produced documentary titled My Dead Husband’s Land traces the story of Betty Tom, a widow from Nyanza, who challenged rural traditions with the help of GROOTS and other organizations. The documentary outlines how HIV/AIDS was a catalyst for village elders to see that the tradition can threaten the wellbeing of the community. In the end, Betty Tom is able to claim back her dead husband’s land and she does not have to marry his brother.

Watch the Video: "My Dead Husband's Land"

Rights to Reality

Rights to Reality - Worldwide

In a session titled: A Human Rights approach to address gender based violence, delegates heard of success on the African continent to establish gender machinery.

The Masimanyane Women's Support Centre in rural South Africa works on the intersection of gender-based violence and HIV/AIDS in rural South Africa.
Masimanyane's Dr Lesley Ann Foster says 15 years of democracy has seen tremendous improvements in the institutionalization of women's rights.


It is indeed the role of the media in this Southern African context to help to ensure that these changes become a reality by bringing the top level institutionalized successes to the community level.

In a remote region of Kenya, bordering Somalia, Rukia Abdullahi has succeeded in becoming the area's first female local government representative.



From a deeply religious community she talks of the cultural challenges, but also support from unexpected quarters.




Ms Abdullahi, too, would like the media to tell her story to a wider audience.




The meeting heard that gender equality advances made in the developed world can be deceptive.The fundamentalist Christian revival churces, for instance, have been guilty of interpreting the Bible from a male perspective. Jan Erickson of the National Organization for Women Foundation says despite the fact that advocacy groups like NOW have worked for two decades to halt the epidemic of gender-based violence and sexual assault, the numbers are still shocking. She says an average of 3 women per day are murdered by their partners in the United States. NOW has welcomed the White House effort to Aid Women and Girls. On 11 March President Obama signed an executive order creating a White House Council on Women and Girls to help eliminate the challenges they face and to ensure that cabinet agencies coordinate the policies that affect women and families.
Mr. Obama said women still earned 78 cents for every dollar men make.One in four women experience domestic violence..
Like their counterparts in the developing world, women in the US hope that additional gender machinery will make rights real for women.

Latest Media Releases from CSW

The CSW has released several backgrounders and press releases summarizing the activities of the 53rd Commission, which are linked to below for reference:

Media backgrounder on “The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the context of HIV/AIDS."

1) Women’s Commission considers effectiveness of working group on communications, as delegations weigh in about how to improve complaints procedureWednesday, 11 March 2009

2) Women hold keys to unlocking barriers against progress on sustainable development, Deputy Secretary-General tells international leadership colloquiumTuesday, 10 March 2009

3) Young South African woman chosen to be Secretary-General in selection of secretariat officials for global model UN ConferenceMonday, 9 March 2009

4) Specialized agencies, intergovernmental, non-governmental groups submit proposals for improving women’s welfare, as women’s Commission concludes general discussionMonday, 9 March 2009

5) Despite ‘record year’ globally for women decision makers in public sector, road was long to achieve parity with men, women’s Commission toldFriday, 6 March 2009

6) Press conference on International Women’s Day theme: “Women and men united to end violence against women and girls”Thursday, 5 March 2009

7) Press conference on ‘Annual statistics of women in politics’ Thursday, 5 March 2009

8) Violence against women ‘an attack on all of us’, declares Secretary-General as United Nations holds event to commemorate international dayThursday, 5 March 2009

9) Violence against women ‘cannot be tolerated’ in any circumstance, by any political leader or Government, says Secretary-General, at New York observanceThursday, 5 March 2009

10) Deputy Secretary-General launches database on violence against women, hailing it as first global ‘one-stop shop’ for information on measures by Member States Thursday, 5 March 2009

11) Governments must focus on women as economic agents during global financial crisis if their disproportionate suffering is to be averted, women’s Commission hearsThursday, 5 March 2009

12) Press conference on situation of women in occupied Palestinian territoryWednesday, 4 March 2009

13) Press conference by high-level African women officials on addressing economic, food, climate change crisesWednesday, 4 March 2009

14) Deputy Secretary-General, in remarks to women’s affairs ministers, spells out steps taken towards strengthening United Nations gender architectureWednesday, 4 March 2009

15) ‘Power of the law’ must be used to stop violence against women once and for all, says Deputy Secretary-General at headquarters eventWednesday, 4 March 2009

16) Headway made to defeat violence against women, but entrenched stereotypes, customs risk achievement of more balanced gender relations, women’s Commission toldWednesday, 4 March 2009

17) Caregiving burden must be valued, shared, supported by Governments as crucial to sustaining society, building human capital, women's Commission told Tuesday, 3 March 2009

18) Commission on the Status of Women opens session of sharing responsibilites equally between women, men, including caring for HIV/AIDS sufferers with ‘caring societies in recession’, says UNAIDS Executive Director Monday, 2 March 2009

19) Commission on the Status of Women to focus on sharing duties between men, women, including caregiving for HIV/AIDS victims, during 2 to 13 March sessionMonday, 23 February 2009

care to care

Father and Child:
Scenes from New York City this week of fathers who care about care.

Some fathers in one city on one day.

Care to care from Ida Jooste on Vimeo.

What's in it for boys and men?

From countries as diverse as Norway and Niger, Kenya and Malaysia came testimonies that despite decades of work to achieve gender equality, there were still extremely high rates of rape and domestic violence and intimate femicide (the killing of a female partner) worldwide. The trafficking of young girls and women was in fact on the rise.
The strategy to engage men in changing gender culture is relatively new. Intensify such programs, say gender researchers.

