Gender equality, gender norms/values/stereotypes ...
Gender equality simply describes a 50-50 win affair for both males and females, men and women. This can come through equal rights, responsibilities, opportunities, treatment and valuation of women and men at work in jobs or enterprises and in the relation between work and life. I currently hold the view that most people only talk about gender equality when males dominate than females in a particular instance. On the other hand, the terminology, gender equality is silent where there are more females dominating in another setting. There are clear examples to support this argument. One of them is that, the MDG 3 which states that "Promote gender equality and empower women" links gender equality to women. In Ghana and most countries, no one talks about gender equality in the nursing profession where females are mostly dominated and men cannot rise to the top. Really, should that be the case? But gender equality suggests equal rights, responsibilities, opportunities, treatment and valuation of women and men at work in jobs/enterprises and in the relation between work and life so it my opinion, it should not only be assumed on the other side.
Gender norms/values/stereotypes are the various assumptions, theories people hold on what women and men should possess, be like, what they are capable of doing and what uniquely identifies them. Gender norms in most cases are clearly defined by culture or society right from childhood. In Ghana, most of the academic institutions have females as Assistant School prefects or Vice SRC Presidents. Such positions are just the highest a female can rise to. Gender norms vary from place to place. On the other hand, some individuals may defy such norms and try to move to the other side of the accepted norm or value. In such cases, names are clearly assigned to these individuals. Example in Akan language is ↄbaa-barima (Man-woman) or masculine woman. --Kafuiaheto 21:59, 9 March 2011 (UTC)
