Workshop on Gender Mainstreaming in Savar YMCA

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Last Updated (Thursday, 31 March 2022 12:45)


Workshop on Gender Mainstreaming in Savar YMCA

Gender Mainstreaming is a global issue that incorporates women's empowerment as well as Gender Equality. This is the inner urge, desire, ache, and determination of women in today’s world, where women are the poorest of the poor. In Bangladesh, the women’s way of thinking and position is not exceptional. Bangladesh is one of the seven countries globally where the number of men exceeds the number of women, with a population of 160 million. Bangladesh was ranked 133 out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index and 128 out of 166 countries surveyed on the Gender Inequality Index. However, Bangladesh is still ahead of some other South Asian countries and moving forward positively.

The significance of the gender mainstreaming agenda in the Y movement in Bangladesh:

The Gender mainstreaming programs in Bangladesh aimed to:

  1. To intensify members/participants’ understanding of gender and related concepts and theories and to equip participants with perspectives and skills needed to mainstream gender equity in their YMCAs as a Christian ecumenical movement
  2. to understand clearly the Social and Cultural Construction of Gender and its negative impact on the community and country and possible ways and means to reduce gender discrimination in the movement as well as in society;
  3. To understand the underlying barriers and challenges in the society to establish a Gender Sensitize Society and sensitize members on gender issues in Bangladesh and the world.
  4. To be familiar with the Women’s Rights and Law and the current Women’s Development Policy of Bangladesh.
  5. To comprehend the partakers about Gender Analysis and planning frameworks and different policy approaches to gender and women’s development.

Gender Mainstreaming workshop at Savar YMCA in the month of Women Empowerment:

With the stated agenda Savar YMCA, a local YMCA in Bangladesh, organized a Day long Gender Mainstreaming Workshop in Savar, Dhaka, on the 17th of March 2022. The number of participants was about 34. Among them, 09 are female, and others are male. The age limit was from 18 to 50+. So different concepts and opinions were there, which was very interesting. The workshop had two sessions:

“Breaking the Bias: sensitizing on Gender issues “and “Violence against Women.”
After the sessions, the participants make a personal commitment to “Break the Bias”.

The Gender mainstreaming workshop helped the participants understand gender and related concepts and equipped them to mainstream gender in their YMCAs and social and personal lives. They have also learned about the social and cultural construction of Gender and its negative impact on the community and possible ways and means to reduce gender discrimination. The participants are also now aware of the underlying barriers and challenges in the society to establish a Gender Sensitize Society and develop skills to sensitize Y members on gender issues in the Bangladesh context and world context.


Marshia Mili Gomes
Member, Gender Equity Committee