Men and women have different needs, aspirations and access to resources. They play different roles, and often face different opportunities and constraints in their lives and livelihoods. Yet, at least in a modern democracy, it is unacceptable that social or cultural circumstances should prevent a person of either sex from attaining his or her full potential and leading a happy and fulfilling life. The purpose of highlighting the dimension of gender is simply to identify those areas where either men or women (usually the latter) are disadvantaged by
existing practices or modes of behavior and to formulate ways to redress this.
The rules a society has for its men and women and the roles they play in daily life are specific to each place, time and culture. They can and do change, albeit sometimes very slowly. They demarcate responsibilities between men and women for all kinds of social and economic activities, for access to natural and financial resources, and for decision-making processes in the family and the community. Gender equity and equality of opportunity are not only a question of fundamental human rights and social justice and therefore desirable as ends in themselves, but are also a fundamental precondition for sustainable development and human security.
The division of labour, ownership of property and access to power, generally based upon perceived and ritualized gender differences, result in women and men even of the same class experiencing their surroundings in different ways. This means that they live with a different knowledge and understanding of the environment. For example, while environmental degradation affects the lives of everyone, it is the women who, in their daily chores, interact most directly with nature for their family’s water, food, fuel, fiber and animal fodder, and who are the worst sufferers when it is degraded or destroyed.
The difference between the lives of women and those of men is conditioned by the process of socialization adopted by each society – in the family, at school, in the place of worship, through the media and by interaction with peers and society at large. In many societies, particularly those in daily contact with nature, women carry major responsibilities for managing plants and animals, for working in forests, dry lands, wetlands and agriculture; for satisfying family needs such as fetching water and cooking; for generating income; and for safeguarding the local land and water resources. By doing so, they contribute time, energy, skills and personal visions to family and community development. Their extensive experience, gained over centuries and passed on across generations, makes them an invaluable source of knowledge and expertise on environmental management and appropriate actions.
Notwithstanding this expertise and prime knowledge of human-environment interactions, women are still not among the decision makers in most societies. This means that their concerns are not only not addressed in community development activities; their access to and control over resources is also greatly diminished.
To redress this, every effort must be made to enable women directly to enter the mainstream of all the major aspects of live and livelihoods. They must be able to take integral part in the processes of decision making at all levels, and in all areas of social, economic and political involvement. Tokenism through such gestures as reservations and special facilities can only take them a short distance: in the long run we will need a total commitment to building the institutions they need for education, skill building and participation. This means not only a total commitment to life-long learning processes but also the discarding of many millennia-old social and cultural practices that are in any case no longer acceptable.
Ashok Khosla is founder and chairman of Development Alternatives