Access

The means or rights to obtain services, products or commodities. Gender gaps in access to resources and services are one type of obstacle to women's development. Women's achievement of equality of access to resources and services as seen as an objective for women's equality, by the same token, women's mobilization to achieve equality of access is an element of the process of empowerment.

Age of Consent

While the phrase age of consent typically does not appear in legal statutes, when used with reference to criminal law the age of consent is the minimum age at which a person is considered to be capable of legally giving informed consent to any contract or behaviour regulated by law with another person. Often, this phrase refers specifically to those laws regulating sexual acts. The age of consent varies widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The median seems to range from 16 to 18 years, but laws stating ages ranging from 12 to 21 do exist. In many jurisdictions, age of consent is interpreted to mean mental or functional age.

Aspirations

A strong desire to achieve something high or great.

Bias/Prejudice

A pre-conceived opinion. The formation of value judgments, normally negative, with respect to people or situations, without sufficient knowledge or information of the subject matter.

Coeducation

An educational model going beyond mixed education, co-education is based on the recognition of the potential and individuality of girls and boys, regardless of their sex, fostering the development of each and every pupil through acknowledging the existence of the two different sexes, but focusing on personal development and the joint construction of society over and above gender stereotypes. The goal of co-education is to enable each pupil, having overcome the different stages of physical, financial and emotional dependence, to develop and lead their own life, to establish relations of equality and fairness and to interact with their environment in a responsible manner on the basis of their own personal and social commitment to building a healthier, fairer and more supportive world for all.

Empowerment

Empowerment implies people - both women and men - taking control over their lives: setting their own agendas, gaining skills (or having their own skills and knowledge recognized), increasing self-confidence, solving problems, and developing self-reliance. It is both a process and an outcome. Empowerment implied an expansion in women's ability to make strategic life choices in a context where this ability was previously denied to them. Empowerment of women is an essential process in the transformation of gender relations because it addresses the structural and underlying causes of subordination and discrimination.

Equality of Opportunity

Everybody has an equal chance, especially for equal access. In other words equality of opportunity means that there is no structural discrimination standing in the way of any individual or social group. Equality of opportunity for women would mean ending all gender discrimination.

Gender

Gender refers to the economic, social and cultural attributes and opportunities associated with being male or female in a particular point in time. This includes: roles and relationships, personality traits, attitudes, behaviors, values, relative power and influence that society ascribes to the two sexes (male and female) on a differential basis. Whereas biological sex is determined by genetic and physical characteristics, gender is an acquired identity that is learned, changes over time, and varies widely within and across cultures. Gender is relational and refers not simply to women or men but to the relationship between them.

Gender Differences  

Culturally based differences between males and females.

Gender Discrimination

Gender discrimination refers to any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of socially constructed gender roles and norms which prevents a person from enjoying full human rights.

Gender Equality  

Gender equality means equal treatment of women and men in laws and policies, and equal access to resources and services within families, communities and society at large. Gender equality entails the concept that all human beings, both men and women, are free to develop their personal abilities and make choices without the limitations set by stereotypes, rigid gender roles, or prejudices. Gender equality means that the different behaviors, aspirations and needs of women and men are considered, valued and favored equally. It does not mean that women and men have to become the same, but that their rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they are born male or female.

Gender  Equity

Gender equity means fairness and justice in the distribution of benefits and responsibilities between women and men.  It often requires women-specific programmes and policies to end existing inequalities. Gender equity means fairness of treatment for women and men, according to their respective needs. This may include equal treatment or treatment that is different but considered equivalent in terms of rights, benefits, obligations and opportunities. In the development context, a gender equity goal often requires built-in measures to compensate for the historical and social disadvantages of women.

Gender identity

The knowledge that one is a male or a female and the internalization of this fact into one's self-concept.

Gender issue

Refers to any aspect of women and men's lives and gender relations, including their access to, and control over, resources and opportunities.

Gender Neutral

Having equal impact on both men and women, giving them equal access to resources and benefits of a development initiative.

Gender Sensitive

Contributing towards the improvement of the possibilities of female self-determination and participation. Being aware that gender stereotyping or gender equality may exist and trying to remedy the infraction. An attempt to redress existing gender inequalities.

