Gender awareness and equality

Gender awareness,    equality 

and pronouns

Gender awareness raising aims at increasing general sensitivity, understanding and the knowledge about gender equality.

Awareness raising is a process which helps to facilitate the exchange of ideas, improve mutual understanding and develop skills which are necessary for social changes. Gender awareness raising means providing reliable and accessible information to built a better understanding of gender equality as a core value of democratic societies.

Gender neutral or gender inclusive pronouns are unspecific to one gender. Using gender neutral pronouns doesn’t label or associate the person being discussed with a specific gender. This is specially important for people who does not identify with their assigned gender at birth. Physical sex does not determine gender. In other words, genitals does not mean same gender. Rather than assume someone’s pronouns based on their perceived gender or appearance , it’s hard to ask what their pronouns are. 

A common misconception or trend these is to say PGPs for preferred gender pronouns. However for many people their pronouns are not preferred, they are mandatory.

MISGENDERING

One’s gender can be communicated with the use of pronouns, so mistaking their pronouns mistake their gender. Therefore, it is important to respect pronouns as it validates a person’s identity. Misgendering is when someone’s pronouns are not respected, which can be an act of violence. Disrespecting a transgender person’s pronouns could threaten their safety and jeopardize their security. 

   It’s important to remember that even if someone looks cisgender or appears to look like a man or women, that doesn’t mean you can assume their pronouns. Using pronouns creates safer and more inclusive spaces for people to be themselves knowing that other people are going to respect their identity.

• Gender queer: A person whose gender identity falls outside of the dominant societal norms for their assigned sex, is beyond genders or is some combination of them.

 

• Non- binary: A gender identity and experience that embraces a full universe of expressions and ways of being that resonate for an individual. It may be an international creation of new unbounded ideas of self within the world. For some people who identify as non-binary, there may be overlap with other concepts and identities like gender expansive and gender non-conforming.

• Transgender: it describes a wide range of identities and experiences of people whose gender identity differs from conventional expectations based on their assigned sex at birth. Not all trans people undergo medical transition (surgery or hormones).

Some other definitions that are used in our society to determine the transgender:

• Someone whose determination of their sex or gender is not universally considered valid or someone whose behaviour or expression doesn’t match to their assigned gender according to society.

• A gender outside of the man and women binary.

• Having no gender or multiple genders.

Transgender inequality is the unequal protection transgender people receive in work, school and in society in general. These people generally face transphobic harassment. This is one of the largest reasons that these people face inequality is due to a lack of public understanding. Many of these people experience gender dysphoria, which is a disconnect between one’s assigned sex at birth and the gender which the individual identifies with.

 

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS:

Preamble to the constitution mandates justice- social, economic and political equality of status. 

• The first and foremost right that they are deserving of is the right to equality under the Article 14.

• Article 15 speaks about the prohibition of discrimination of the ground of religion, race, sex, caste or the place of birth.

• Article 21 ensures to privacy and personal dignity to all the citizens.

• Article 23 prohibits trafficking in human beings as beggars and other similar forms of forced labor and any contravention of these provisions shall be an offence punishable in accordance with law.

PROBLEMS FASED BY TRANSGENDERS:

The main problems that are being faced by the transgender community are discrimination, unemployment, lack of educational facilities, homelessness, lack of medical facilities like HIV care and hygiene, depression and hormone pill abuse etc. The other fields where this community feels neglected are inheritance of property or adoption of a child. They are often pushed to the periphery as a social outcaste and many may end up begging and dancing.

A central aspect of gender is gender identity. Gender identity is the self- image that one has about one’s own gender as masculine, feminine or otherwise. Often people assume that gender identity is congruent with biological sex: they believe that a female is identified as feminine and a male will be identified as masculine. However this is not true for everyone, since some people with male biology feels strongly feminine and some with female biology feels themselves to be masculine and there is nothing wrong in it. Others do not consider their gender to be either masculine or feminine, but a blend of both but still others feel that they are neither masculine nor feminine, but some other third gender. It is important to remember that gender is a malleable and variable category.