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Series of Papers on Gender in Population Studies

Target Population university students of population studies and academics Population Planners from Government Ministries (Education, Health, Labour, Women's Affairs etc.), NGOs, International Agencies.

These two target populations need to become sensitive to gender implications of policies and programmes. The need for knowledge of the gender implications of on-going programmes is very important for programme success.

Objectives

A gender system is the socially-constructed expectations for male and female behaviour. A gender system's expectations prescribe a division of labour and responsibilities between women and men and grant different rights and obligations to them. Although gender systems change over time, many of the expectations that lie at their heart are strongly enforced by the state or community and through informal sanctions between neighbours, kin, and friends. Their rules for behaviour are also inculcated in children from an early age and are thought to form a basis for personality and behaviour.

Sub-components of gender system are female autonomy, women's empowerment, women's control of material resources or their freedom of movement. However, a more comprehensive view of gender is multi-dimensional and varies by class or caste position, institutional sphere and life-course stage, going beyond each sub-component.

The specific variables through which any form of societal change must operate if it is to influence demographic behaviour are termed the proximate determinants. A scheme devised by Bongaarts identifies four major proximate determinants of fertility. A comparable scheme devised by Mosley and Chen identifies five major proximate determinants of infant and child mortality. The potential exists for developing similar schemes for other aspects of population studies.

The proposed publication attempts to mainstream gender systems within various themes/aspects of population studies by focusing on the effects of gender system on individual actions. It is addressed at the academic and population planning and programming communities. It should contribute to their knowledge of the gender implications of population policies and programmes and should avoid the confusion between sex differentials and gender as a social construct.

Attention is paid to both developed and developing countries while emphasis is placed on world regions in which the interactions between gender systems, their components and demographic changes are best illustrated.

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