Refers to the state of knowledge of the socially constructed differences between women and men, including differences in their needs, as well as to the use of such knowledge to identify and understand the problems arising from such differences and to act purposefully to address them.

Gender Role Stereotyping

The constant portrayal, such as in the media or in books, of women and men occupying social roles according to the traditional gender division of labor in a particular society. Such gender role stereotyping works to support and reinforce the traditional gender division of labor by portraying it as "normal" and "natural".

Gender stereotypes

A society's expectations about the characteristics of females as a group and males as a group. Both the male and female stereotype are based on a set of pre-conceived beliefs and ideas that biological sex predetermines certain “natural” attributes which differentiate women from men. In reality, these attributes are cultural and patriarchal constructs expressed as clichés and imposed on any given individual depending on their biological sex.

Standard characteristics of gender stereotype include:

• Hierarchy: The male stereotype is hierarchically superior to the female, giving rise to relations based on dominance and submissiveness between men and women.

• Complementarity: The two genders are complementary in that human potential is developed between the two, thus paving the way for a lack of personal autonomy and the construction of dependence-based relations, inhibiting women from developing male-related potential and vice-versa.

Thus, gender stereotypes limit the holistic development of women and men as they foster, in each case, the development of different capacities, values, attitudes and behaviour.

HIV/AIDS:

A deadly infectious disease that has killed millions across the globe. It has had the largest affect in sub-Saharan Africa, where it has stalled poverty relief and is partially responsible to the continued increase in the poverty rate there.

Inequality

When discussing poverty, inequality often refers to the income gap between the rich and poor of society. The greater the gap, the greater the inequality. When discussing gender, inequality refers to the gap between men and women’s human rights and access to power.

Male domination

Privilege and access to resources and rights experienced by men based on their belonging to the dominant group and not on their individual or personal characteristics, attitudes and skills. This results in limited or no access to resources and rights for women who become the targeted group. This unequal access gives men more power than women in a society.

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Set of eight human development goals set by the United Nations in 2000. The goals address several poverty issues, and are intended to be achieved by 2015.

Reproductive Rights

Reproductive rightsrest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence.

Resources

Resources are means and goods, including those that are economic (household income) or productive (land, equipment, tools, work, credit); political (capability for leadership, information and organization); and time.

Access . Access to resources implies that women are able to use and benefit from specific resources (material, financial, human, social, political, etc).

Control . Control over resources implies that women can obtain access to a resource as and can also make decisions about the use of that resource. For example, control over land means that women can access land (use it), can own land (can be the legal title-holders), and can make decisions about whether to sell or rent the land.

Benefits . Economic, social, political and psychological retributions derived from the utilization of resources, including the satisfaction of both practical needs (food, housing) and strategic interests (education and training, political power)  

Self-reliance

The ability of people to improve themselves out of their own resources, by their own efforts. But here the term is given the special - and common - meaning of people's advancement by their own efforts within the existing social structure. This meaning of self-reliance implies that development problems arise from inadequacies in people's present abilities and efforts, rather than from inadequacies in society, or from structural inequality. This definition enables us to make a useful distinction between "self-reliance" and "empowerment", where the latter means taking power in both the individual and social plans. Where women's development involves overcoming a social system of discrimination against women, it is inadequate to discuss the development process purely in terms of women's self-improvement or increased self-reliance; we need also to discuss women's collective action for increased empowerment.

Sex

Sex refers to the biological characteristics which define humans as female or male. These sets of biological characteristics are not mutually exclusive as there are individuals who possess both, but these characteristics tend to differentiate humans as males and females. (WHO)

Sexual Predator

The term sexual predator is used pejoratively to describe a person seen as obtaining or trying to obtain sexual contact with another person in a metaphorically predatory manner. Analogous to how a predator hunts down its prey, so the sexual predator is thought to "hunt" for his or her sex partners. People who commit sex crimes, such as rape or child sexual abuse, are commonly referred to as sexual predators, particularly in tabloid media or as a power phrase by politicians.

Socially constructed roles

Learned behaviour in a society and/or community that conditions group members to understand activities, tasks, roles and responsibilities as female and male. Gender roles are learned and change over time and vary according to culture, class, ethnicity, and race.