1. The Cultural Geography of Gender
Subtitle

2. Cultural Influences on Gender Roles
Cultural norms can control the advancement or subjugation of women and their status in certain regions of the world.
Culture and society has an enormous impact on gender roles in America. Americans receive thousands of cultural messages each week concerning gender roles, including advertisements, movies, TV, music, magazines, and family influence. People evaluate these messages to understand expectations for their gender and how they should operate within society. While many people and organizations challenge these traditional gender roles, the influence of main stream culture remains evident.

3. Transgender
Trans people are still viewed in some cultures as social pariahs with a glaring otherness hanging about them. The way in which we view gender has been very rigid and inflexible. According to many, this is very oppressive.
Gender roles often limit the activities of men and women, who don’t want to be perceived as effeminate or masculine for performing certain tasks.
Ex. Boys too often grow into hard men who have walled themselves off and expelled the notion of vulnerability because they do not want to be seen as weak or effeminate.
Ex. Girls, meanwhile, will grow into women afraid to voice their opinions or beliefs because they do not want to be perceived as domineering.
Today, society is now advocating the careful consideration of gender and gender roles in their current form.
By changing the way we see gender, we are eliminating the above notions.
Does gender even matter anymore?

4. Gender and Development
The development of a culture/society is closely tied to how they view women. In developed countries, the role of the woman in society has changed. We use several measurements concerning gender in determining how developed a culture/society/country actually is. It all goes back to how they treat women. Other, more advanced societies who have advanced the status of women in society, are now considering the elimination of gender as a determinant within culture.
How do less developed countries view transgender?

5. Development by Gender: How is it measured?
Gender Inequality Index (GII)
Gender Development Index (GDI)
Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM)
Child Marriage (CM)
Who creates these???— United Nations Human Development

6. GDI indicators

7. Gender Related Development Index (GDI)
Economic, Social, and Demographic indicators
GDI same statistics to HDI but separates men and women
Income GNI (ECON/standard of living), expected # of schooling years (SOCIAL/knowledge), # of school years (SOCIAL/knowledge), & life expectancy (DEMOGRAPHIC/healthy life)
Country penalized for having disparities (differences) between men and women (ex: school enrollment)

8. Developed—0.975
Developing: 0.904

9. Gender Inequality Index (GII)
GII-major barrier to development; no one society has gained gender equity
Women and girls are discriminated in health, education, political representation and participation in the labor market
Measures
Reproductive health, measured by maternal mortality rates and birth rates
Empowerment-access to jobs, education, rights (equality)
Economic status

10. Gender Inequality Index (GII)
Measures the gender gap in level of achievement in 3 dimensions
Health, empowerment, and labor market
The higher the GII the greater the inequality gap
Score of 0 would mean equality, score of 1.0 is bad
Reproductive health is largest contributor to gender inequality in developing regions
U.S. GII and Canada is .136: which has greater gender inequality?

11. GII Indicators

12. GII 0=0% Gender Inequality/1=100% Gender Inequality
Highest GII Scores-1) Switzerland .040, 2) Denmark .041, 3) Netherlands .044
United States ranked #43 (score of .203)

13. Gender Inequality Index (GII)
HEALTH
Poor reproductive health is a MAJOR contributor to gender inequality (UN MDG’s?)
Maternal mortality rate: number of women who die giving birth per 100,000 births
Developed: 16 deaths…developing: 171 deaths 
Highest SS Africa
Adolescent fertility rate: number of births per women aged 15 to 19
15 in developed…53 in developing
Where gender inequality is highest, contraceptive (birth control) use if low

14. Gender Inequality Index (GII)
Empowerment
Measured by number of seats held by women in legislature (make laws) and number of women who have completed some secondary school
Men hold majority of political power in all countries of the world
Why does this matter?

15. -Highest % are in Europe -Lowest % in SW Asia and N
-Highest % are in Europe -Lowest % in SW Asia and N. Africa -US (2015): 20 of 100 Senators & 84 of 435 in House are women

16. Gender Inequality Index
Empowerment
Secondary School
Worldwide 54% of women have completed SOME secondary school (high school) compared to 64% of men
In N. America, girls are more likely to complete HS!
Developing countries, boys are MUCH more likely to graduate HS…South Asia is the worst.

