Strength TogetHER 17- Session 9

26th February, 2022.

We conducted our 9th session for Strength TogetHER Cohort 17 on the topic, “Gender Stereotype” at Jumla in partnership with ZONTA Club of Kathmandu. Zonta Club is a legally registered NGO that has been working on the advancement of the women with the objective to improve the economy, health and issues related to youth and violence against women. Our moderator for the day was Mrs. Soni Joshi. 

Mrs. Soni Joshi is a member of ZONTA. She is a  gender specialist, and educationalist who has been working for 30 plus years. 

We started our session with the moderator's story. She shared that her mother passed away while she was pregnant, and was not allowed to pay her last respect. She was told it would be bad luck, and not good for her and her baby to touch, or be around the deceased. She was not happy with this and complained to her father. As her father had always been supportive of her, he supported her then as well and told her to do what she thinks is the right thing to do. 

“I have a loud voice. Once my classmate commented saying, you should not talk very loudly being a girl. I asked him, why not? Why are girls not supposed to talk loudly? My friend replied that girls are supposed to speak in a gentle and polite manner. This surprised me. As time passed, my friend started asking why I didn’t talk when I was being quiet.” I realised my friend started accepting me as I was. 

Our other participants shared that she was raised in a village and everyone at the village believed that each family needs a son. She explained that her parents are educated but due to societal pressure they had to try for a son but  now have 2 younger sisters instead. 

Another participant shared that their family was under extreme pressure from their relatives and society for a son, so they had to move to another village. They are now four daughters living with their parents. 

“Celebrations like the rice feeding ceremony are done in a grand manner for sons whereas for daughters, it’s a simple one with little to no celebration.” shared our other participant. She added that she and her family  got a lot of negative comments  when she and her sister stayed in the town area for their study.

Our other participant shared that it’s common or natural to congratulate for sons while giving little to no wishes to daughters being born in the family. She shared that it’s important to treat the babies equally, but we may have been influenced by the environmental upbringing. It doesn't come naturally to daughters like it comes to sons. Our moderator commented that the first step to change is recognition and now that the participant knows what’s wrong in the behavior she can easily mold the way she reacts and make people around her aware as well. 

We also discussed how our environmental upbringing has shaped us in ways to specifically recognize gender roles. There are equality laws in Nepal but they are not practiced well. And, societal pressure is one of the main causes of Gender stereotypes. Gender discrimination are also seen at work places in forms of lower salary to women with the same duties and responsibilities as a man. These needs to be recognised and changed from us. 

Lastly, our moderator stated that she is extremely happy and proud that the participants from Jumla have been studying subjects like forestry and agriculture as before there were limited subjects like nurses and teachers assigned to girls. The major takeaway for the sessions was being able to recognize the stereotypes and bring changes to it starting from ourselves and also making people around us aware about it.