Gender Sensitizing Workshop

Gender Sensitizing Workshop
The English Society ‘zest’ organized a workshop on gender sensitizing by the NGO BREAKTHROUGH on 24th August 2012, in the college seminar hall. The workshop was led by Pauline Gomes and Radhika Takru from the NGO. All the students of the department of English actively participated in the session. The program was enriched by the active participation of the alumnae.

The sensitizing program began with a healthy interactive session. Brief discussions on gender disparities and gender stereotypes were informative and created awareness. These discussions mainly focused on the difference between sex and gender. While sex is primarily Male and Female, gender is Masculine and Feminine. Sex refers to biological difference due to chromosomes whereas the latter is a social construct. What happens when these two terms get intermixed was also discussed. In sociological terms, ‘gender role’ refers to the process of attributing various characteristics to the sexes. The identity of a person based on one’s gender is solely her/his choice.

The session also showed videos of certain advertisement in order to explain how Media propagate gender stereotypes. For example, man as the sole bread earner of the family, females as the objects of male desire and so on.

The workshop encouraged and inspired students to creatively and actively intervene, challenge and prevent various patriarchal trends such as domestic violence. P.Bidyarani Devi