Gender tools and methodology

1. GENDER TOOLS AND
METHODOLOGY

2.  Gender is a socially constructed definition of women and men.
 It is the social design of a biological sex, determined by the conception of tasks, functions
and roles attributed to women and men in society and in public and private life.
 It is a culture-specific definition of femininity and masculinity and therefore varies in time
and space.
 The construction and reproduction of gender takes place at the individual as well as at the
societal level.
 Both are equally important.
 Individual human beings shape gender roles and norms through their activities and
reproduce them by conforming to expectations.
 Gender equality means accepting and valuing equally the differences between women and
men and the diverse roles they play in society.
INTRODUCTION

3. 1. THE 4 R METHOD FROM SWEDEN
2. GENDER IMPACT ASSESSMENT (GIA)
3. GENDER ANALYSIS
4. GENDER ANALYSIS MATRIX (GAM)
5. WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT FRAMEWORK
6. PRA TOOLS FOR GENDER ANALYSIS
GENDER TOOLS & METHODOLOGY

4. Examples for aspects to analyze:
 How is the participation of women and men in
organizations, institutions, committees, authorities?
 What kind of spaces for participation, communication,
agreement do exist and how can the access for women
and for men be described?
 How can the participation on the different hierarchical
levels and in decision-making bodies be described?
 What kind of leadership positions exist?
 How are they defined? What kind of access do women
and men have to occupy such a position?
 How can the participation be described as far as the
consumption of goods/services is concerned?
 How many of the discussed/treated topics and carried
out programmes/activities concern mainly women or
mainly men?
 Do relevant data exist (statistics, interviews, etc.)?
1. Representation
(who?)
How big is the proportion of women
and men? How many women and men
participate? How many women and
men occupy leadership positions?
(horizontal and vertical distribution
of women and men within an
organization),
(quantitative data)
THE 4 R METHOD FROM SWEDEN This method is developed by the
Swedish Gender Mainstreaming
Support Committee, JämStöd.
The 4R Method could be used as the
basis for analyzing and surveying
activities, and for providing an overview
of how activities are run and financed.
It could also be used to understand how
the activities should be altered to
promote gender equality.

5. - Economic resources:
 How are wages distributed between women and
men?
 Do subsidies exist for special activities carried
out by women and by men?
 Are there any gender specific differences as far as
financing of programmes/activities by the
institution/organisation is concerned?
- Physical space:
 Are there any gender related differences in
physical space allocation for men and women?
(e.g. space for recreation).
- Time:
 In conferences, meetings, working sessions, etc.
how much time for speaking do men and women
take?
2. Resources - examining the
allocation of resources
How are our common resources -
money, scope, time - distributed
between women and men?
(quantitative data)

6. What is the situation in our operation?
• What gender patterns do we see?
• Whose needs are being met?
• Can you see whether the activity has been designed on
the basis of a norm that favours one gender ahead of the
other?
• Are women’s and men’s interests, opportunities and
wishes met to an equal degree?
How does the activity deal with gender equality issues?
• Does the activity proceed on the basis of the
user’s/client’s gender?
• Do women and men, as individuals and groups,
encounter differing demands and expectations linked to
stereotyped ideas of gender?
• What is the ‘gender contract’ in the activity? By ‘gender
contract’ we mean the prevailing norms and values that
lead to some tasks being defined as ‘female’ and others as
‘male’.
3. Realia - analysing conditions
(conditions?)
answers the question: What are
the reasons for the gender
distribution of representation
and resource allocation? On what
terms are women and men able
to influence the design and use
of the activity concerned?
‘Realia’ are the quantitative
substance of an activity. The idea
is that patterns will become clear
through a survey of the first two
Rs - patterns that will then lead
on to questions about why things
are the way they are.

7. New objectives and measures
• Examine current objectives for the activity. Are they
sufficient, or do you need to draw up new ones based on
the gender patterns identified in the analysis?
• Decide what measures are necessary to adjust distorted
gender patterns.
• Decide a completion date for achievement of the
objectives.
Follow-up
• Decide how the results of the measures are to be
measured in relation to the new objectives. What
indicators or key ratios are to be used to follow up the
activity?
• Decide when, and in what way, evaluation and follow-
up are to take place.
Realisation - formulating new
objectives and measures
Vision
Try to express how the operation
is to be run and what it must
achieve if it is to be gender-
equal. A vision based on the
needs of women as well as men.

