Gender is not synonymous with woman

Talking about gender isn't just about women, including a number on a participation list, or taking pictures of women's groups. The gender perspective goes far beyond that; it's an issue that permeates the entire social structure. This was one of the main takeaways from the "Gender and Human Rights" workshop held last week at Cejis in Santa Cruz.

Using the term “gender” as a synonym for “woman” depoliticizes the historical struggle of women for Human Rights, social, economic, cultural and political equality (Workshop content).

The workshop was attended by nearly fifty representatives of organizations and social movements from youth, indigenous, Afro, urban, rural, sexual diversity sectors, among others.

Some sectors working with the environment or production claim they don't address gender issues; however, the daily construction of relationships between men and women in the workplace also requires a gender perspective. This was emphasized by the workshop facilitator, Iris Baptista, coordinator of the Equity for Development program at UNITAS.

She also emphasized the importance of organizations understanding that they work with "different and diverse" people, and that relationships between women and between men are also susceptible to analysis from a gender perspective, since there are also unequal power relations, biases of discrimination and exclusion.

The main topics were "gender methodology" and "gender indicators." Participants reflected on the extent to which a gender perspective is adopted in their organizations and the challenges they face in applying it to their daily work. The workshop concluded with an analysis of the social, political, economic, and cultural situation in Bolivia, led by Miriam Suárez of Casa de la Mujer (Women's House).

The workshop was organized by Casa de la Mujer, Desafío, Centro de Estudios Jurídicos e Investigación Social –Cejis–, Apoyo Para el Campesino Indígena del Oriente Boliviano –APCOB– and Centro de Investigación y Promoción del Campesinado –CIPCA–; and had the support of the UNITAS network.

Comprehensive gender approach

“I’ve been working on projects, monitoring, and evaluation for many years, and most projects really lack a structural perspective on gender issues,” said Iris Baptista. “When you conduct gender audits, you realize there’s no real political will to generate structural changes through action. Gender continues to be addressed in isolation.”

She added that the idea of ​​incorporating gender is still closely linked to women and issues such as participation and violence, but is sometimes not linked to the approach of women's economic, social and reproductive rights.

Among the participants was Álvaro Chuve Chuve, from the Network of Indigenous and Afro-Bolivian Youth of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. He drew attention to the consistency between discourse and actions:

“We have to stop deceiving ourselves into believing that our organizations are taking gender issues into account simply because we have photographs of women or young people. This is a very broad topic; we need to be more open and change our mindset because sometimes we have a double standard.”

For her part, Raquel Hurtado Silva, from the Child and Youth Observatory of the Gabriel René Moreno University, gave her opinion on the workshop:

“I found the diversity of people—women, men, gays, lesbians, trans people—very interesting; then the very important content reinforces concepts and clarifies ideas about where we stand politically, socially, and culturally. I really enjoyed seeing the perspectives people have from their own spaces.”

For Katherine Caballero, educational manager of CIES, synergies are very important, but “as actors in civil society we are making efforts in isolation. I think the workshop has had a very good impact in terms of synergies, sharing what we do and having guidelines to work in an integrated way.”

As Iris Baptista expressed it, the workshop was more than technical training; it was a space for critical reflection, "so that you leave thinking about how I am doing, how I can do it better, what other things I can do to change situations of inequality and gender gaps."