Gender and Social Development

Health and Education

Week 9
 Introduction
• It is important to note that development has to
be holistic and comprehensive.

• The development agenda should give

prominence to social development as well as
economic development

• It is important that development benefits all

members of society, including the vulnerable
and minority groups
 Learning objectives
At the end of the course students should be able to:
• Explain the concept of social development
• Discuss the gendered nature of access and
utilization of health and education in Africa
• Explain the differential gender impact of social
development.
 What is “social development’’?
 Social and political conditions and institutions or
structures which permit self-sustained growth in
human welfare particularly for disadvantaged
sections of society.”
The Women’s Manifesto, 2004, page 23

 Social development addresses social justice

concerns and issues of human needs
 Interactive Question

What is your understanding of social

justice and human needs?
Social justice refers to the idea of creating
a society or institution that is based on
the principles of equality and solidarity,
that understands and values human
rights, and that recognizes the dignity of
every human being (Zejda et al 2006)

Human necessities are the basic needs of

life.
 Key elements of social development
• Water and sanitation
• Basic education
• Primary healthcare
• Food security
• Social security
• Housing and economic services
• Infrastructure and transportation
Gender Issues in Social Development
• There are gender differentials in the access and
utilization of social development in many
African societies as a result of:
- Patriarchy and patriarchal control of resources
- Gender stereotypes which advantages men over
women (e.g. education, food security).
- Gender roles: women’s need for social development is
greater than that of men due to the specialised roles
they play (water and sanitation, primary health care,
education, social security, housing)
GENDER AND EDUCATION
 Education
• Education usually consists of formal, non formal and informal
(UNESCO 1972:182)

– Formal education: the hierarchically structured, chronologically graded

‘education system’, running from primary school through the university and
including, in addition to general academic studies, a variety of specialised
programmes and institutions for full-time technical and professional training.
– Informal education: the truly lifelong process whereby every individual
acquires attitudes, values, skills and knowledge from daily experience and the
educative influences and resources in his or her environment – from family
and neighbours, from work and play, from the market place, the library and
the mass media.
– Non-formal education: any organised educational activity outside the
established formal system – whether operating separately or as an important
feature of some broader activity – that is intended to serve identifiable
learning clienteles and learning objectives. E.g. adult education, community
 Education
• Education is important for:
– employment/career opportunities and development
– knowledge building and transfer
– empowerment
– general personal development

• Education is so critical to development that

it is one of the MDGs (MDG 2) and more
recently the SDGs (SDG 4)
How education is gendered:
The different value placed on girls and boys by
parents, teachers, etc…

Socialization of boys and girls in terms of

personal goals and expectations

The education delivery system – expectation

and differential treatment of boys and girls
(e.g. boys may get more attention or be more harshly treated;
girls may not be challenged to do their best because education is
Categorization of careers into feminine (sociology,
education, etc.) and masculine (maths, science,
engineering, etc.)

As a result:
Disparities between boys and girls education
increase in favor of boys from the lower to higher
levels due to higher attrition and lower transition
rates of girls than boys

Boys participation in tertiary institutions is higher

than that of girls. Moreover a greater percentage of
girls have preference for the Arts
In the recent past there had been wide gaps
between male and female enrolments at all levels of
education (basic, secondary and tertiary).

Adult literacy rates are still higher for males than

females:
- adult literacy rate - males 71.2%, females 57.2% (UNESCO 2006)

- youth literacy rate (15-24 yrs) - males 81%, females 78%

(UNICEF 2008)
 F M
Primary school enrolment ratio - 2009 77% 76%

Primary school attendance ratio - 2009 74% 73%

 The gross national enrolment rate (GER) for girls as at

2010 was 92%.