8. Gender impact assessment has been defined as an ex ante evaluation, analysis or
assessment of a law, policy or programme that makes it possible to identify, in a
preventative way, the likelihood of a given decision having negative consequences for the
state of equality between women and men. The central question of the GIA is:
 Does a law, policy or programme reduce, maintain or increase the gender inequalities
between women and men?
 ‘Gender impact assessment is the estimation of the different effects (positive, negative
or neutral) of any policy or activity implemented to specific items in terms of gender
equality’.
 ‘Gender impact assessment is the process of comparing and assessing, according to
gender relevant criteria, the current situation and trend with the expected
development resulting from the introduction of the proposed policy’.
GENDER IMPACT ASSESSMENT (GIA)

9. Better policies- Gender impact assessment like all impact assessment processes
contributes to making better policy and legislation, since it provides information about the
foreseen result. It allows the possibility of including missed elements during the design
phase of the regulation, policy or programme.
Better governance- A high quality gender impact assessment contributes to policymaking
and legislative work that is more relevant for society, because it is responsive to the needs
of all citizens women and men, girls and boys.
Civil servant approach- The most comprehensive model for gender impact assessment
foresees that civil servants are in charge of carrying out gender impact assessment. In this
case, gender equality units often provide respective institutions with relevant methods,
tools and recommendations during the process to ensure that the gender impact
assessment is of high quality.
A tool for learning- Making policy that is effective in reducing gender inequality and
proactively promotes equality requires knowing how gender inequality is expressed in all
spheres of life. This also applies to knowing how to set priorities in relation to gender
equality measures.
A tool to strengthen gender equality

10. Gender equality unit approach- The gender equality unit may be directly in charge of
carrying out the GIA. For instance, in the regional government of Catalonia, in Spain, civil
servants working on the legislation or policy under consideration are requested to provide
only the raw material (justification for a gender impact assessment and the draft
regulation), which is then further processed by the central gender equality body to perform
gender impact assessments.
Broader impact assessment approach- In some cases, gender impact assessment is carried
out as one part of a broader impact assessment, which also includes social, economic and/or
environmental impact. This would be the case, for instance, in Austria and at the European
Commission. Both have general guidelines for impact assessment which include some
specific questions that address gender equality- related aspects.
Continue…

11.  Gender analysis is a systematic analytical process used to identify,
understand, and describe gender differences and the relevance of gender
in a specific context.
 Such analysis typically involves examining the differential impact of
development policies and programs on women and men, and may include
the collection of sex-disaggregated or gender sensitive data. Gender
analysis examines the different roles, rights, and opportunities of men
and women as well as relations between them.
 It also identifies disparities, examines why such disparities exist,
determines whether they are a concern, and looks at how they can be
addressed.
WHAT IS GENDER ANALYSIS?

12.  To analyze gender roles in the context of the project or activity that will be
designed.
 To identify root causes of existing gender inequalities in that context and
increase understanding about how to address them.
 To identify different needs and priorities of men and women, over the
short and long-term.
 To collect sex-disaggregated baseline data.
 To avid perpetuating traditional power imbalances.
 To enhance the likelihood of strengthened and sustainable project or
activity results.
Why should you do a gender analysis when you are
designing a new project or activity?

13. What do men and women (adults, children, elders) do, and where and when take these
activities place?
 The Activity Profile usually considers all categories of activities: productive,
reproductive, community-related service.
 It identifies how much time is spent on each activity, how often this work is done (e.g.,
daily or seasonally), which periods are characterized by a high demand for labor, and
what extra demands the program inputs will make on women, men, and children.
 Issues considered under Activity Profile include: * Production of goods and services,
*Reproductive and human resource maintenance activities, * Community work, *
Community organization and activities.
 The objective is to ensure that women are actively included in the project and are not
disadvantaged by it.
Collection of Information-
1. Activity Profile

14. Who has access to and control of resources, and decision making?
It enables planners to consider whether the proposed project could undermine access to
productive resources, or if it could change the balance of power between men and
women regarding control over resources.
It is important to analyze two different questions with each of the resources:
1. Do women have access to this resource? (do women have the possibility to use it?)
2. Do women have control over the resource? (do women have the possibility to define
the use of it within a certain space of participation?)
2. Access and Control Profile

15. 3. Resources
Economic Resources Information/Education Politics
 Work
 Capital
 raw material
 Equipment
 Wages
 conditions for social
well-being: social
security, nutrition,
health services,
kindergardens, etc.
 Inputs to be able to
make decisions
 Formal education
 Informal education
 Possibilities for
technical exchange and
exchange of experience
 Leadership position
 Possibility to move to
decision-making
positions
 Spaces to express
opinion
 Spaces to communicate
 Spaces to negotiate and
find agreements

16. Continue…
Time Human Resources Internal Resources
 kind and extent of daily labour
 distribution of daily labour
 Hours of recreation
 Spaces for the personal
promotion
 Ability for leadership
 Capacity to define and express
interests/needs
 Capacity to communicate
effectively
 Internal security
 Trust in one`s own capacities
 Positive image, personal
valorisation
 Personal autonomy and
independence
The profile examines the extent to which women are impeded from participating
equitably in projects. Program management mechanisms may determine who has access
to and control over productive resources and may change existing gender relations.

