Philanthropy and Gender Inequality

Philanthropy in Gender Equality Efforts

The Approaches to Gender Equality

The Welfare Approach

The Equity approach

Anti-poverty Approach

The Efficiency Approach

The Empowerment Approach

Scenario

Philanthropic budget of $500,000

Scenario

Philanthropic budget of $10,000,000

Scenario

Philanthropic budget of $100,000,000

The protection, survival and development of girls and boys on an equal basis and the eradication of discrimination on the basis of sex in all walks of life especially in education, work and society is the basic meaning of gender equality. It also refers to the equal rights of girls and boys and women and men (http://www.unicef.org, 2015).

It is well established that in the modern society, discrimination in any form and at any place is unacceptable. Acts of discrimination on the basis of sex in education and in social life, is further more damaging to a human beings as individuals. This is so because such discriminations denies or robs from the person being discriminated against, the opportunity of career advancement, financial gains and equal opportunities often resulting mental trauma ('GENDER EQUALITY FRAMEWORK', 2008). Ultimately such discrimination can lead to a sense of helplessness and may even be viewed as a form of torture by the individual being discriminated against. Thus sometimes discriminations on the basis of sex also often is also compared to and becomes topics of debate about the possible violation of human rights for the persons discriminated against (Johnson, 2001).

The basic concept of gender equality is based on the human rights principle of equal rights. The human rights principle on equal rights says that every individual should get equal right sot be treated equally (Genderequality.ie, 2015). Therefore deriving from this concept and globally established norms, it can be said that the gender equality also entails this basic human rights norm of equality where men and women should receive equal treatment and there should not be any discriminated against any woman on the basis of gender (http://www.unicef.org, 2015). This was also one of the objectives of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights that is aimed at the creation of equal laws and opportunities in social situations like the democratic activities, education and equal pay at work. However in the general discourse of the topic of gender equality, the aspect of the third or the forth gender is not yet included as it is still a topic of debate and discussion.

The concept of gender equality entails the expectation that organizations, both private and social, should engage in programs that are designed so as to contribute to gender equality in clearly defined, measurable ways and in accordance to the universal declaration of human and civil rights. In short it can be said that the job of promoting meaningful gender equality is the responsibility of all organizations and entities in every walk of life and in every sphere of society (http://www.unicef.org, 2015).

The reasons for the demand for gender equality emanates from the social and cultural context of valuation of the activities and the notion about the roles and responsibilities of the two genders. One of the prime reasons for the demand of gender equality is fact that girls and boys are often faced with different impediments to the complete realization of their human rights (Conceptual Approach to Gender Equality & Women's Empowerment, 2009). Different societies treat girls and boys in different manner. In many cultures and societies, including some in the developed world, girls are often faced with various forms of discrimination which tend to limit their ability to develop their capabilities either through education or otherwise, direct their life course to their choice and abilities, access socially available resources, enjoy freedom from violence and continue to enjoy equal social status. Therefore gender equality or removal of gender inequality is often aimed and focused at interventions that are specifically targeted towards the removal of discrimination against the girls and women (Valimaa, 2004).

The concept and the fight against gender bias in society, since is focused and aimed at women, entails the regarding of women, first and foremost, as human beings who are completely entitled to the right to exercise their human rights and freedoms. / it is after this that women should be expected to complete and exercise their other roles, for example as mothers for service delivery to children (GENDER EQUALITY FRAMEWORK, 2008).

The approaches to creating equitable right s and equal treatment for women and establishment of gender equality are several. The aspect of empowerment of women has the potential to encourage the women to fight for their equal rights to opportunities and treatment in a significant manner. This empowerment can be derived from education, social and democratic rights and economical freedom and rights. Empowerment of women and the female kind also has the potential to create and foster overall development of the family in particular and the community and thus the society at large. For example, a well-educated and empowered woman would have the knowledge that to ensure that for the health of the children it is necessary to space the births of their children and would also have more knowledge about the health and nutrition of the children and take appropriate to ensure healthy children and adopt healthy and better improved sanitation practices (GENDER EQUALITY AND FEMALE EMPOWERMENT POLICY, 2012). Thus a set of healthy serves to fulfill the purpose of a family and a community better than an unhealthy one. This ultimately leads to a betterment of the society as whole.

