Topic 5: Gender,

Politics and Gender

(In)equality
Sheilalaine G. Romulo, Ed.D.
Lecturer/Trainer
Objectives
• To understand the gender dimension of politics
• To reflect on gender gap and inequalities and their implications to
present societies
• To become familiar with the international and national legal
frameworks for gender equality
Coverage
• Definitions
• Gender politics vs. gendered politics
• Gender gap and patterns of gender inequality
• Legal and political frameworks for gender equality
Definition
Gender politics are the politics of feminists. They are the politics that
feminists utilize to challenge society’s gender stereotypes and
inequalities, and they are a tool of empowerment that can be used to
build coalitions of activists.

Gendered politics are the politics that reinforce gender stereotypes

in framing the political system and civic life (usually used by feminists
to label the “works” of obstructionist).
Definition
Definition
The gender gap is the difference in any area between women and
men in terms of their levels of participation, access to resources,
rights, power and influence, remuneration and benefits. Of particular
relevance related to women’s work is the “gender pay gap”,
describing the difference between the average earnings of men and
women (ILO, 2007).
Gender and Politics
Some Important Concepts

Gender and politics covers many of the same topics (such as women
and politics and politics of gender), but in addition, implies attention
to masculinities and femininities, as well as relations between men
and women, as they operate in various political arenas.
Women and politics involves the study of various aspects of women’s
political activity, whether this entails engagement in social
movements, political parties, elected assemblies, or the state.
Politics of gender, finally, comprises a closer look at the power
relations behind definitions of—and presumed causal relations
between—sex, gender, and sexuality.
Gender and Politics

Gender politics are the politics of feminists. They are the politics that
feminists utilize to challenge society’s gender stereotypes and
inequalities, and they are a tool of empowerment that can be used to
build coalitions of activists.

Gendered politics are the politics that reinforce gender stereotypes

in framing the political system and civic life (usually used by feminists
to label the “works” of obstructionist).
Gender and Politics
Politics as ‘social activity’
• Among the broadest ways of defining politics is to understand it as a ‘social
activity’ – an activity we engage in together with others, or one through which
we engage others. Politics, in this sense, is ‘always a dialogue, and never a
monologue’ (Heywood, 2013, p. 1). A similarly broad (or perhaps even broader)
definition is offered by Arendt (2005), who argues that politics does not have
an ‘essence’ – it does not have an intrinsic nature, or an indispensable element
according to which we can definitively, and in all circumstances, identify
something as political. Thus, there are no quintessentially political acts,
subjects or places. Politics, rather, is the world that emerges between us – the
world that emerges through our interactions with each other, or through the
ways that our individual actions and perspectives are aggregated into
collectivities.
Arendt, H. (2005) The Promise of Politics, New York, Schocken Books.
Heywood, A. (2013) Politics, 4th edn, London, Palgrave Macmillan.
Gender and Politics
• People all over the world find that the basic conditions of their lives—their
safety, health, education, work, as well as access to markets, public space, and
free expression—are fundamentally shaped by their identification as belonging
to particular sex or gender groups. Individual bodies may be typed as male or
female, masculine or feminine, heterosexual or homosexual, transgendered or
nongendered in a dizzying variety of ways across cultures and over time
• Gender is never just about sex but varies by race, ethnicity, nation, class, and a
variety of other dimensions of social life
• Across the globe, gender determines who goes hungry and who gets adequate
nutrition and water, who can vote, run for office, marry, or have rights to
children, who commands authority and respect and who is denigrated and
dismissed, and who is most vulnerable to violence and abuse in their own
homes and intimate relationships (see, e.g., World Health Organization and
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine 2010; Htun 2003; Htun and
Weldon 2011).
Gender and Politics
• These norms shape more than personal and family relationships or
career paths, though they certainly shape those: they shape
religious practice and the structure of markets and processes of
governance (Charrad 2010; Brettell and Sargeant 2001; Lamphere
2001).
Gender Gap
The Global Gender Gap index
• benchmarks the evolution of gender-based gaps (since its inception
in 2006) among four key dimensions:
1. Economic Participation and Opportunity
2. Educational Attainment
3. Health and Survival
4. Political Empowerment
• Tracks progress towards closing these gaps over time
Gender Gap
The Global Gender Gap index
• The Global Gender Gap Report 2021 surveyed 156 countries, providing a
tool for cross-country comparison and to prioritize the most effective
policies needed to close gender gaps