17. How are activity, access, and control patterns shaped by structural factors (demographic, economic, legal, and institutional)
and by cultural, religious, and attitudinal ones.
This analysis considers the structural and socio-cultural factors that influence the gender patterns of activity and access and
control in the project area:
 demographic factors, including household composition and household headship;
 general economic conditions, such as poverty levels, inflation rates, income distribution, internal terms of trade, and
infrastructure;
 cultural and religious factors;
 education levels and gender participation rates; and
 political, institutional, and legal factors.
The analysis should consider the following:
 Which policies and programs aimed at ensuring women ́s participation could affect the project?
 Which community norms and beliefs could influence women ́s participation in the project ́s activities?
 Are there laws or regulations that could affect women ́s participation in the project or their accessto its benefits?
4. ANALYSIS OF FACTORS AND TRENDS- The socio-economic context

18. What gender considerations are needed for the project?
Gender-sensitive project planning, design, implementation, monitoring, and post-evaluation.
This analysis will indicate if and where the objectives and methods proposed for the project
should be modified to improve the chances that the project will succeed and to minimize the
likelihood that women will be disadvantaged as a result of it.
Some questions that may need to be considered in this analysis deal with production processes,
training, information, participation, access , institution building, project framework etc.
Particularly within the Project framework, the following issues need to be considered:
 Do the planning assumptions (at each level of the planning framework or logical framework, for
example) adequately reflect the constraints on women ́s participation in the program?
 Do project performance indicators identify the need for data to be collected, disaggregated by
gender? Will changes in the gender division of labor be monitored? Will data on women ́s access
to and control over resources be collected during the project?
5. Program Cycle Analysis

19.  Can the project meet both practical gender needs (supporting and improving the efficiency
of women ́s and men ́s productive roles) and strategic gender needs (improving gender
equity through women ́s participation in the project)?
 Do the goals, purposes, or objectives of the program explicitly refer to women or reflect
women ́s needs and priorities?
 Do the project inputs identify opportunities for female participation in program
management, in the delivery and community management of goods and services, in any
planned institutional changes, in training opportunities, and in the monitoring of resources
and benefits? Will the project resources be relevant and accessible to poor women in terms of
personnel, location, and timing?
 Does the project include measurable indices for the attainment of its GAD objectives, to
facilitate monitoring and post-evaluation?
Continue…

20.  The Gender Analysis Matrix (GAM), developed by Rani Parker, is a tool that uses
participatory approaches to identify how a particular agricultural production, processing
or marketing practice impacts men and women differently in the community.
 Its community focused approach enables participants to analyze differences between men
and women’s culturally defined practices in the community, and challenge their
assumptions about gender roles.
 For example, a community could evaluate the labor practices of men and women, and
assess how they impact men and women’s wellbeing, time use or earning potential. If they
identify a particular activity that discriminates against women, the community may
decide to stop such a practice and create a more equitable environment.
 The benefits of using GAM are based on its community-based techniques to collect and
analyze information on the spot.
GENDER ANALYSIS MATRIX (GAM)

21.  To ensure effective gender analysis process with the use of GAM, it is important to
understand that:
 Participating men and women possess all necessary information about themselves
and their community.
 Application of GAM doesn’t require the community to have gender expertise, but
extension agents facilitating the process should possess an understanding of gender
analysis.
 Application of GAM facilitates transformative change in the community as the
community self-identifies problems and consensually validates its own solutions.
Basics of GAM

22. To be effective, each problem area needs discussion at all levels of the community: with
women groups, men groups, households and the community.
 Each group (if mixed) should include women and men in equal numbers.
 Discussions should be facilitated by an outsider (an extension agent) with trust from
community members. The outsider’s role is to encourage discussion, broker solutions and
mitigate conflict.
 Each group analyzes the problem area and evaluates how it impacts the members of the
community by their specific gender roles, tasks, opportunities and goals.
 The process requires follow up to ensure the community stays on track with proposed
interventions; make adjustments to the process; captures changes over time; and
identifies unexpected outcomes of the process (e.g., the proposed intervention may affect
those who did not participate).
Best Practices Using GAM