Nations as whole tend to benefit from gender equality and the empowerment of women. The promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women would help the cause a nation's efforts to reduce poverty and create employment and job opportunities. Therefore the benefits that are to be derived from the gender equality are immense and wide ranging.

The Approaches to Gender Equality

There are several approaches to establish gender equality. These approaches are classified primarily on the basis of the problems that the women face and the aims and objectives of eradicating the problems. The way development professionals and the countries that are concerned with the development assistance viewed the problem of gender bias and inequality described the approaches to gender equality. The changes in the surrounding worlds and the third world policies reflects the changes in the approaches towards women and gender equality. In the initial periods of the concept of gender equality and during the period of the declaration of the universal charter of human rights by the United Nations, there were three primary approaches to gender equality with specific focus on equal rights for women. These were later supplemented with two more approaches based on the change sin view and needs.

Though these approaches tend to be viewed as being prescribed in a linear order, the fact is that their creation was random and based on observations and needs of the society and the women in the society. The approaches can be used in singularity as well as in conjunction with each other to construct an overall framework and approach for the devel9pmentof women and the creation of gender equality in education and several other aspects in society. Most of the approaches were developed to be used in the form and included in the policies of government and various organizations that worked for and intended to promote the cause of gender equality and women development (Conceptual Approach to Gender Equality & Women's Empowerment, 2009).

The Welfare Approach

This is the first approach to the welfare of women and towards the establishment of gender equality with focus on women's equality. This approach was first used in the 1950-60s. This was the beginning of the age of social welfare where there was economic growth. Social welfare was seen as a part of the economic growth where people could take care of themselves. Social welfare only applied to those whose did not have the capacity to or were unable to take care of themselves by taking advantage of the economic growth. This was the path that was taken by the developed nations and there were two ways or paths that were created for the assistance to the development of developing nations. The two ways or paths were to provide financial assistance for financial growth and aid in the form of relief to help in the development of the vulnerable sections of the population (GENDER EQUALITY AND FEMALE EMPOWERMENT POLICY, 2012).

The welfare approach entailed the view of women as passive beneficiaries and not the original beneficiaries of the aid or relief. The role of the women were seen primary as a mother and housewives and bearing and bringing up of children and taking care of the family was considered to be the most important role of the women in society. Helping the vulnerable section of population through the form of direct food aid, heath care services and nutritional help were the primary modes of aid and relief for the vulnerable sections of the society. The concept of this kind of welfare befit approach for the women was that helping the women would ultimately help the entire family and thus entire communities. Therefore the aim was not only the benefit and helping of the women but also the entire community.

There was however sever criticism from women organizations during the 1970s about the welfare approach to women equality. There were allegations that the status of women had been degraded by this approach. The development approach of the developed countries were questioned as well as the approach to modernization. This led ot the search of alternative approaches to women's equality and gender quality.

The Equity approach

This was the approach that was primarily introduced during the Women's Decade announcement and observation by the United Nations during the period from 1976 to 1985. The concept of the equity approach rose from the lack of representation of the contribution of the women in the national economy and the statistics of nations at the national level and the role of the women in the society's economy w=even as more and more women began to play important roles in the societal economy as well as in the national economy of countries (Mukoro, 2013). Women's role were also not visible in the development project's plans or during the implementation of the plans. In this approach to gender equality, attention was paid to presenting equal status to women both in the house as well as in the public spheres of life and in the economic activities. The economic autonomy of women was generally linked to or though given equal value as equity of women. This approach entailed that women would gain some of the equity or benefits of economy and societal gains whereas that gain would come from the gains made by the men who would stand to lose the gains to the women (ANTONOPOULOS & KIJONG, 2011).

