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Until now, the United Nations Capital Development Fund’s (UNCDF) Gender Equitable Local Development (GELD) programme has not been presented within an explicit human rights framework. This is strange given that the human rights based approach to development (HRBAD) aims to ensure that all human beings can live their lives fully and with dignity. HRBAD is fundamentally about the healthy and full development of individuals and communities. In addition, one of human rights’ central concerns is that people have equal access to the benefits of society. Initiatives to realize human rights therefore give priority to the most marginalized - the poorest - in a society. It is those individuals who have most difficulty in securing the basics that are essential to living their lives with dignity. Women in all communities are disproportionately represented among the poor. Thus, human rights have gender equity as a central focus. Put another way, we are dealing with the feminization of poverty. We are dealing with the concept of equal access (to development). In short, we are dealing with those who need (and deserve) greater priority in access to infrastructure and supporting services in order to reach a point of equality.

The Armed Forces and the Police are heavily male workplaces worldwide, although each is increasing its female representation in New Zealand and most western countries. Their historic roles and previous exclusion of women give rise to strongly male cultures and greater difficulties than most workplaces in combining work and family and reaching top positions. This paper discusses these barriers to gender equity and integration and the extent to which they are reducing, using mainly the author's recent interview/focus group study of the NZCIB and also referring to Clare Burton's study of the New Zealand Defence Forces. It briefly considers the prospects/or change and the dilemmas for feminists working for gender equity in these sectors.

Este ensayo pretende abordar la vinculación existente entre el papel de la educación y el rol del género a través del abordaje de temas como las relaciones sexistas en la educación, formas de discriminación y transversalización de género en la educación. En la educación actual hemos normalizado la desigualdad, lo que ha influido en que tanto hombres como mujeres adopten estos roles consciente o inconscientemente. Por lo tanto, es innegable el papel que la educación ha tenido en la reproducción de los modelos de desigualdad y jerarquización entre hombres y mujeres. Aunque se haya legislado a favor de la equidad de género, en el uso del lenguaje inclusivo, en las cuotas de participación en organismos políticos, en la representación para diferentes instituciones, la creación de entes encargados de velar por un trato igualitario entre hombres y mujeres, estos esfuerzos resultan insuficientes. La igualdad de género requiere un proceso de aculturación que cambie concepciones y prácticas socialmente aprendidas. Por tal razón, es necesario un cambio orientado hacia la igualdad en la práctica educativa que incluya a todas las personas involucradas y permita desarrollar una educación sin discriminación. This paper pretends to address the relation between the role of education and the role of gender by addressing topics such as sexist-content of education, forms of discrimination, and gender mainstreaming in education. In today’s education we have normalized inequality in such a way that both, men and women, adopt these roles consciously or unconsciously. Therefore, it is undeniable the role that education has in reproducing patterns of inequality and hierarchy between men and women. Although it has been legislated in favor of gender equity, in the use of inclusive language, in the participation quotas in political aspects, representing different institutions, the creation of bodies responsible for ensuring equal treatment between men and women still insufficient because gender equality requires a process of acculturation to change socially learned concepts and practices. For this reason, we need a oriented change toward gender equality in educational practice that allows educational development without discrimination and including all people involved.

Resumen: Este ensayo pretende abordar la vinculación existente entre el papel de la educación y el rol del género a través del abordaje de temas como las relaciones sexistas en la educación, formas de discriminación y transversalización de género en la educación. En la educación actual hemos normalizado la desigualdad, lo que ha influido en que tanto hombres como mujeres adopten estos roles consciente o inconscientemente. Por lo tanto, es innegable el papel que la educación ha tenido en la reproducción de los modelos de desigualdad y jerarquización entre hombres y mujeres. Aunque se haya legislado a favor de la equidad de género, en el uso del lenguaje inclusivo, en las cuotas de participación en organismos políticos, en la representación para diferentes instituciones, la creación de entes encargados de velar por un trato igualitario entre hombres y mujeres, estos esfuerzos resultan insuficientes. La igualdad de género requiere un proceso de aculturación que cambie concepciones y prácticas socialmente aprendidas. Por tal razón, es necesario un cambio orientado hacia la igualdad en la práctica educativa que incluya a todas las personas involucradas y permita desarrollar una educación sin discriminación.Abstract: This paper pretends to address the relation between the role of education and the role of gender by addressing topics such as sexist-content of education, forms of discrimination, and gender mainstreaming in education. In today’s education we have normalized inequality in such a way that both, men and women, adopt these roles consciously or unconsciously. Therefore, it is undeniable the role that education has in reproducing patterns of inequality and hierarchy between men and women. Although it has been legislated in favor of gender equity, in the use of inclusive language, in the participation quotas in political aspects, representing different institutions, the creation of bodies responsible for ensuring equal treatment between men and women still insufficient because gender equality requires a process of acculturation to change socially learned concepts and practices. For this reason, we need a oriented change toward gender equality in educational practice that allows educational development without discrimination and including all people involved.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bioethics.v1i1.9532 Bangladesh Journal of Bioethics 2010; 1(1):9