Introduction
“There are activities in society such as cooking in the kitchen, going to the market and groceries to buy some food for daily basic needs of our family. Are those activities a part of gender or sex…?
This question was addressed to the group of ‘Gender analysis, Sensitivity and Public Policy Training’ in West Sumatra, Indonesia about three years ago. They were women in grass root communities. They had a chance to gain knowledge about gender through the training that was conducted by one of Non-Government Organizations (NGO) in West Sumatra. Two-thirds of the members chose sex as an answer and the others put this question in a gender category.
The reason why the majority of the group chose sex as an answer was not clear; they may have thought that this condition was natural. From their great-grandmothers, grandmothers to their generation, these activities have been always done by women, not by men. This condition implies that gender awareness is still limited in the communities. However, this is not their fault, because they had never received an education regarding gender awareness before. Of course, they did not understand what the gender concept is and how to make a distinction between an idea of sex and that of gender.
In the society where this condition is natural, it seems that people think women and men should play a different part of daily work. This idea has been taken for granted. In their society, ideally, men do some activities in the public space and women in the domestic space only. Men must be responsible for their family, meaning that they have to make living for their family. On the other hand, since women are stuck at home, their activities tend to inside of the house such as looking after their children and doing everything that relates to housing as a homemaker.
This stereotype still exists and has negative effects for women. For example, while they want to do activities in the public space as a professional in their career, they have to work twice as much as men do. Firstly, as a homemaker, they always take care of their children and work for their family. Secondly, as an employer at work in the public space, they have work just like male employers. Moreover, there are many obstacles in advancement of their career. Men are prior to women in advancement of their career, because many people still consider men as a head of family and women as a second breadwinner.
Gender and Sex
Actually, there are different concepts between gender and sex. According to Gailey (1987), gender differences are socially constructed. In addition, Heyzer (1995) said that gender refers to the differences of roles between women and men that were created socially. It has indicated that circumstances in one society determine what kind of role has to be played by men and by women. These roles change from time to time and are different from one place to another.
Women can play men’s role, as men can play women’s role. For example, on one hand men can do activities like women do such as cooking in the kitchen, taking care of their children as a homemaker, going to the market, buying vegetables and doing activities that women usually do. On the other hand, women can get a good job and a good position of a big company as men do, or women can serve as a leader of a political party.While gender is defined by social construction, sex involves biological perspectives. Gailey (1987) mentions that sex differences are physiological features related to procreation or biological reproduction. In addition, Fakih (1996) states that sex is omnipotence of the God for women and men as humans beings. Each sex has specific tools that cannot be interchangeable between men and women. For example, males produce sperm, whereas females produce eggs and bear children (Gailey; 33). Females also have their period every month and feed the baby.
Based on those explanations, a gender concept is determined through an agreement on roles of women and men. This is like a contract about roles that males and females play. Therefore, it is not wrong for men to do activities such as washing the dishes, taking care of their children and shopping, but in our society, women are reluctant to ask men or their husband to do those activities, especially when their mother-in-law or sisters-in-law stay at the same house with the family. Women who are homemakers are not brave enough to ask their husband to help them. Why do women behave that way? Because in our culture it is still hard for people to believe that men or husbands can do some work in the domestic space. It means that gender ideology has trapped in our society’s mindset. This is a kind of social obstacles for women who want to be equal to men.
Gender Ideology
Gender ideology is, as Prasetyo (1991) stated, a kind of human consideration in their society. They have clearly divided women’s parts and men’s parts in society. They created ‘two boxes’ based on their experiences and the process of socialization in their circumstances. One of the boxes is for men and the other box is for women. This separation has figured out that there are different parts and roles played by men and women in each box.This consideration has twisted people’s mindset, and it has left a strong impression deep in women and men in their society. The specific characteristics of males and females are set by the gender ideology. As a result, this condition has become a custom in that society and trapped their mindset about the roles of women and men in the society. In the end, this condition turned into a part of their culture.
This condition produced the gender bias and a kind of social obstacles, making it difficult for women to do activities in the public sphere as men do such as in political system. There are a little number of women in politics activities.ConclusionTo summarize, gender bias that concerns men only and ignores women’s roles has to be removed. It is important to foster gender awareness internally and externally. In order to reach this goal, internally, a family member has to teach and give lessons to the other members of the family about gender awareness. Parents should provide correct concepts about gender and sex as they bring up their children. As a result, their children have gender awareness from their early age. For example, parents should not disallow their daughter climbing trees for the reason that this action is done by boys, not girls.
It is not always necessarily for parents to give gifts for their children, such as dolls only for a girl and guns only for a boy. Externally, the government as a decision-maker has to establish public policies that address women’s problems. The decision-makers have to be sensitive about gender and give a chance for potential female representatives in Parliament. It is believed that women decision-makers, once they have reached positions with political power, can successfully create a positive change for women in the grass root level as well as for the current political system that contains many obstacles, including pressures to conform to the traditional political party doctrine and practice. It is hoped that internal and external change to spread gender awareness will produce gender equality in the society.
@selinaswati; 2002
References
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Dahlerup, Drude. Women in Parliament, using Quota to Increase Woman Representative in Parliament. Indonesia: Yayasan Jurnal Perempuan, 2002
Fakih, Mansour. Gender Analysis and Social Transformation. Indonesia: Pustaka Pelajar, 1996.
Gailey, Christine Ward. Analizing Gender; a Handbook of Social Science Research. Editors by Hess, Beth B. and Ferre, Myra Marx. California: Sage Publication Inc, 1987.
Norris, Pippa. Women, Media and Politics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Prasetyo, Nunu A. Indonesian Women Movement. Indonesia: Tiara Wacana, 1991