Both the productive and the reproductive roles of the women were deemed to be important and they were viewed as active participants in the development of the society and the country. this approach stresses on the need to provide complete political and economic rights to the women and the strategic gender needs of the women can be satisfied by making changes in the structure and the legislation (GENDER EQUALITY AND EQUITY, 2000). These steps and measures would enable the women to be equal parts in the society. However the primary challenge of creation of gender equality through this approach has been the reluctance of the donor association to try and interfere and attempt to make structural changes in the traditions and cultures of societies and countries (Mukoro, 2013). There was also need for change of power distribution which was a tricky proposition to handle for donor associations and bodies working to promote gender equality. Another major hindrance of this approach was implementation part even after changes in the policy and regulations according to the equity approach of gender equality (http://www.unicef.org, 2015). It was often observed that policy changes meant simply of e inclusion of the women in the previous policies with making any significant changes in the policy. Therefore some time, the equity approach did not bear the fruits that the creators had hoped for (http://www.unicef.org, 2015).

Anti-poverty Approach

This was believed to be a lesser version of the equity approach. Though the basic idea was the same- providing more economic and thereby social gains to the women, the difference was that this approach did not intended to interfere with the traditions and cultures of the society or the recipient country (Valimaa, 2004). Therefore the strategic needs of the women were not attempted to be met through this approach. Though this approach recognizes and tries to decrease the income disparity between men and women, this approach does not accept the position that the women were in a subordinate position when compared to men. The inequality between men and women were a result of the lack of access of the women to vital resources that were productive like funding for projects and land and the sexual discrimination that was faced by women in the labor market, this was the driving concept of the anti-poverty approach. Thus following this line of the approach, it can be said that the basic objective of the policies that were formed with this approach were aimed at reducing the poverty and the income disparity between me and women (Valimaa, 2004). The approach believed that in this way growth in the society could be redistributed and income parity eliminated thus elevating the position of the women. This would create opportunities for the women to engage in income generating activities.

The target of the anti-poverty approach to women equality were primarily the women from the low income group. there was realization of the fact that projects that were formed and implemented with inclusion of the women did not provide much benefit to the society and thus it was concluded that the women were the important for the successful implementation of the projects and policies and women were chosen to be the target of the approach (McGovern, 2013). It was also believed that the approach would help in the creation of the overall development of the society through the implementation and success of income generating projects for the women. Such income generating opportunities that were created from women tended to be in the small scale and often focused on the increasing of productivity of the traditional activities of the women. The approach refrained from introducing new area of work for the women (GENDER EQUALITY AND FEMALE EMPOWERMENT POLICY, 2012). But the criticism of this approach lies in the assumption of the small income generation targets for women which was seen to be derogatory for women and in contradiction to the basic purpose of the activity-gender equality.

The Efficiency Approach

This approach focuses on the development of the activities in which women participate instead of the development of the women in general. The basic concept of the approach is that a more equal and just society would be created by the increased participation of women. The concept of the approach also concludes that the actual development would be more fruitful and efficient and effective only after the women participate in the development. The participation of the women in the development roles in all the three roles of their lives -- the role of a productive worker, the role of a community manager who takes care of the mundane issues and the reproductive role in the family and taking care of family, were believed to be critical for the success of any developmental plan and policy. The ability of the women to be flexible enough to easily shift roles and responsibilities form one to another was seen as the basic assumption and advantage of this approach.

The Empowerment Approach

The deficiencies that were exposed by the anti-poverty and the efficiency approaches to gender equality gave rise o the concept of empowerment approach to gender equality. This approach recognizes the differently subordinate position and nature of women with respect to race, class and colonial history and economic situation of the country even while accepting the assumption of the fact of inequality between mane and women in general. While admitting that granting of power to women as important to strike a balance and to reduce the inequality in the society between men and women, this approach however does not believe that the power to be given to the women needs to be essentially taken away from men (Achieving Gender Equality, Women's Empowerment and Strengthening Development Cooperation, 2010). In order to get control over the important sources and resources and materials and non-materials, the women need to have complete faith and conviction in their abilities and skills such that their attempts to creating equality is able to influence their own lives as well as the life of the people around them and thus elevate their position in the society.

The grass root is where the action starts in this approach. The empowerment begins with the granting of power to the women of the weakest section of the society. The awareness about the related strategic needs would be raised even while the problems at hand would be resolved by the addressing of the practical gender needs of the women (Achieving Gender Equality, Women's Empowerment and Strengthening Development Cooperation, 2010). The subordinate position of the women can be changed through the bottom up organizations. The structures that sustain inequality need to be transformed in order to change the position of women in the society and this change and transformation need to happen in a bottom up flow and not a top to bottom flow of directions through legislations and regulations (STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK FOR GENDER EQUALITY, RIGHTS AND DIVERSITY IN DANISH DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION, 2014).

