Gender Reflection: Shifting Perspectives on Gender and Development

This essay provides a comprehensive reflection on the student's evolving understanding of gender and development. The student begins by defining gender inequality and exploring its manifestations, including societal expectations and legal frameworks. They discuss how gender roles are introduced from childhood and how certain biases still exist in society. The essay then shifts to the student's personal development, noting shifts in their thinking and providing examples of women in high-tech organizations and successful ventures. The student emphasizes the impact of policies and laws in promoting gender equality and the importance of mutual support among women. The essay also references the concept of respect alongside equality as foundational values in human rights, underscoring that equality should be considered a human right. Finally, the essay references several academic sources to support the student's observations and insights.

Gender reflection

TABLE OF CONTENTS
ARMED CONFLICT IS ALWAYS GENDERED.........................................................................1
1. In what ways has your thinking shifted in terms of gender................................................1
2. In what way your thinking has shifted in terms of development.......................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................3

ARMED CONFLICT IS ALWAYS GENDERED
1. In what ways has your thinking shifted in terms of gender.
Gender inequality refers to a thought of many people which says men and women are not
equal, they are being unequally treated due to their gender roles. Gender inequality begins with
theoretical approaches to gender and conflict (Butterfield & Heineman, 2017). As children grow
they are then being introduced to some specified roles that are typically connected with
biological sex. It has been discovered that, in this world the term gender roles refer to those
concepts of society that show how women and men are expected to behave. Apart from this, it
has been noticed that, at the time of training sessions though women are provided training but it
is believed that only men must be given more importance (Kabeer, 2015). It has been seen since
ancient times that many women have been forgotten or very few have got credit for their
struggles. I think even today our society is very quick in judging outfits for male child it is blue
and for female it is pink, even people apply these colour codes as labels when baby is in womb.
Moreover, females are considered to outnumber men in child care centres, or health institutions.
Further, I think certain legal laws have become increasingly clear such as; policies, programs,
legal framework, etc., with the aim of ensuring gender equality and handle the poverty of
feminist have has limited success (Davies and True, 2015). Worldwide this slow progress is even
more concerning, which will lead to difficulty to meet gender equality & betterment of women 's
empowerment by target date of 2030.
Apart from this, in the Israel military it has been revealed that females are made feel
ashamed because as per gendered beliefs, women crossed gender boundaries and used power of
military that was conserved particularly for masculine use. Therefore, women's perceptions of
control are important tool for understanding gender dynamics & may contribute to identifying
unspoken practices as well as supporting to change them (Human Rights in Armed Conflict,
2015). When I searched for Agenda 2030, I found a word i.e. power and then I found
empowerment in number of positions. All of them were related to the women's empowerment.
Its aim is to promote the social, political, and economic including irrespective of sex, age,
disability, religions or other status. I noticed that most of the issues that were present in that are
covered by goal to attain gender equality & empower all women and girls, and its target in spite
of the fact that women's rights are not part of the aim as at first suggested (Kabeer, 2015).
1

2. In what way your thinking has shifted in terms of development.
Now, whenever I look around at my colleagues, a majority of which are females who are
at very high positions at high tech organisations and some women have started their own
company and took them to extreme levels of success (Lomsky-Feder & Sasson-Levy, 2017). In
terms of gender equality development, I believe that due to certain laws, or policies, imposed by
government changes are seen recently. In many countries people have started respecting women
and I know it will continue to grow in upcoming years. In today world, females have owned
most of the firms, more resources which will definitely take those countries towards growth.
Moreover, world has attained progress towards this gender inequality issue & female's
empowerment under various development goals. Yet in some countries it has been seen that,
when it comes to equality i.e. equal pay, equal vote, or equal education they failed (Shepherd,
2007). I think people should begin to change and it needs a commitment. Even every woman
should start supporting each other and face challenges together. Still, more legislations are
necessary by government in order to remove the gender bias, hence, gender equality should be
considered as human right. In an article of Can Respect be key to gender justice, in which
equality and respect are together with self-respect, that are well-advised foundational values in
global human rights speech. Whereas, equality has been introduced as a broadly accepted goal in
female's rights movement, however, respect is less raised. I noticed that there are still certain
restrictions in wayyuu, the sanctity it estate and the implications, this had for women's status &
power among the Arsi Oromo call for an expedition of respect & not as an alternative to equality
(Marit, 2017).
2

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Butterfield, J. & Heineman, E. (2017). The Gendered Nexus between Conflict and Citizenship in
Historical Perspective. The Oxford Handbook of Gender and Conflict, 62.
Davies, S.E. and True, J., (2015). Reframing conflict-related sexual and gender-based violence:
Bringing gender analysis back in. Security Dialogue. 46(6).
Lomsky-Feder, E. & Sasson-Levy, O. (2017). Women soldiers and citizenship in Israel:
Gendered encounters with the state. Routledge.
Shepherd, L. J. (2007). ‘Victims, Perpetrators and Actors’ Revisited: Exploring the potential for
a feminist reconceptualization of (International) security and (Gender) violence. Political
studies association.9. 239-256.
Kabeer, N., (2015) Gender, poverty, and inequality: a brief history of feminist contributions in
the field of international development. Gender and Development. 23(2). pp. 189-205. ISSN
1355-2074
Kabeer, N., (2015). Tracking the gender politics of the Millennium Development Goals: struggles
for interpretive power in the international development agenda. Third World Quarterly. 36
(2). pp. 377-395.
Marit, T. Ø., (2017). Can Respect be key to gender justice? Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute. 24. pp. 71-89.
Online
Human Rights in Armed Conflict. (2015). [ONLINE] Available through:
<https://home.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/heiwa/Pub/E19/chap6.pdf>
3