Gender Identity and Equality Cross Countries

Gender and identiy

affected by culture

Start

1. Gender Identity

Index

2. Gender Equality

3. Serbia

4. Mexico

5. Vietnam

6. France

1. What is Gender?

• Gender is a social construct that refers to the roles, behaviors, activities, expectations, and societal norms associated with being male or female, and beyond.
• Historically, it has played a significant role in shaping access to resources, rights, and personal identity, influencing nearly every aspect of life from employment and education to personal relationships.

2. Gender Spectrum

• The gender spectrum is a visual concept that acknowledges that gender identity and expression exist on a continuum.
• This perspective respects and recognizes various identities, including non-binary and genderqueer, reflecting a more inclusive understanding of gender.
• This model promotes the idea that gender goes beyond biological differences and encompasses a diverse range of experiences and identities.

3. Gender Identity vs Gender Expression

• Gender Identity: This is an individual's personal sense of their gender, which may correspond with or differ from the sex they were assigned at birth. It is deeply personal and can be male, female, both, neither, or fluctuate over time.
• Gender Expression: This involves the ways in which a person outwardly shows their gender, through such aspects as clothing, speech, behavior, and social interactions. Gender expression can vary greatly and does not necessarily correspond to societal expectations or to one's gender identity.

4. Common Gender Identities

• Cisgender: Individuals whose gender identity consistently aligns with their sex assigned at birth throughout their life.

• Transgender: People who have a gender identity that is different from the sex assigned to them at birth. This group includes a wide range of gender experiences and transitions.

• Non-Binary: A term used by some who do not identify as exclusively male or female. Non-binary people may identify as both, neither, or as a different gender entirely.

• Genderfluid: Individuals whose gender identity is not fixed and can change over time, reflecting a dynamic understanding of gender itself.

5. Gender Equality

• Gender equality is fundamental to a democratic society.

• It involves the belief that all human beings, regardless of gender, should have equal rights, responsibilities, and opportunities.

• Efforts to promote gender equality include advocating for equal pay, combating gender-based violence, supporting family-friendly workplace policies, and ensuring that all genders are equally represented in political and leadership roles.

• Achieving gender equality requires ongoing commitment from individuals, governments, and institutions worldwide.

Traveler's Map

Serbia

During The Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1918-1941) women didn’t even have the right to vote, in 1929, King Aleksandar Karađorđević instituted a dictatorship and banned political parties, including the Women's Party. A few years later, the Women's Movement was founded, which, together with the activists of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia, led an active struggle for women's right to vote.

The Women's Movement in Yugoslavia

Family roles in Serbia

The typical household structure is patriarchal, with authority tending to come from the most senior male. Women are considered equal to men but are expected to honour their husband. Age also gives authority in Serbian families and in society in general. The elderly are given utmost respect and are consulted when major decisions are made.

There is often a stigma attached to discussing domestic violence within Serbian communities. Victims may fear being stigmatized or blamed for the abuse they experience. This fear of shame can prevent victims from seeking help or speaking out about their experiences, perpetuating a cycle of silence and inaction.

Violence Against Women

• In the Balkans, according to the Victimology Society of Serbia, one in four women is experiencing some form of domestic violence. However, it is almost as if nobody talks about it.

Why?

Serbian society,

• In the past especially, was a very conservative and patriarchal system in which domestic violence is an avoided topic, locked behind the door of the family home.

Protest Against Femicide

Attitude towards Gender Minorities

LGBTI people living with HIV face more discrimination than almost any other group in Serbia. Citizens in Serbia express high levels of social distance towards LGBTI people in general, and towards LGBTI people in their families. Social stigma and intolerance towards people affected by HIV is intense in all parts of society. There is very little information about intersex people living in Serbia, but available limited sources indicate there is a high level of stigmatization and self-stigmatization of intersex people, particularly in rural areas.

Sexual acts between consenting adult men were decriminalized in Serbia in 1994. Until 2008, the Ministry of Health considered homosexuality to be an illness. Transsexualism is still classified as a mental disorder.The rights of same-sex partners are not regulated. Samesex unions are not recognized under Serbian law, and provisions of Family Law on de facto extramarital unions are not applicable to stable same-sex unions. According to the 2014 Anti-Discrimination Action Plan, there should be public debates on the draft model Act on Registered SameSex Partnerships and a model Act Amending the Inheritance Act beginning in the last quarter of 2017.