Scenario 1

Philanthropic budget of $500,000

As a head of the philanthropic organization has an annual grant making budget of $500,000, it would be pertinent to choose such a gender equality program that has a limited geographical spread. To have a desired impact through the implementation of the program it is suggested to follow a program that would deal with the spread and increasing of awareness about gender bias and eradication of gender inequality at schools. The program would entail the empowerment approach where the participants would also be made aware about the anti-discrimination legislations and the establishment of the universal charter of human rights and the equality of every individual in every aspect of society has been established.

The scope and the nature of the philanthropic work of the organization have the aim of establishing and spreading of awareness of equality among the school students of a certain number of schools in a particular region. The program duration would depend on the number of students in the school. The schools would be so chosen that they would be co-educational types where there is a presence of both boys and girls. Therefore public schools and certain private schools would be the target schools for this program. The program can be undertaken in two ways. The first is a spree of successive programs at various schools. The second choice would be simultaneous programs throughout various schools.

The program that is being planned would have the human rights approach to gender equality and the program would aim on the increasing of the awareness among the young students about the establishment of the rights of women against discrimination based on the laws and regulations and international norms.

The program would dwell into three important considerations with regards to women and girl rights and gender equality-equity of women to the access of resources, equity of women to equitable treatment and the equity women to outcome of the efforts.

The best way to deal with the issue of gender bias and the issues related to gender discrimination in society is to increase awareness and sensitize. As children, they are at one hand the most vulnerable group in the society on the other they are the pillars and the foundations for the future society. Therefore the objective of the program would be create awareness and sensitize the young population with respect to gender discrimination and gender equality. The aim is the increasing awareness and sensitization of the future generation of the society would go a long way in establishing gender equality and eradication of gender-based discrimination and inequality form the society. The sensitized children would be expected to engage less and less in gender-based discrimination and would be more included to promote and foster gender equality. It is basically working in the present to shape the future. This is the rationale behind the selection of this program through the philanthropy.

This program was specifically chosen given the small budget for the philanthropy. The budget would be spent in the awareness and sensitization programs. Several camps and trainings would be undertaken during the course of the programs and students from various classes from the 6th standard onwards would be included in the program. Children in the standards below class 6 would not be included for the assumption that they would not be able to completely grasp the complex nature of the issues of gender equality. The program would be designed to gradually increase the level of awareness raising and sensitization program during a period of 5 days. The training and the sensitization classes would be taken during the school hours.

It is estimated that given the present budget of $500,000, the program would be able to encompass 300 schools. The program would be conducted simultaneously by 10 teams on a daily basis. Therefore each team would be responsible for a total of 30 schools in total. Given the structure of the program, each team would spend 5 days in every school spending around 2 hours each day in sensitization programs. Therefore the total time period for the completion of the program is expected to be around 30 weeks.

The program would include a structured course of lectures and training to indulge in anti-gender discrimination activities. The impartation of the knowledge would be conducted through speeches and audio visual presentations. The entire course would be designed to explain various perspectives of gender equality in the education sector in particular and society in general to the students. The inclusion of audio visual mode of training and knowledge imparting is intended to make the interactions interesting and acceptable for the students. On the last day of the program in every school, the success of the campaign and the result of the intervention program would be judged through the answering of a questionnaire by the participants in the issues related to gender equality. The success of the programs would be used to find out deficiencies in the program and an expert committee would review the success results every two weeks to judge the progress and the effectiveness of the campaign there would be minor changes in the program if needed to create more effectiveness.

The public education system is one of the best places to target to exert an influence on the children and try and shape their thinking and understandings of issues related to gender discrimination and stereotypes and various roles of individuals in issue of gender equality. According to the report in 2006 by the United Nations Secretary-General on the Violence against Children, say that children spend more of their time at schools than they do at any other place outside their home. Therefore the school is the best place where there is the most chance of contacting the children.

