Gender Equality, Women’s
Empowerment & Gender Equity
CARE
GED 101
Overview
• Gender: what and why?
• CARE’s Women’s Empowerment (WE)
framework & key concepts
• Men and Boys
Gender is a social construct
Courtesy of: National Geographic Channel
Gender is a social construct
Courtesy Sonke Gender Justice Network
WHY focus on gender?
• “We seek a world of hope, tolerance and social
justice, where poverty has been overcome and
people live in dignity and security.”
• CARE’s core values of Respect, Integrity,
Commitment and Excellence promotes diversity
and gender equity, choice and dignity for all.
• We believe we can more effective in our
programs.
CARE’s efforts to advance Gender
Equality and Women’s Empowerment
• 4 year investment in a Strategic Impact Inquiry
• Development of a women’s empowerment
framework
• Institutional commitment: GED trainings
• CI Gender Policy
WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT is the sum total of
changes needed for a woman to realize her full
human rights – the interplay of changes in:
AGENCY
• Her own aspirations and
capabilities
STRUCTURE
• The environment that surrounds
and conditions her choices
RELATIONS
• The power relations through
which she negotiates her path
CARE’s Women’s Empowerment
Framework
Agency
Relations
Structure
Girls’ Leadership
Voice/
assertion
Vision
Organization
Decisionmaking/Action
Selfconfidence
Gender
Equality
• Long-term goal
• Absence of discrimination
based on sex
• Equality between men and
women exists when both
sexes are able to share
equally in the distribution
of power and influence
• Gender equity is the process
of being fair to women and
men.
• To ensure fairness, strategies
and measures must often be
available to compensate for
women’s historical and social
disadvantages that prevent
women and men from
otherwise operating on a
level playing field.
• Equity leads to equality.
GENDER
EQUITY
Gender equity leads to gender equality
GENDER EQUALITY
GENDER EQUITY
Engaging men and
boys
equal treatment
before the law
Women’s empowerment & girls’
leadership is a critical aspect of
promoting gender equality
equal access to
social provisions
Equal access to
education
Quota for female
representatives
WHAT DO MEN AND BOYS
HAVE TO DO WITH IT?
Important part of the equation
A domain in the WE framework is
RELATIONS
Programming in Action: Burundi
QUESTIONS?
THANK YOU!