Examples of gender blind policies

Gender–blindness means ignoring the different roles, responsibilities, capabilities, needs and priorities of women and men. Gender–blind policies are based on information derived from men’s activities and/or assume those affected by the policy have the same (male) needs and interests.

Gender–neutral policies are not aimed specifically at either men or women and are assumed to affect both sexes equally. A gender–neutral policy allocates resources to meet specific goals, such as reducing the number of young people who initiate smoking.

Gender blindness can negatively impact the goals of peace and security operations, because a failure to take the differences between men and women into account leads to an incomplete understanding of the area of operation, the host-nation population, and the conflict in general.

For example, women opening beauty parlours in their homes or women taking up the weaving work at their homes earn from part-time jobs only. And a major proportion is the housewife and they depend on their respective partners for financial support.

For example, if a worker who identifies as a woman receives a negative performance evaluation that criticizes her for being too “aggressive” (while men who behave the same way are praised for showing “leadership”), or if she wears her hair short and is told she needs to be more “presentable,” she may be experiencing