 Since 2006/2007 academic year girls’ completion rate

has been increasing, for instance, in 2008/2009 more
girls than boys completed primary school.
• Some policies and programmes accounting for
the increased enrolment of girls at the basic
level

• The Education Strategic Plan (ESP) 2003 – 2015

– FCUBE programme
– Ghana School Feeding Programme (2005).
– Capitation Grant (2005)
– Re – entry policy for pregnant students
– Establishment Science, Technical, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) education clinics targeting
mainly girls
A Case Study on Gender and Education
(University of Ghana)
Undergraduate Programme at the University of Ghana:
1961-2009

Year Male % Female %

Numbers Numbers
1961 620 91.0 62 9.1
1971 2,135 84.6 390 15.4
1981 2,849 83.1 580 16.4
1991 3,589 76.4 1,110 23.6
2001 10,497 65.6 5,494 34.4
2009 21,275 59.0 14,814 41.0
 Sex Distribution of First Class Students at UoG, 2010
Male……………….50.60%
Female …………..49.40%

Sex distribution of post graduate degrees awarded by UoG in 2010

PROGRAMME Male Female %

Masters 64.43 % 35.57 %
MPhil 65.87 % 34.13 %
PhD 11.76 %

88.24 %
Senior Members, Teaching and Research by Rank at
University of Ghana, 2010 (Source: UG Basic Statistics 2011)
SENIOR MEMBERS Male Female

Asst. Lecturers 25 25
Lecturers 360 123
Senior Lecturers 162 55
Associate Professors 97 22
Professors 70 8
QUESTIONS?
GENDER AND HEALTH
 Health

“Health is a state of complete physical,

mental and social well-being and not
merely the absence of disease or
infirmity.”
(WHO, 1948)
 Health and Social Development
Health issues are very critical to development.
 MDGs 4, 5, 6
 SDG 3

Africa bears about 70% of the global disease burden

(de-Graft Aikins, )
 incidence of communicable infectious diseases, typically
malaria, HIV/AIDS, TB
 increasing incidence of chronic non-communicable diseases
(NCDs) in Africa, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes,
renal diseases, mental illness and the cancers (WHO 1996)
 other critical health issues - reproductive and maternal health
(infertility, maternal mortality, abortion, fistula etc…)
Gendered identities (masculine, feminine)
shape nature of health experiences and
responses:

 Men are supposed to be strong and healthy: are less

likely to report their health problems; are likely to
perceive pain, illness and disability differently

 Women are supposed to reproduce and nurture: they

are more likely to talk about their problems, but also
more likely to prioritise their families’ problems over
their own and thus delay diagnosis, treatment and
care (Allotey and Gyapong, 2005)
Engagement in risky health behaviours may
also be gendered:

• smoking, drinking, unsafe sex – multiple

partnerships, unprotected sex (masculine
activities)

• poor eating practices (feminine activities)

• dynamic sexual identities and implications on
health of men and women
Are men and women exposed to different
physical and mental health stressors?
• Poverty/wealth

• Socio cultural determinants (e.g. patriarchy

and gender stereotypes)

• Religious (witchcraft accusation for older

women)

• Occupation
 HIV and AIDS
• Geographical differences
– Southern Africa most affected (34% of global PLWHA)
– West and Central Africa, relatively low
• A woman’s disease
– Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): 57% of those infected are
female.
– three-quarters of all Africans between the ages of 15–
24 who are HIV positive are women
– 40% of all adult women with HIV live in Southern
Africa
 Gendered factors
• Physical susceptibility may differ
– STIs, HIV (Illife, 2005; UNAIDS, 2010)
– Female genitalia
– Some forms of cancer (BA report, 2010)

• Men and women’s different life patterns – e.g. mobility of

men (economic migrants) who bring the disease home

• Socio cultural factors (dry sex, polygyny, sexual violence,

widowhood rites)
 Gendered ramifications of disease
• Stigma, neglect and abuse (women are more likely to
suffer from these) (Adoo-Adeku 2010, Antwi and Atobrah
2009)

• Women are also more likely to be impoverished due to

unproductivity
• Burden of sick care is more immense on women than
on men (Atobrah 2010)
• Relative lower expenditure on female patients than on
male patients.
 Summary of lecture
• Social development and its components
• The importance of social development
• The gendered nature of social development
• Education and gender
• Health and gender
 Conclusion
• In health planning, management and control, it is
important to note and give attention to how males
and females are affected differently.

• It is also important to note the gendered nature of

access and utilization of education.

• Social development agenda should not be left as an

individual responsibility but ought to be
institutionalised by the state to ensure wider
coverage.