A pride center that had it's windwos broken by anti-LGBT+

Vietnam

Vietnamese Propaganda PosterDuring the Vietnam War

INTRODUCTION TOGenders IN VIETNAM...

• Vietnam is a society that traditionally exhibited a blend of masculine and feminine values.
• Influenced heavily by Confucian principles emphasizing hierarchy and family roles.
• However, modernization, industrialization and economic development have ushered changes in gender dynamics.

Gender Equality in Vietnam

Economic Participation

• Vietnamese women participate actively in the workforce, with high labor force participation rates.
• However, wage disparities persist, and women are often found in lower-paying sectors.

Legislation and Equality

• Vietnam has made significant strides in gender equality legislation.
• The Law on Gender Equality (2006) aims to eliminate gender discrimination and promote equality.
• Efforts are evident in political participation, where women hold a substantial number of seats in the National Assembly
• Though high-level executive positions are less common for women.

Violence Against Women

• Violence against women, including domestic violence, remains a big issue.
• The government has enacted laws such as the Law

on Domestic Violence Prevention and Control

• But enforcement and societal attitudes still

present challenges, especially in more rural anddistant regions.

Role Differentiation

Social Roles and Gender

• Social roles tend to overlap more than in strictly masculine societies.
• Women often balance professional roles with traditional family responsibilities.
• Educational attainment for women is high, influencing their professional status and societal roles.

Family and Societal Expectations

• Traditional views on family roles persist, with expectations for women to prioritize family care, although these are gradually changing.
• The urbanization and increasing economic independence of women are influencing shifts in traditional family structures and roles.

Religious and cultural Representations of Women

Religious Narratives

• Buddhism, the dominant religion in Vietnam, generally portrays women in a more equal light.
• Though traditional roles are often emphasized.
• Ancestor worship and Confucianism, which also influence Vietnamese culture, historically placed women in subordinate roles.
• Contemporary interpretations are more progressive.

Dress Codes

• Dress codes are less restrictive in Vietnam compared to some other Asian countries.
• Traditional attire like the 'Ao Dai' covers the body but is also seen as a symbol of beauty and modesty, reflecting a blend of traditional values and modern aesthetics.

Attitude Towards Sexual Minorities

Cultural and Religious Attitudes

• The attitude towards LGBTQ+ individuals is evolving.
• Urban areas, especially Southern regions, display greater acceptance, influenced by global human rights movements.
• Traditionally, Vietnamese culture and major religions like Buddhism do not explicitly condemn homosexuality, but societal acceptance is still developing.

Legal Framework

• There is no specific legal protection for LGBTQ+ rightsand same-sex marriages are not legally recognized
• Though the law no longer prohibits such unions.

Mexico

Frida Kahlo (Mexican artist)

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (first Mexican feminist activist)

Woman in mexican society

It wasn't until 1955 that women were allowed to vote in Mexico, even tho many years before some voices were already rising to defend women's rights. For instance, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, one of the first Mexican women's rights activists, wrote and defended women's rights in the XVII century. Women like Josefa Ortíz de Domínguez, are considered to be important figures in Mexico. She was one of the most important figures in the Mexican Independence fight against the Viceroyalty of New Spain. In Mexico women's place is contradictory, on one side some are considered great figures and have great historical meaning and on the other side violence and criminality against women is still very high.

Josefa Ortíz de Dominguez

Supreme court of Justice of Mexico

Feminicides In mexico

The use of the word feminicide (not femicide) in the world grew highly because of a city in Mexico: Ciudad Juárez. The number of missing women in the city, between 1993 and 2020, is about 1500 (these are the numbers given by the Mexican government, the real number is probably way bigger). The journalist Marcela Lagarde used the term "feminicidio" in her articles about the tragic events happening in that city. She is the reason the term entered officially in legislative texts in Mexico. For her, the difference between "feminicidio" and "femicidio" (feminicide and femicide) is that feminicide is the killing of women due to the government of the country, and their responsibility in the impunity of such crimes. Femicide is the act of killing a woman just because she is a woman. Feminicide shows a deeper societal problem and shows that the vision of women in the society in question, is so poor that the killing of one is not important.