Global Trends and Outcomes

• The average distance completed to parity is 68%, a step back compared
to 2020 (-0.6 percentage points). These figures are mainly driven by a
decline in the performance of large countries. On it current trajectory, it
will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide.
Gender Gap
1. Political Empowerment – the gender gap remains the largest with
only 22% closed to date, having further widened since the 2020
report by 2.4 percentage points. Across the 156 countries covered
by the index, women represent only 26.1% of some 35,500
parliament seats and just 22.6% of over 3,400 ministers
worldwide. In 81 countries, there has never been a woman head
of state, as of 15th January 2021. At the current rate of progress,
the World Economic Forum estimates that it will take 145.5 years
to attain gender parity in politics.
Gender Gap
2. Economic Participation and Opportunity – remains the second-largest
of the four key gaps with only 58% has been closed so far for this year’s
index. The gap has seen marginal improvement since the 2020 report and
as a result it will take another 267.6 years to close.

- The slow progress is the result of two opposing trends. On one hand, the
proportion of women among skilled professionals continues to increase, as
does progress towards wage equality, albeit a slower pace. On the other
hand, there is a persistent lack of women in leadership positions, with
women representing just 27% of all manager positions. (The data available
for the 2021 report does not yet fully reflect the impact of the pandemic.)
Gender Gap
3. Educational Attainment and Health and Survival – are nearly
closed. In Educational Attainment, 95% of this gender gap has been
closed globally, with 37 countries already at parity. Thus, it will take
another 14.2 years to completely close this gap.
In Health and Survival, 96% of this gender gap has been closed,
registering a marginal decline since last year (not due to COVID-19),
and the time to close this gap remains undefined.
For both education and health, while progress is higher than for
economy and politics in the global data, there are important future
implications of disruptions due to the pandemic, as well as continued
variations in quality across income, geography, race and ethnicity.
Gender Gap and Patterns of Inequalities
Patterns of Inequalities
• Inequalities in political power and representation: Women are
often underrepresented in formal decision-making structures,
including governments, community councils, and policy-making
institutions.
• Inequalities in economic participation and opportunities: In most
countries, women and men are distributed differently across
sectors. Women are receiving lower wages for similar work, are
more likely to be in low-paid jobs and unsecured work (part-time,
temporary, home-based) and are likely to have less access than men
to productive assets such as education, skills, property and credit.
Gender Gap and Patterns of Inequalities

• Educational attainment: In most countries women have lower literacy

rate, lower level of enrolment in primary, secondary and tertiary
education.
• Sexual and domestic violence: Women tend to be more often victims in
a form a domestic violence by woman’s intimate partner, sexual
exploitation through trafficking and sex trade, in wars by an enemy army
as a weapon of attempted ‘ethnic cleansing’ etc.
• Differences in legal status and entitlements: There are many instances in
which equal rights to personal status, security, land, inheritance and
employment opportunities are denied to women by law or practice.
Gender Gap and Patterns of Inequalities
IMPORTANT NOTE!
Achieving greater equality between women and men will require
changes at many levels, including changes in attitudes and
relationships, changes in institutions and legal frameworks, changes
in economic institutions, and changes in political decision-making
structures.
Legal and political frameworks for gender
equality
International

• The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination

against Women (CEDAW), known as the International Bill of Rights
of Women: The convention commits state parties that are
signatories to take all appropriate measures, including legislation
and temporary special measures, so that women can enjoy all their
human rights and fundamental freedoms. Countries that have
ratified or acceded to the Convention are legally bound to put their
provisions into practice.
Legal and political frameworks for gender
equality
• The CEDAW is the only human rights treaty which affirms the reproductive
rights of women and targets culture and tradition as influential forces shaping
gender roles and family relations. It affirms women’s rights to acquire, change
or retain their nationality and the nationality of their children.