17. Gender Inequality Index
Labor Market
Female labor force participation rate—% of women holding full-time jobs outside the home
World: women - 51%...men – 77%
Women in developed are more likely to hold full time job than developing world but figures vary widely.
East Asia and SS Africa: gap is smaller as women hold jobs in agriculture and service industries even though that have highest fertility rates

18. Gender Empowerment Measure How is it measured?
The GEM demonstrates the ability of women to participate and determine the power structure of a country
2 Economic indicators:
-% of women in professional and technical jobs
-income level
2 Political indicators:
-% of women in admin or managerial jobs
-% of women holding elected positions

19. Gender Empowerment Measure

20. Gender Empowerment Measure

23. What are the indicators?
Gender Development Index (GDI)
Gender Inequality Index (GII)
Health
Maternal mortality
Adolescent fertility
Empowerment
# of women in legislature
Secondary school
Labor market
Women in work force full time job
Econ (standard of living)
GNI
Social (knowledge)
Expected years of school
Mean years of school
Demographic (healthy life)
Life expectancy

24. Women in Sub-Saharan Africa
Populate much of the rural areas, as men migrate to cites to work
Produce 70% of the regions food
Small % of women have legal title to their land

25. Child Marriage

26. Prevalence of Child Marriage – Top 20 Countries

27. Child Marriage (CM): Constraints to Health & Development
Outcomes of Child Marriage
Maternal mortality
Maternal morbidities
Low birth weight & prematurity
Infant mortality
Reasons for Outcomes
Still growing
First birth
Inadequate prenatal care
Low socioeconomic status
Worse reproductive health outcomes
Wasted investment in development efforts
At a societal level, child marriage constrains health and devt
Get numbers for first point

28. Dowry Deaths
Dowry Deaths-refers the deaths of young women who are murdered or driven to suicide by continuous harassment and torture by husbands and in-laws in an effort to extort an increased dowry. Dowry death is considered one of the many categories of violence against women, alongside rape, bride burning and acid throwing. It is widespread in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and some regions of Africa. Pakistan has the highest reported rates of dowry-related deaths per 100,000 women in the world. In India, alone, there were 8,233 dowry deaths in 2012.

29. Why Does Child Marriage Persist?
Gender roles
Families see girls as financial and social burdens
Lack of socially acceptable alternatives for girls
Family and community honor tied to early marriage
Reinforce ties between families and communities
Desire to protect girls
Lack of political will
Cultural norm
If there are laws, and if the world is aware of the extent of the problem, then why does it persist?

30. Top 10 Countries Where It’s the Worst to be a Woman
India-68% of women suffer from domestic violence, possibility of dowry death
Yemen-GII Score of .78, high rate of child marriage, female literacy rate of 35%, women make 30% of man’s income
Iraq-no women in political office, significant drop in women in the workforce
Pakistan-2nd to last for economic participation for women
Nepal-higher life expectancy for men, 25% of women enrolled in higher education
Peru-61% of women are victims of abuse
Turkey-29% of women are employed, #1 in women working unpaid hours
Sudan-women imprisoned, possibly executed for converting to Christianity
Afghanistan-women imprisoned for leaving husbands
Dem. Rep. of the Congo-rape and sexual assault are commonplace as soldiers use force to rule
What about the U.S.?
U.S. is only core country without national paid family and medical leave. 1 in 4 women return to work within 2 weeks of giving birth. Leads to possible decline in CBR. The Family Medical Leave Act guarantees 12 weeks of maternity leave, no pay guarantee. Trump calling for mothers who are not given paid maternity leave to receive 6 weeks of unemployment benefits paid for by the government.

31. Conclusions
-Just like the HDI, the GII and GEM divide countries into high, medium, and low areas of development.
--Gender inequality in income, education, and political power is a global problem.