A session titled “From the grassroots: How to engage men and boys in changing a gender-biased culture” presented evidence that both women and men benefit when men are engaged in structured gender awareness programs. Work with men in the rural Eastern Cape of South Africa and urban Oslo in Norway showed success because men could see the benefit for themselves when pushing the envelope of gender stereotypes. When men can see that it is fun and makes them feel good to play an active role in caring for their children, for example, the positive effects ripple further.
The Resource Centre for Men in Norway reports data that for the first time a job satisfaction survey showed that the top career goal for men was to have more free time for family.

Media can help to make them care

But representatives from Nordic countries say the relative gender equality did not happen without the initial work of activists, then of policymakers. Mindsets could not have changed without a shift in media depictions. In societies with higher gender equality, even more needs to be done.
Panelists agreed that stereotypes about men also need to be broken down. Men are depicted as “have to be successful”, “have to have a big car”, “have to take risks and lead a robust life”. Also: a stereotype about men is that they are not adept at home chores.

Media on board

Internews journalism trainee, Racheal Nakitare, told the panel that gender activists are quick to point to stereotypes in the media. Nakitare says it needs to be acknowledged that the media is engaging with gender issues and stereotypes, for instance by writing about male circumcision. “What better way to engage men than ensuring they reduce the risk of HIV infection”, says Nakitare

Women themselves need to examine how they perpetuate stereotypes about women and men, said one of the panelists. In a community hall in a village on the East Coast of Africa and in the board rooms of cities in Europe, men and women are getting to know the rhetoric of gender equality, the key to change is to ensure that it goes beyond talk.

Useful links:

http://www.menengage.org/
http://www.whiteribbon.ca/

e-tools for Journalists

Launch of gender e-tools for journalists

Two e-tools for improved gender data sets were launched at CSW53 this week. They are:
- A data index measuring levels of gender (in)equality (www.oecd.org/dev/gender/gid) and
- An accompanying “wiki” website, called wikigender.org, which enables users to engage in dialogue via their online contributions or corrections (http://www.wikigender.org/)

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), who are the creators of the new e-tools, say the data instruments will add value for those who want to identify and measure aspects of gender equality. OECD says existing measures of gender equality focus on inequality outcomes, such as level of education and health status or economic and political participation of women. However, OECD also captures inequalities based on social institutions, such as norms and traditions that impact on gender equality.

Such aspects of human behavior are of particular interest to journalists – who can access “human interest stories” from the site, says the OECD’s Johannes Jütting.

Wikigender, as the name suggests, allows discussion and exchange, contributions and edits. Users can easily build, edit and link web pages.

But as Wikipedia has found, this bottoms-up approach can have its pitfalls.

I scrolled through two areas which interest me: Keywords “Kenya” and “Ownership Rights” and stumbled upon “Trousers and Gender Equality”.

So here’s some feedback to wikigender and OECD site:

+ Entry:
“The government of President Arap Moi has forbidden female genital mutilation in public hospitals and the Health Minister is trying to eradicate this practise altogether. Still, there is no formal law which condemns this act.”

My Comment:
Well, as of December 2002, the 24 year rule of Kenya's President Daniel Arap Moi was ended by the election victory of Mwai Kibaki.

+ Entry:
“Kenya is characterised by the coexistence of several institutional frameworks. The "code de la famille" and the ownership rights are completely different between three groups: the Muslim population, the traditional society and the modern society. In some cases, a married couple can belong to these two societies. For example, the statutory marriage can follow a customary one so that the wife and her husband have conflicting obligations and rights. Moreover, modern institutions are not respected by some judges, which critically affect the condition of women”.

My Comment:
The above paragraph calls for one of those wiki edits, which would provide “human interest” for the “norms and traditions” OECD would want to reflect. My addition would be: “Property and inheritance rights for women are tenuous in some communities. A woman can be disinherited by her in-laws when her husband dies.”

Dr Sharon Camp of the Guttmacher Institute says she believes the producers of statistics and data have a responsibility to ensure that it is accurate and that it is responsibly used.
<


Two more entries on http://www.oecd.org/dev/gender/gid%20and%20wikigender.org almost tickled my fingers into a wiki-add-on. “Kenya: Civil Liberties - There are no constraints to women’s freedom of movement and the freedom of dress” and “Trousers and Gender Equality”, which sketches the history of emancipation as a gradual move towards the acceptance of trousers”.

My Comment:
These entries reminded me of the threat in 2008 by Kenya’s ethnically conservative Mungiki sect to undress any woman caught wearing trousers – particularly women belonging to the Kikuyu community, whose traditional norms the Mungiki had wanted to preserve. It happened during the height of Kenya’s political violence. Some Kikuyu women defiantly wore trousers, while others cowered in dresses for their safety.

If the wiki format works for wikigender, such add-ons and edits will continue to grow the site. Dr Camp says despite the dangers of dodgy data, it’s a good starting point to put information out there. She says good public policy is based on good science and believes these tools can help the media set the policy agenda. Ultimately websites such as these with well-sourced data can help journalists expose gender inequities around the world, she says.

The OECD believes if anything, the grassroots approach of wikigender will make it more accurate and credible than other top-down driven sites.


Now there’s a whole lot of valuable new gender data for journalists – some presented through graphic motion charts, visualized in dynamic presentations or conveniently broken down by geographic region. With wikigender the content of the site depends on external users – opening up the opportunity for fresh perspectives and the potential for information abuse. The challenge to journalists is to know which is which.

Useful Links:

How to interpret research findings:
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2006/07/27/IB_Interpreting.pdf