23.  This framework was developed by Sara Hlupekile, a gender expert from Lusaka, Zambia.
Aims of the framework
 To achieve women’s empowerment by enabling women to achieve equal control over the
factors of production and participate equally in the development process.
Features
Longwe argues that poverty arises not from lack of productivity but from oppression and
exploitation. She conceptualizes five progressive levels of equality, arranged in hierarchical
order, with each higher level denoting a higher level of empowerment. These are the basis to
assess the extent of women’s empowerment in any area of social or economic life. The levels of
equality are:
WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT FRAMEWORK

24. Control Using the participation of women in the decision-making process to achieve
balance of control between men and women over the factors of production,
without one in a position of dominance.
Participation Pertains to women’s equal participation in the decision-making process,
policy-making, planning and administration. In development projects, it
includes involvement in needs assessment, project design, implementation
and evaluation.
Conscientisation Pertains to an understanding of the difference between sex roles and gender
roles and the belief that gender relations and the gender division of labour
should be fair and agreeable to both sides, and not based on the domination
of one over the other
Access Pertains to women’s access to factors of production¾ land, labour, credit,
training, marketing facilities, and all publicly available services and
benefits¾ on an equal basis with men. Equality of access is obtained by
securing equality of opportunity through legal reform to remove
discriminatory provisions.
Welfare Pertains to level of material welfare of women, relative to men, with respect
to food supply, income and medical care, without reference to whether
women are themselves the active creators and producers of their material
needs

25. Negative level where project objectives are silent about women’s issues.
Experience suggests that women are likely to be left worse off by
such a project
Neutral level where the project objectives recognise women’s issues but concern
remains neutral or conservative, merely ensuring that women are
not left worse off than before
Positive level where project objectives are positively concerned with women’s
issues and with improving the position of women relative to men
The women’s empowerment framework identifies three levels of recognition of
women’s issues in project design:

26. Uses of the framework
Particularly useful for groups committed to promoting equality and empowerment
empowerment through their work.
Strengths of the framework
•Develops the notion of practical and strategic gender needs into a progressive
hierarchy.
•Shows that empowerment is an essential element of development and enables
assessment of interventions along this criterion
•Has a strong political perspective, aims to change attitudes
Potential limitations
•Assumption of levels of equality as strictly hierarchical is questionable.
•Framework is static and takes no account of how situations change over time
•Examines gender relations from the point of view of equality alone, excludes
interrelationship between rights, and responsibilities
•ignores other forms of inequality

27.  Problem Tree
 Venn Diagram
 Income and expenditure matrices
 Pair wise rankings
 Social and Resource mapping
 Seasonal Calendar
 Economic well being ranking
PRA TOOLS FOR GENDER ANALYSIS
 Daily Activity Schedule
 Resource Analysis
 Mobility mapping
 Decision making matrix
 Community action plan

28. The problem tree is one method of mapping out core problems, along with
their causes and effects, helping project planners to identify clear and manageable
objectives. Like any other tree, the problem tree has three parts: a trunk, roots,
and branches. The trunk is the core problem.
Problem Tree

29. The Venn Diagram on Institutions shows institutions, organizations, groups and
important individuals found in the village (Kushet), as well as the villagers view of
their importance in the community. Additionally the Diagram explains who
participates in these groups in terms of gender and wealth. The Institutional
Relationship Diagram also indicates how close the contact and cooperation
between those organizations and groups is.
Venn Diagram

30. Showing the relative importance of different sources of income and types
of expenditure for women and men.
Income and expenditure matrices

31. Which allows women and men to identify, share and compare the priority
they give to different problems and expenses
Pair wise rankings

32.  One can indicate spatial distribution of roads, forests, water resources
and institutions and
 Also identify households, their ethnic composition and other socio-
economic characteristics/variables.
Social and Resource mapping

33. Used to assess workload of women and men by seasonality, learn
cropping patterns, farming systems, gender division of labour, food
scarcity, climatic conditions and so on.
Seasonal Calendar

34.  Used to understand local people’s criteria of wealth, identify relative wealth and
the different socio-economic characteristics of households and classes.
 Facilitate formation of focus groups to work with other PRA techniques.
Economic well being ranking

35. Used to identify daily patterns of activity based on gender division of
labour on an hourly basis and understand how busy women and men are
in a day, how long they work and when they have spare time for social
and development.
Daily Activity Schedule

36. Indicate access to and control over private, community and public resources by
gender.
Resource Analysis

37. Used to understand gender equities and inequities in terms of contact of men
and women with outside world and plotting the frequency, frequency and
distance of mobility.
Mobility mapping

38. It is used to understand decision making on farming practices by gender.
Decision making matrix

39.  Assess the extent to which women’s voices are respected when men and women
sit together to identify solutions for the problems prioritized by latter.
 One is able to understand development alternatives and options, and give
opportunity to men and women to learn from each other’s experiences and
knowledge.
Community action plan