• The Convention defines discrimination against women as “any distinction,

exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or
purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by
women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and
women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic,
social, cultural, civil, or any other fields.”
Legal and political frameworks for gender
equality
• The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA): The outcome
document of the Fourth World Conference on Women in September
1995, considered as blueprint for improving position of women and
advancing women’s rights.
• It is an agenda for women’s empowerment aimed at removing all the
obstacles to women’s active participation in all sphere of public and
private life through a full and equal share in economic, social, cultural
and political decision-making at home, in the workplace and in the wider
national and international communities.
• Equality is a matter of human rights and a condition for social justice
(BPFA Mission Statement)
Summary of Beijing Platform for Action: Some Strategic Objectives
Legal and political frameworks for gender
equality
National

• 1987 Constitution – “The State recognizes the role of women in

nation-building, and shall ensure the fundamental equality before
the law of women and men (1987 Philippine Constitution, Article II,
Section 14)
• The Women in Development and Nation Building Act (RA 7192) –
enacted in 1992 directs all government departments and agencies
to “review and revise all their regulations to remove gender bias
therein (Section 2)
Legal and political frameworks for gender
equality

The Magna Carta of Women (MCW) or RA 9710

• Enacted in September 2009, a local counterpart of CEDAW

• Established the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW) as the regulatory agency of
MCW
• Identified CHED as the agency responsible to:
(1) develop and promote gender-sensitive curriculum;
(2) develop gender-fair instructional materials;
(3) ensure that educational institutions implement a capacity
building program on gender, peace and human rights education for their
officials, faculty, and non-teaching staff and personnel;
Legal and political frameworks for gender
equality
(4) promote partnerships between and among players of the
educational sector;
(5) encourage advertising agency and other similar institutions
to provide free use of space and installation of displays for
schools, colleges, and universities for campaigns to end
discrimination and violence against women; and
(6) guarantee that educational institutions provide scholarship
programs for marginalized women and girls, set the
minimum standards for programs and institutions of higher
learning (MCW IRR, Rule IV, Section 16)
Legal and political frameworks for gender
equality
Indicators for Education Sector (from the Harmonized Gender and
Development Guidelines, 2016)
1. Proportion of women to total enrolment
2. Proportion of women to total graduates
3. Distribution of women and men by academic program or discipline
4. Performance of female and male students in board/licensure exam and
technical skills certification (i.e. NCII)
5. Proportion of women to total number of deans and campus directors
6. Participation of women and men in decision making
7. Gender sensitivity of school curricula, programs and services
8. Participation of women and men in trainings and seminars
Suggested Teaching Learning Activities (TLA)
Type TLA Target Competencies
Teacher-led Lecture-style instruction, critical Critical listening skills
questioning, facilitated classroom
dialogue (via breakout rooms)
Collaboration (3 – 5 members) Group presentation of assigned Teamwork, multimodal literacies,
topic critical thinking, communication
skills, etc.
Dyads Think-Pair-Share (discussing a Teamwork, communication skills
current event)
Individual Answering a test Knowledge, Comprehension,
analysis, synthesis, application
Summary
1. Gender politics are efforts and campaigns that are used to create
awareness on gender inequalities. Gendered politics are practices
that reinforce gender stereotypes in framing the political system
and civic life.
2. Gender gap is the difference in any area between men and
women in terms of their level of participation in the political and
civic life. A growing body of evidence shows that placing women
in the center of the development agenda can increase efficiency
in the management of institutions and resources (The World
Bank, 2021).
Summary
3. The United Nations, through the CEDAW (1979) and the Beijing
Platform for Action (BPfA) of the Fourth World Conference on
Women in 1995, has led the international massive campaign to end
all forms of discrimination against women.
4. The legal frameworks are commitments, policies and mechanisms
adopted by member states of the UN aimed to address gender
discrimination in all aspects of political and civic life and to abolish
unequal structures and practices that perpetuate discrimination and
inequality.
References
Celis, K., Kantola, J., Waylen, G., & Weldon, S. L. (2013). Introduction:
Gender and politics: A gendered world, a gendered discipline. In The Oxford
handbook of gender and politics.
Encyclopedia.com. (2019). Politics, Gender. URL
https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-
sciences-magazines/politics-gender
Philippine Commission on Women. (N.d.). What is CEDAW? URL
https://pcw.gov.ph/convention-on-the-elimination-of-all-forms-of-
discrimination/
Platform. (2017). Gender Politics vs. Gendered Politics. URL
https://platformwomen.org/misc/gender-politics-vs-gendered-politics/
References
The Open University. (2020). What is politics? URL
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/society-politics-law/what-
politics/content-section-2.1.5
The World Bank. (2021). Gender Equality for Development. URL
https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/dime/brief/dime-gender-
program
World Economic Forum. (2021). Global Gender Gap Report 2021:
Insight Report (March 2021). URL
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GGGR_2021.pdf
http://www.ekvilib.org/wp-
content/uploads/2017/06/01_Gender_Concepts.pdf