“What features do males have?” “Strong”, “Impetuous”, “Smoking”, “Bearing too much pressure” …
“Then, what about females?” “Gentle and soft”, “Considerate”, “Dependent”, “Indecisive”…

All mentioned above was the heated discussion between Professor Zhao Jie, gender issue specialist from Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences, and the participants in a GE awareness training completed recently in Hunan Xiangxi. Beginning on Jun.27 and supported by SADP, the two days’ session attracted more than 30 people from Agriculture Bureau, Animal Husbandry Bureau and Women Federation across the prefecture.

“This is the first time we have a GE awareness training in Xiangxi,” said Yan Laying, director of the Prefecture Women Federation.

“Social gender is different from biological sex, as the former has been formed on the basis of social culture”, explained Prof. Zhao Jie. “For instance, people tend to use such word as robust to describe males, while weakness for females. What we should do is to break the traditional gender concept and encourage both males and females to play an equal role in our society”, “Gender issues are not only about women, but also the relationship between men and women in the social structure. Men should be aware of that and pay more attention to it in their daily lives and social activities”.

As a result of agricultural restructuring and increasing of migrant workers from rural areas, more and more women are engaged in agriculture, namely, there has been a larger proportion of women farmers. Therefore the training course made a serious probe into women’s role in sustainable agricultural development, aiming at cultivating the concept of gender equity in agro-related departments and giving prominence to women’s participation.

Participatory approach was adopted in the training course. Entirely new content and training method deeply impressed learners present. They generally acknowledged that it was necessary to have had the training and it was well-organized and fruitful in terms of imparting knowledge of social gender which is lacking in their practical work. Among the learners were three males. One of them who was from Fenghuang Agricultural Bureau said that he found everything fresh and new in this training, through which he realized that women farmers’ situation should be fully considered in later work and he himself would analyze and handle affairs in the perspective of social gender so as to ensure every rural woman’s better participation in building new socialist countryside.