Empowering Equality through Gender Sensitization workshop

Gender Sensitization

Empathy, they say, is the highest form of knowledge, and equality is the biggest virtue. Women and men are the two pillars that hold this irreplaceable structure that is our society and only if given equal opportunity in all walks of life can we prevent this structure from crumbling.

The twenty-first century has seen a mammoth paradigm shift among gender roles and changing power dynamics. More and more women are joining politics, climbing the corporate ladder, and demolishing gender roles. Women being in every sphere has brought in the much-needed voice of literally half the population of the world that has been historically oppressed or intentionally ignored.

Regardless of these changes, we still have many plights that loom over women of every society. Workplace harassment, sexual violence, domestic violence are very prevalent in Indian society and women are the major sufferers.

Gender sensitizing “is about changing behavior and instilling empathy into the views that we hold about our own and the other genders”. It helps people in examining their personal attitudes and beliefs and questioning the ‘realities’ they thought they know.

Gender sensitization is the modification of behaviors so that there are greater awareness and empathy to create gender equality. Sexual offenses include sexual gestures, stalking, ogling, voyeurism, molestation, and intercourse (rape). We like to know everything to prevent heart, lung, liver, kidney diseases, etc. but we are reluctant to discuss anything about human sexuality including sexually transmitted diseases or anything related to sex because ours is a culture of silence. It is time to break this silence. We must bear in mind that gender sensitization is very much required in our society today and should be present at all levels of society from a very early start.