When people hear the word gender the first thing that comes into their mind is women. One often hears the statement, "It is all these women rights, women empowerment talk again." Some even say, "It is those Nigerians working with Americans to brainwash our people at it again." But then how well informed are you about the concept of gender, sex issues and rights talked about?

The fact is that gender issues are not just women issue but also involves men. According to Princess Jummai Idonije ,Chief planning officer , National Centre for Women Development , Abuja ,in her paper presentation at a three day capacity building programme on gender mainstreaming for the media held at the HBC resort , Jos ,Plateau State, recently . 'There is evidence that education has not penetrated to all levels of the populace and so, the impression that gender issues are exclusively about women still persists. Similarly the impression that gender issues challenge accepted norms and values of marriage, family and religion is rife. Many stakeholders also believe that gender concerns should be addressed only within the ministry of women affairs.'

Many people do not know that there is difference between gender and sex. Gender refers to the roles and responsibilities of men and women that are created in our families, our societies and our cultures. The concept of gender also includes the expectations held about the characteristics, aptitudes and likely behaviours of both men and women that is feminity and masculinity. Gender roles and expectations are learned. They can change over time and they vary within and between cultures. Systems of social differentiation such as political status, class, ethnicity, physical and mental disability, age and more, modify gender roles. The concept of gender is vital because it reveals how women's subordination or men's domination is socially constructed. As such, the subordination can be changed or ended. It is not biologically predetermined nor is it fixed forever.

Sex on the other hand refers to the biological makeup of men and women, boys and girls, that is what we are borne with. These attributes are universal and generally permanent.

It is therefore necessary for us to know the distinction between gender and sex. Sex is biological therefore given by birth and cannot be changed , that is only a man has the ability to impregnate and only a woman has the ability to give birth and to breast feed .These are biological attributes and cannot be changed while gender is cultural and therefore learned through socialization . These can be changed and vary from one society to the other , For example in some cultures in Nigeria , only men are supposed to go to the market , while in some other cultures , only women go to the market . Some beliefs and practices believe that women cannot or are unable to take up some jobs like piloting and engineering, meanwhile some women are pilots, engineers, etc. This means that there is no biological factor that stops women from being pilots and engineers and so on.

In this light gender equality is not a women's issue but should concern and fully engage men as well as women. In the words of Hajiya Halima Ben Umar, Project Manager, Population Council: "Gender equality does not necessarily mean equal numbers of men and women or boys in all activities neither does it necessarily refer to treating men or women or boys and girls exactly the same. It rather signifies an aspiration to work towards a society in which neither women or men suffer from poverty in its many forms and a situation where women and men, boys and girls have equal conditions for realizing their full human rights and potential to contribute to national, political, economic, social and cultural development and to benefit from the results. It is therefore the equal valuing by society of both the similarities and differences between women and men and the varying roles they play."

So when we hear of gender issues they are the problems that stem from the way women and men have been socially constructed, they are commonly shared experiences and therefore brought about by structural / societal cause and are recognized as undesirable and unjust.

Gender issue is very important in this country if not sacred because there are critical issues to be looked into like cultural or traditional barriers like male preference syndrome, disinheritance, abuse of human rights with gender bias, legal restrictions hidden under obnoxious and gender insensitive laws e.g. National constitution and attitudinal inclinations like stereotypes.

Princess Idonije advised all and sundry to remember that gender equality is not about the woman challenging the headship of the family but equality of rights, opportunities, benefits and personal or collective societal development. If the man is the head of the family, the woman is therefore the neck that commands the head.