Gender and Economic ills
Last week i had to do a training on Gender for my colleagues and we deliberated on Gender and Economic ills. one might think that this issue of gender is overemphasised and has no bearing on the economy. Well it is important we study gender and know it's economic importance and values. First and foremost, we start with the definition of Gender. What is Gender?
Gender is social and cultural constructs differentiating men and women and defining the ways they interact with each other. Gender notions are usually defined by the society. Gender differs from sex because while Sex is the biological characteristics that differentiate men and women which is permanent like Women breastfeeding and men having different sexual organs from women, Gender are the notions that surrounds them, often dictated by the society and are subject to change.
Why is the study of Gender important? because gender tells us how we interact with each other , because the relationship between genders bothers on economic relationships and productivity. The study of Gender has lead us to know how best we can harness the potentials of the economic for profitable growth.
Through gender we have realised that the word poverty and illiteracy is associated with the African women. Statistics have shown that in Nigeria girls are grossly marginalised and women are poorer than men. Statistics show that there are more females out of school than males. Also more males in the Labour force than females. During war and violence, females are more vulnerable than the males. They are raped and humiliated , females are used to count the number of ills in an economy. For instance there's an estimated number of 1.8 million women in the IDP camps since the advent of Boko Haram. Recently, females are being kidnapped from their homes in Kaduna State in exchange for ransom fees.
It is through the study of gender we understand that there is gender inequality in the Nigerian economy. We try to understand the underlying issues concerning these inequalities and how they can be corrected. Furthermore , Gender helps us understand the strength of a woman and how she can contribute to quell economic hazards, bridge the gap and aid in proper enlightenment of our generations. To correct the anormality that equates women to poverty and illiteracy.
