DEFINING GENDER EQUALITY AND SOCIAL INCLUSION

Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) refers to efforts to ensure people from all backgrounds, including men, women and gender diverse people, people with a disability and people facing any form of marginalisation, can equitably access, use, contribute to, influence and benefit from the design, development and governance of critical services.

A situation in which access to rights, resources, and opportunities is unaffected by gender.

'Gender equality' means equal opportunities for women, men, and gender-diverse people. 'Gender equity' is the process to achieve gender equality. Equality means each individual or group of people is given the same resources or opportunities. Equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and allocates the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome2

Social inclusion is the process of improving the terms on which individuals and groups take part in society - improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of those disadvantaged on the basis of their identity.

Social inclusion is about improving every person’s active participation in society. In contrast, exclusion occurs because certain groups are systematically disadvantaged and/ or discriminated against on the basis of their identity: ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, caste, descent, gender, age, disability, HIV status, migrant status or where they live. As such, exclusion can occur linked to multiple dimensions of one person's identity. Inclusion and exclusion are not in a binary opposition – a person can be included based on certain aspects of their identity and excluded based on other aspects3

Intersectionality is the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage4