Chapter 1

• Self-awareness


  How good you know yourself regarding how confident you are
• Self-esteem


  How much you like yourself
• Self-development

  How you improve yourself by building up your strengths, improve your interests, skills, strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, goals, values and beliefs, and become the best person you can be
• Healthy self-esteem


  • Views failure as an opportunity for growth and learning
• Unhealthy self-esteem


  • Views failure as a reflection of personal inadequacy, leading to self-blame and self-criticism
• Factors that influence self-awareness and self-esteem


  • What other people say about you
  • What happens in your life
  • How well you cope with challenges
  • How you respond to successes and failures
  • How popular you are
  • The media
• Good communication skills


  Express yourself clearly so that others don't misunderstand you or get the wrong idea
• Assertive attitude


  • Say what you want to say clearly
  • Be positive and respectful
  • Know what you want
  • Have a tall and straight body posture
  • State your viewpoint clearly
  • Be polite
• How to make good decisions

  1. Evaluate your situation

  2. Get information about the different options or choices you have

  3. Carefully think about the effects or consequences of each choice or decision

  4. Decide what would be the most informed and responsible decision

  5. Act on your decision: do what you decided
• Gender


  The role in society that you are expected to play depending on whether you are a woman or a girl, a man or a boy. Gender is a social construct.
• Sex


  Biological and physiological qualities that define women and men such as your reproductive organs, chromosomes, hormones etc.
• Female and male


  Groupings according to sex
• Feminine and masculine


  Grouping according to gender. Femininity - having qualities that are associated with women. Masculinity - having qualities that are associated with men.
• Power


  To have control or authority over another person or your environment. Also refers to force, strength, or might.
• Power relations


  Sharing of power between people in a relationship. You may have a dominant and a submissive partner in a relationship. Dominance is often determined by gender and sex. Men traditionally have more power than women.
• Unequal power relationship


  Where one person has the power to either give or deny something to the other person. Often money, violence, emotional abuse and sexual intimacy are used to control the other person.
• Stereotypical


  Having a fixed and very simple idea of a particular type of person or thing.
• Differences between a woman and a man

  • Menstruate
  • No menstruation
  • Ovaries that produce eggs
  • Testicles that produce sperm
  • Have two x chromosomes (XX)
  • Have one X and one Y chromosome (XY)
  • Vagina is inside the body
  • Penis is outside the body
  • Give birth
  • Do not give birth
  • Smaller and lighter with less bone mass
  • Taller and heavier with more bone mass
  • Less upper body strength
  • More upper body strength
  • More white blood cells
  • More red blood cells
  • Puberty starts two years before boys
  • Puberty starts two years after girls
  • Fertility lessens after the age of 35
  • Fertile till old age
  • Higher levels of the hormone oestrogen
  • Higher levels of the hormone testosterone
  • Less body hair
  • More body hair
  • Skull is thinner and weaker
  • Skull is thicker and stronger
  • Have to work harder to build muscle
  • Build muscles easily
• Traditionally women were the caregivers and homemakers, but these roles are changing. In many modern households, men share both parenting and housekeeping duties. Just because it is the woman who gives birth does not mean that the man has no parental duties.
• Examples of gender differences as decided by societies

  • Women may earn less than men for certain work
  • Men are promoted to positions of power instead of women
  • Men are allowed to smoke, drink and have affairs in some societies, while women are not
  • Male sports teams get more funding and media coverage than women teams
  • Women have to do more housework than men
  • Women play a larger role in parenting
  • Some careers are traditionally seen as just for men
• Gender inequality


  • Sexual abuse and violence
  • Teenage pregnancy
  • STIs including HIV/AIDS
• When women/girls are involved in relationships where power is not equal, men may decide on the conditions under which sex happens. This may mean forced sex.
• Unwanted teenage pregnancy may happen because of peer pressure, lack of information on safe sex and contraception, poverty, rape, and wishing to have a baby to feel loved and have somebody to love, but not wanting the baby once it is born because you are not ready for such responsibility.
• Gender customs may force women to be passive or obedient in sexual relationships. This means women may not discuss or negotiate for safer sex such as condom use, or abstention. Hence they will not be protected against STI's such as HIV.
• HIV is spread quickly when women have no say in the use of protective measures during intercourse, such as the use of condoms, there is age-mixing in a relationship, there are more than one partner, there is transactional sex, and rape occurs.