I attended a webinar last March 15 about Gender and Development for Cooperatives. This topic is quite new to me so I wanted to share to you guys my thoughts on the topic and what I have learned during the seminar. I won't go into details on what we did on the webinar but sharing my thoughts on the matter.

Gender and Development is basically all about gender equality. So how can we achieve gender equality? This is quite a very tricky question since we have to define first what is equality. As you all know we all have different opinions regarding what we would consider equal.

If we want to achieve gender equality then you have to put yourself in the shoes of the opposite gender. In the photo above, during the webinar we were asked this question. If you were born a man/woman instead, how would your life be today?

My answer was I would be filthy rich! Now I won't go into details on this coz it might cause women to hate me but that's just how I would think my life would be if I were a woman. Let's just say that the women of today are empowered yes?

Anyways in the webinar they also should us the animated film called The Impossible Dream. Now this animated film shows us how women are viewed in the 1980's. Now that was back then and truth be told we have come a long way in just 30 years. Although it may not be perfectly equal but just looking at the progress we have made then one might say that we are almost there? Well not really. Yeah most of the women today are not slaves to the men anymore. See that? "Most" since not all. Even in todays very high technology age, some women are still being taken advantage of. But wait a minute, why are only talking about women? How about us men eh? Today some men are being slaved away by their wives, does that mean something? Do we even care? And not only that, we also have the LGBT-Q to worry about. The LGBT-Q have faced discrimination too. This is what I meant when I said not really.

The webinar also talked about Gender Equality Issues namely:

• Maginalization/Discrimination - A good example of this is when an job offering is only offered to a specific gender like women or men. Example of this is a cashier. I have yet to see a man doing a cashiers job from where I'm living. Another example would be heavy lifting jobs which are only offered to only to men.
• Gender Stereotyping - A good example of this is the color pink. People often associate pink with women when in fact I am a pinkaholic but I am a man. People often look at me as if their gazes are telling me. Are you gay? and I'm like wtf dude?
• Multiple Burden - This relates to women who have jobs and after their jobs are over still have to take care of the children. This also relates to gender stereotyping in a way that when we think of taking care of the children it is always the mothers duty to do so. When in fact we men can also do the same thing, we may not be as good as women when it comes to taking care of the children but we have our own way of doing it and women doesn't really like how we take care of our children.
• Subordination - This happens when one gender have more power or in control over the other. Long ago husbands have more power than their wives and wives must submit to their husbands. But right now some wives are overpowering their husbands.
• Violence/Abuse - This not only means physical violence but also includes financial, sexual, verbal and emotional abuse. Again a long time ago these things are mostly done by men but now women are doing the same thing and the gender equality scales have been tipped over.

These were the ones that were talked about during our webinar and I'm pretty sure these are not the only issues considering gender equality.

This was not talked about during the webinar as that's why me (which I forgot to mention) as a GAD Chairman of our cooperative must think about deeply. These are the major problems that me and my other 2 members in our GAD Committee must solve.

For the first 3 gender equality issues, my proposed solution would be to educate the people that no matter the gender they have, responsibilities or jobs can be done by anyone. Now I know this is much easier said than done since I know there are people who are very hard headed and very close minded that they won't accept anything else besides their own way of thinking. But for me, educating the people is better than leaving them in the dark about their rights and responsibilities. And teaching them the value of Gender Equality.

For the last two issues, well I'll be honest I have no idea how to solve those things for now. I mean any gender can do those things now not just men. Even some LGBT-Q are doing such things as well. Maybe educating them to understand one another and to feel each others pain? I really have no idea. Now I know this is my job to do but any type of input would be great though. Even just a vague idea would be better than nothing. So If you can share your thoughts on this matter than I would be very much appreciate it.

As I have said earlier that achieving gender equality is still so far away from us. There is also one barrier that wasn't really said to us during the webinar but was opened during our open forum. And that is the difference in Religion and Culture. Some cultures or religion promote men domination against the women. Some even to literally make women their slaves. While some view women as livestock or dispensable human beings. Now this is quite sad and I hope there will come a time when we can understand one another. We all want to have our rights and privacy protected at all cost. I just hope there won't come a time when wars are not fought by countries anymore but by genders.

Ideally the world should not be owned by a single gender alone but should be available to all of us equally. But that is just thinking ideally. Reality doesn't really work that way but it is "The Impossible Dream" all over again doesn't it? Anyways that's all for me today guys. I hope you have learned something and hopefully share your wonderful ideas as well.