The program that is planned would attempt to create a behavioral change in society by enabling women to access information, resources, and institutions. The perception of the parents and thereby being able to reach out to the surrounding community would also be possible. Therefore the program would also have a one day interaction and training for the parents on the penultimate day of the program in each school.

The program would probably use up most of the philanthropic funds available. This is because of the extensive reach of the program-300 schools and the number of students who can be approached and sensitized. Moreover including the parents would also enable to spread the message wider and into the surrounding community of the schools. The program would need to pay honorarium to the participating volunteers of the project as well as arrange for the various equipment and literature that would be required for the program. The wide reach and the number of approachable students and the inclusion of a section of the community through the participation of the parents absolutely justify the spending of the budget.

The stakeholders involved in the process would be multiple. The first and the primary stakeholders would be the school going children. The earnest participation of the children in the entire program is critical for the success of the attempted of awareness and sensitization. The school authorities are also an important stakeholder as they are the ones who would allow permission for the program to be held and the teams would depend on the provision of necessary resources and infrastructure by the school authorities. Moreover the authorities also need to be motivated enough to actively participate and motive the children to participate in the program. The follow up of the program can also be undertaken by the school authorities in some cases. Another important stakeholder in the project would be the parents. It is important that the parents too participate in the program to spread the reach of the program beyond the school and the students and into the community surrounding the school. This would provide an added perspective to the program where the program would be able to reach out to the community without actually going to the community.

Persuasion of the school authorities would be important. In case there is reluctance of participation of the school authorities it is suggested that the senior members of the teams meet the authorities prior to the program and motivate the authorities by impressing upon them the needs and the importance of sensitization against gender inequality among the children. It is also anticipated that the parents could be reluctant to participate in the program. The parents can be approached through direct interaction or through the school authorities to ensure their participation along the same motivational lines as the school authorities.

The measurement of the success of the program would be made through the answering of a questionnaire by the children related to their change in perception on gender equality after the sensitization program. The questionnaire would have closed questions and a scale for measuring students' attitudes toward gender equality would be made from the value that each student would attribute to the questions. Students who agree with a statement indicating support for gender inequality would be awarded a score. Similarly those who would feel they were not sure and those who disagree would also be awarded marks. The results would be used to find out the level of sensitization for the program. The overall success would be measured after the completion of the awareness and sensitization program throughout the 300 schools.

Scenario 2

Philanthropic budget of $10,000,000

This budget allocation is much more than the previous scenario and some constructive gender equality philanthropic can be done with this money. For this section of the study we choose to adopt the approach of anti-poverty efforts through economic empowerment of women. Since the budget is double to that in the previous scenario therefore it is possible to provide economic empowerment through the philanthropic efforts using the funds.

The aim of the project is to uplift women in marginal societies and women living in poverty who do not have any means of earning form the position of relative subordination. As already established, the women who live in poverty and those who have a bog gap in the income compared to men in the society are generally viewed to be in a subordinate position to that of men in the society. Such women are essentially seen to have the primary role of bearing children and looking after the family. This subjective subordination of such women creates the perception of gender inequality. This gender equality therefore flows from the inability of the women to gain equal economic status and make meaningful earnings to contribute to the society in term of economy. This attempt is to cater to the women to enable them to find out meaningful income generation methods from the traditional work that they are adept at doing but without any financial returns.

According to the United Nations, there are approximately 2 to 2.4 billion women who are forced to live in relative poverty while some of them live in extreme poverty. This is apparent in some of the countries of Africa. Such women do not have any approach and control over the economic resources such as land, personal property, wages and credit. This position of the women not only puts them in a relative position of subordination compared to men but is also subject to gender violence-one of the worst forms of gender inequality. Countries that have informal economies make the issue of women's employment conditions very difficult. Undefined workplaces, unsafe and unhealthy working conditions are some of the characteristics of the places of work for these women and these characteristics are accompanied with low levels of skills and productivity given the lack of access to proper training and education. The income, if they manage to make some, is very low and often irregular. The lack of access to information, markets, finance, training and technology compounds the problem many folds. The pressure of conducting their perceived primary role-that of a mother and homemaker, also forces them away from looking for any skill development activity. Therefore throughout their lives, these women remain poor and subordinate to their male counterparts creating one of the worst forms of gender inequality in human kind.