Toma Rani Saha Definition and Scope of Gender Geography

Introduction:
Gender issue is one of the vital issues in the present world and the relationship between men and women has an important role in geographical study. Because various human behavior has a great influence on environment, on the other environment has a great consequence on gender which is not same for every gender. Gender geography has evolved as a subject which discuss about the temporal and spatial distribution of different gender, their condition, change, development, problems etc.

Definition of Gender:
"Gender" refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. Gender is the wide set of characteristics that are seen to distinguish between male and female. It can extend from sex to social role or gender identity. As a word, "gender" has more than one valid definition. In ordinary speech, it is used interchangeably with "sex" to denote the condition of being male or female. In the social sciences, however, it refers specifically to socially constructed and institutionalized differences such as gender roles.

Some definitions of gender are given bellow: Gender is defined by FAO as the relations between men and women, both perceptual
and material. Gender is not determined biologically, as a result of sexual characteristics of either women or men, but is constructed socially. It is a central organizing principle of societies, and often governs the processes of production and reproduction, consumption and distribution (FAO, 1997).

Gender is the division of people into two categories, men and women. Through
interaction with caretakers, socialization in childhood, peer pressure in adolescence, and gendered work and family roles women and men are socially constructed to be different in behavior, attitudes, and emotions. The gendered social order is based on and maintains these differences (Borgatta, E.F. and Montgomery, R.J.V, 2000, p. 1057).

Gender is determined socially; it is the societal meaning assigned to male and female.
Each society emphasizes particular roles that each sex should play, although there is wide latitude in acceptable behaviors for each gender (Hesse-Biber, S. and Carger, G.

L., 2000, p. 91). Gender as the different roles, responsibilities and expectation of women and man in society and culture. (European Comission)

 Gender is used to describe those characteristics of women and men, which are socially
constructed, while sex refers to those which are biologically determined. People are born female or male but learn to be girls and boys who grow into women and men. This learned behaviour makes up gender identity and determines gender roles (World

Health Organization, 2002, p. 4).

WHO also defined the sex and gender to understand them individually. WHO said that sometimes it is hard to understand exactly what is meant by the term "gender", and how it differs from the closely related term "sex". "Sex" refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women. "Gender" refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. Gender and sax distinctions: SEX Sex is Biologically defined Nature made Sex is constant GENDER Gender is Socially Constructed Person made Gender varies from place to place, culture to culture

So, it is clear to us that the concept of gender is mainly related with the concept of male and female, their relationship, roles and characteristics. It is also clear to us that sex and gender are not same.

Scope of gender geography:

A geography which questions the patriarchal and hierarchical assumptions on which geography is based, and emphasizes the oppression of women and the gender inequality between men and women is called gender geography. Gender geography studies operation of women in terms of patriarchy and capitalism; it studies women in terms of unequal access to existing political, economic and social institution. Gender geography asks who the knowers are, what can be known and what is valuable as knowable (Moss 2002). In a nutshell Geography of gender involved in all these to highlight spatiotemporal variation of women related issues- traditional or feminist (Ashsan, ct al. 1998).

Gender Geography mainly discusses about.. It discusses the concept of development also the indicator of human developmentand describe the impact of development upon culture. It discusses about the interrelationship between gender and economic activities, also the sectors of womens worth example of rural and urban societies. It discusses about economic activities of gender. It discusses about gender health and social issues. It discusses about malnutrition, also health and nutritional problems at gender influence and various social issues. Discrimination among the women of rural and urban area. Gender differentials in education and labor force. It also discusses about women and ecology, women environment and neighborhood associations. It also deals about the economic issues and the performance of women in different formal and non formal issues.
The discussion about the participation of women with reference to household, politics, resource, domination and organization.

Women rights and the movement for women development also discussed here. Linkage of Gender geography with other discipline: Gender is sociological terms defined as the behavior expected of a man or woman. On the basis of above definition it is clear that gender geography is one of the main branch of social science. It is also an applied branch of human geography. However gender geography is lined with disciplines which are directly or indirectly related with Human Geography from different geographical context. However, some of the important branches of gender geography and their relations with other disciplines are discussed bellow. Geography of gender and sociology: Gender geography concerned with the gender disparity and roles in various societies with various geographical cont ext which are also main concern of sociology. Gender geography and economics: Gender geography and economics and economics are related with each other. Gender geography is basically concerned with the gender development, gender balance, also gender empowerment with different geographical aspects which are also concerned with economics. Gender geography and anthropology: Gender geography attempts to study human races, their physical characteristics, biological traits, cultural traits and organization and seek to classify them. So, gender geography and anthropology are deeply related with each other.

Gender geography and political science: Gender geography discusses about gender role, gender status, gender right, gender balance, empowerment and also political phenomena with different geographical contexts. These are relation between gender geography and political science in very close. Gender geography and medical geography: Gender geography is linked with the public health, such as- health status of men and women fertility, mortality, fecundity, malnutrition, children health, sanitation etc.These are also discussed in public health discipline or medical geography. So, the relation between gender geography and medical geography is very close.

Scope of Gender geography

Women participation in politics, organization and other sectors

Gender development and its impact

Participation of women in various issues

The main indicators of gender development

Gender discriminations in education and labor force GENDER GEOGRAPHY

Interrelationship between gender and economic activities

Women of different context

Main sectors of women work and inequality

Malnutrition and health problems of gender

Condition and problems of social health