Volume : 9, Issue : 3, MAR 2023

DRA ANNUAL NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH, EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT: OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES

GENDER SENSITIZATION AND EDUCATION

DR. DINESH KUMAR GUPTA

Abstract

Gender is a social and cultural construct, which includes the expectations held about the characteristics, aptitudes and likely behaviours of both women and men, and accordingly refers to the roles and responsibilities of men and women. Gender-based roles and other attributes, therefore, change over time and vary with different cultural contexts. This concept is also useful in analyzing how commonly shared practices legitimize discrepancies between sexes. Gender sensitivity encompasses the ability to acknowledge and highlight existing gender differences, issues and inequalities, and incorporate these into strategies and actions. Gender sensitivity is not about pitting women against men. On the contrary, education that is gender sensitive benefits members of both sexes. It helps them determine which assumptions in matters of gender are valid and which are stereotyped generalizations. Gender awareness requires not only intellectual understanding and effort but also sensitivity and open-mindedness to change one’s views and limited perspectives and values. It opens up the widest possible range of life options for both women and men and builds their capacities to be more wholesome and humane. In this regard, teachers are strategically positioned to act as agents of change in order to achieve gender equality, especially through what they teach, how they teach and how they role model their own attitudes, beliefs and practices in the classroom and beyond. Indeed, teachers do not come into classrooms as gender-neutral persons. They are likely to have internalized a patriarchal gender ideology through their upbringing and years of socialization in both formal and informal settings. The influence of teachers and educators on gender roles of their students immensely impacts their educational outcomes as well as their roles in contemporary society.

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