Mexican society and sexual minoritities

Mexico is a largely catholic country, and its vision on such themes is very religious. This tendency and poor vision are reflected in the discrimination of the population towards sexual minorities. Mexico is the second country in Latin America with the most violence towards sexual minorities, showing homophobia and transphobia are high in the country. Even tho this phenomenon depends on the region and the education the population receives, for instance in Mexico City this violence, homophobia and transphobia are less visible and present than in areas with fewer resources and a higher religious background. In general violence and discrimination towards every minority are quite difficult to observe due to the extremely high criminality and overall dangerousness of the country (since 2006, and due to the war against narcotraffic, a little bit less than half a million Mexicans lost their lives)

Pride walk in Mexico City

Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG)

France is the country of freedom and human rights, but with patriarchy it's a double-speed systeme between genders.

France

Also french gender roles evolved a lot the past few years

Gender Inequalities

interpersonnal discrimination

systemic discrimination

sadly, sexist and sexual violences are still really common

• with an equivalente level of qualifications men still have access to jobs with more responsabilities and more prestige
• if a man and a woman does the same work, the man usualy get more payed

inequal representation

linguistic inequality

in french a lot of words are gendered, and even if there's strange differences between genders in the grammar of this language, there's also differences within the vocabulary: a lot of words stands for common things in their masculine form but are slurs in their feminine version, for example the words for bus driver, trainer, guy, runner are all insults that mean whore in their feminine equivalent

it's still less likely for women to have good representation in media, sure since a few years we see more feminine protagonists but they are still less common than masculine ones and often falls into stereotypes.

Women's and LGBTQIA+ rights

Even if it took time, but today there is a theorical equality of the rights between men and women. France is the first country to add abortion right to it's constitution. France is really progressive too when it comes to queer rights, since 2013, same sex mariage is legal. There's free healthcare for transgender people with not to much waiting time, for example you can just ask your doctor for hormones and they will give it to you if they are qualified and if there will be no medical issues. But those rights are not fully protected, and conservatives parties are actualy threatening those

QUIZ :

Test Your Knowledge on cultural effects on gender

La malinche (interpreter for Hernan Cortés, the leader of the conquistadors in Mexico)

Serbia has no legal provisions or procedures for recognizing gender where this differs from the sex assigned at birth, even in cases of gender-affirming surgery. Rules of procedure on changes of name designation in terms of gender in certificates and diplomas have not been adopted.The Constitutional Court of Serbia established that denial of legal recognition of the sex change of a post-operative trans person violated the applicant’s right to privacy and right to dignity. The court ordered the municipal office responsible to make the changes in the applicant’s birth records. The Court made this decision applicable to any persons in a similar situation until such time as relevant legislation is adopted.

Men still hold the most power, economically, socially and as the patriarch, the highest role in the family. Thoughts on Gender Equality appeared during the French and American revolutions and were primarily focused on those situations in which women were most discriminated against:

• the right to dispose of their property and salary
• the right to custody of children in case of divorce
• the expanded possibility of divorce
• better legal and economic security for divorced women
• better access to education and employment
• the right to vote.

Regarding gender roles, women have the right to equal opportunities and many women are involved in the workforce. However, men often see it as their duty to care and provide for their family. It is often expected that women balance home and work commitments. For example, women will stay at home and raise children or care for sick relatives. There is an expectation from mothers that their daughters will carry on family traditions. For example, mothers will share recipes and teach their daughters how to cook traditional Serbian food.Fathers are also more lenient with their sons, or only daughters, while the discipline usually falls upon the mother.

The Patriarchy Court in Sremski Karlovci

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Serbia has adopted a wide anti-discrimination legal framework, and the 2009 Anti-Discrimination Law explicitly prohibited discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI). The Constitution of Serbia enshrines fundamental human rights and freedoms. Serbia is bound by almost all United Nations (UN) human rights treaties, the European Convention on Human Rights and numerous conventions of the Council of Europe. However, international organizations, state institutions for protection of human rights and NGOs reporting on human rights in Serbia flagged that in practice the protection of rights of LGBTI people is weak and inconsistent.