Gender

Gender is a social concept, and its definitions and perceptions vary from culture to culture. Gender defines and differentiates the roles, rights, responsibilities, and duties of women and men, and the innate biological differences between them are the basis for the social norms that define appropriate behavior for each (United Nations Millennium Development Project, Task Force on Education and Gender Equality, 2005). read more.

Gender roles are learned, vary with the environment, and can be changed over time. There are inequalities between men and women that are created by the gender roles themselves, which impede equal opportunities between the sexes.

To one degree or another, every country in the world has gender inequality problems, and education is often considered one of the main tools for combating them. In most countries, adult and adolescent women are at a disadvantage compared with adult and adolescent men when it comes to access to goods and social services, influence and control over decision-making, and dealing with the social or political institutions that determine their quality of life. This is true in the family, the community, and even at the national level. As the opportunities for women's educational advancement increase, the countries become more successful in addressing the issue of gender inequality in society. Thus, the design and implementation of quality education programs have implications for progress in the field of gender equity.

Empowerment is key to correcting the inequities between men and women. The concept of empowerment implies access to power, participation, and control over the decisions that affect one's life. In Latin America, feminists link the idea of autonomy with their own body, as the territory in which a woman exerts her power and determines how she relates to others (Organización Panamericana de la Salud, Proyecto PIEMA, 2004). This is particularly relevant for sexual and reproductive health, as well as for women's rights and the choices and control in decisions about their own bodies, such as whether to engage in sex, whether to have children (and when), and control over sexual practices that are pleasurable, safe, and not harmful

Adolescent boys

"Becoming a man," an objective so yearned for by millions of adolescent boys in Latin America, has become a problem for those responsible for protecting the health of those same young men. This cultural perception of "masculinity" has negative consequences from a public health standpoint. This is the conclusion reached by PAHO/WHO, based on the data from experiences and research in the Hemisphere, which show that behaviors that are problematic for public health, such as violence, practices that incur the risk of HIV infection, addictions, and early paternity, are linked with the concept of masculinity.

Recent research suggests that the health needs of men, especially adolescents, are more urgent than was previously thought. It suggests that being male is a variable that creates greater vulnerability to risk. For example, in general, the burden of disease among men in Latin America and the Caribbean is 26% higher than among women. Much of this morbidity is associated with the social construct of masculinity: traffic accidents, homicides, injuries, and cardiovascular disease, often related to alcohol consumption, stress. and lifestyles. These trends suggest the need to work with young men, since many of the behaviors that lead to these health problems in adulthood stem from patterns learned in childhood and adolescence Read More...

Adolescents girls

The passage from girlhood to womanhood is perhaps the most important time in a woman's life. Healthy development will enable her to make the transition feeling healthy, self-confident, and empowered, able to express her opinions and act on her own decisions. However, adolescent girls are one of the least empowered groups, even when compared with adult women. Adolescent girls have little access to economic opportunities, do not make the decisions in their homes, and often have no control over the choices in their lives. Adolescent girls suffer from gender-based inequalities that affect them on various levels--personal, interpersonal, community, sociocultural - and impact their health and psychological well-being. Gender-based differentiation intensifies during adolescence, as young women learn and imitate what it means to be a woman. Consequently, adolescence represents a unique opportunity to address the issue of women's autonomy and increase gender equity. Read more... Read more...

The Millenium Development Goals (MDG) ,adopted in the year 2000 by the 189 Member States of the United Nations, established a series of quantifiable targets for a set date to fight extreme poverty, hunger, and gender-based discrimination, and improve health conditions. "Autonomy" is considered a means for meeting these targets, one of which is precisely women's autonomy.

Since the international conferences of Cairo (1994) and Beijing (1995), as well as the Program of Action of the United Nations International Conference on Population and the Development (CIPD), it has been recognized that empowering women is essential for reducing gender-based inequalities, achieving equity for women and men, and permitting equal participation and the equitable representation of women in all spheres of life.