Gender Equality Mindset

To fully practise empowering leadership, we need to develop knowledge and understanding of gender equality. In every country in the world, there are still inequalities between men and women. By reflecting and researching what those might be in our context, we can overcome gender barriers to leadership and create empowering spaces for ourselves and the women and girls around us. 

UN Women defines gender as: “…the roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society at a given time considers appropriate for men and women... " 

These attributes, opportunities and relationships are socially constructed and are learned through socialization processes. They are context and time-specific as well as changeable. 

Gender determines what is expected, allowed and valued in a person in a given context. In most societies there are differences and inequalities between women and men in responsibilities assigned, activities undertaken, access to and control over resources, as well as decision making opportunities. Gender is part of the broader socio-cultural context, as are other important criteria for socio-cultural analysis including class, race, poverty level, ethnic group, sexual orientation, age, etc.” Link :  UN Women 

Stated simply, ‘gender’ is the social aspect of our identity as women and as men: the way we dress, the way we behave in public, the way that we interact with members of the same and different biological sexes, the roles we have in our families, the expectations that we have for our lives. It is everything we absorb from our culture, society and experiences that becomes part of our experience of ‘being a woman’ and ‘being a man’. It is important to note that not everybody experiences ‘being a woman’ or ‘being a man’ in the way that is most common in their society and many people do not identify with either of these two binary categories. 

Being ‘gender neutral’, saying ‘I see the person, not the gender’ or otherwise positioning ourselves as neutral towards difference sounds like it should be a positive thing - an approach that treats all people equally regardless of their personal characteristics. 

However, such an approach ignores the fact that our differences impact how we perceive and understand everything in the world, as well as how we act in response. It does not take into account that different people are going to need different support to reach the same goals precisely because of their experiences as a person with a gender, race, set of abilities, economic background, educational attainment level, sexuality or any other of the many diversities. If you haven’t had the same advantages and experiences as the person next to you, you may find some things much harder - this needs to be recognized and considered by the leaders/people in charge of the situation or an activity, acknowledging that everyone is starting from a different level. 

Find out more about mainstreaming gender and diversity in :  Europe Region's Gender and Diversity Mainstreaming Toolkit