Annex 1:Steps in Gender analysis

International Labour Organization

SEAPAT

South-East Asia and the Pacific Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

Gender Mainstreaming: A How-To Manual

by
Katerine Landuyt
Associate Expert on Gender Issues

Annex I

Steps in gender analysis

1. The gender division of labour (what women and men in the target population do and why):

The division of labour between men and women depends on the socio-economic and cultural context and may be analysed by differentiating between productive, reproductive and community management and community politics roles. If little or no information is available on the gender division of labour within the target population, it is often useful to draw up an activity profile for men and women.

Productive roles refer to work undertaken by either men or women for pay in cash or kind. It includes both market production with an exchange value, and subsistence/home production with actual use-value, and also potential exchange-value. For women in agricultural production this includes work as independent farmers, peasants and wage workers.
Reproductive roles refer to child-bearing and the different activities carried out in caring for household members and the community. This includes domestic tasks done by women required to guarantee the maintenance and reproduction of the labour force. It includes not only biological reproduction but also fuel and water collection, food preparation, child care, education and health care.
Community management roles refer to activities undertaken primarily by women at the community level, as an extension of their reproductive role, to ensure the provision and maintenance of scarce resources of collective consumption, such as water, health care and education. This is usually voluntary, unpaid work, undertaken in "free" time.
Community politics roles refer to activities undertaken primarily by men at the community level, such as organising at the formal political level, often within the framework of national politics. This is usually paid work, either directly or indirectly, through status or power.

Activities carried out by women are often unpaid or take place in the informal sector not covered by labour legislation. Women’s work is, therefore, also often excluded from national employment and income statistics. Women’s position in the paid labour force is marginal and vulnerable in many parts of the world.

2. Relative access to and control over resources and benefits;

To assess the potential involvement of men and women in development programmes/projects, it is important to know what resources are available to men and women; whether they have access to these resources or whether they have actual control over them (meaning they have the decision-making powers to determine the nature of the use of the resources) and what benefits they derive from access to or control over the resources. The resources and benefits profile can be used for identification of the gender pattern.

Resources: include anything which people need to carry out their activities. Among the important resources which poor women, in particular, often lack are time, paid jobs, and money. Resources can be : capital (credit), appropriate technology, education and training, transportation, health and family planning services, information and market facilities.
Benefits: include anything which accrues to people. They can be tangible or non-tangible: food to be used for subsistence or sale; income to be used for reproductive or reproductive purposes; status, power and recognition.

Once the main resources and benefits have been identified, the gender patterns for access and control over them can be identified. This distinction is important because access to and the use of resources does not necessarily imply power to control resources and the benefits for their use.

3. Practical and strategic gender needs

Practical gender needs are the needs arising from the actual conditions women experience because of the roles assigned to them in society. These needs are often related to women’s roles as mothers, homemakers and providers of basic needs and are concerned with inadequacies in living and working conditions such as food, shelter, income. water provision, health care and employment. For women and men in the lower economic strata, these needs are often linked to survival strategies. Meeting these practical needs does not , however, change factors which perpetuate women’s position as a disadvantaged group in their societies.
Strategic gender needs are the needs identified to overcome the subordinate position of women to men in society and relate to the empowerment of women. They vary according to the particular social, economic and political context in which they are formulated. Usually they concern equality issues such as enabling women to have equal access to job opportunities and training, equal pay for work of equal value, rights to land and other capital assets, prevention of sexual harassment at work, violence against women, and freedom of choice over childbearing.

The identification of needs profile can help you listing the practical and strategic needs of women and men in their societies.

4. Constraints and opportunities within the larger socio-cultural, economic, political and environmental context for the integration of gender.

The above factors may influence the scope of gender integration and should be considered at the macro, sectoral and micro levels as appropriate. They may be categorised as follows:

Economic conditions: poverty level, income distribution, inflation rate, international trade relations, structural adjustment programmes and levels of infrastructure.
Demographic conditions: fertility rate, labour supply, number of new entrants in the labour force every year, internal and international migration patterns.
Prevalent norms and values: culture, religion and ethnicity, possible existence of various subcultures, i.e. groups with beliefs which may differ from the main ideology.
Political events at the international, national and local levels.
Legislation and regulations, national development policies.
Training and educational levels of the population and education and training facilities.
Institutional arrangements such as the nature and extent of government institutions, employer’s and workers’ organisations, other NGOs , community or women’s groups.

The constraints and opportunity profile may help you in identifying direct and indirect discrimination against women as well as strategies to overcome the constraints and utilise the opportunities.

5. Capacity of ILO constituents and other partners organisations.

If the programme is geared towards institutional development, the capacity of the institutions concerned in addressing the needs of both men and women and promoting gender equality has to be addressed. Points for consideration are:

Type of organisation, major areas of intervention and general capacity to plan and implement activities.
Nature and extent of gender-specific policies and activities, and experience with women workers’ issues.
The organisational structure to address women worker’s issues
The concern with gender equality within the organisation and the perceptions on gender and equality issues employment among the staff at the various levels of the institution and how these affect their work.

Indicators of the above may be: the type and scope of policies and programmes on women and gender issues, ratio of men-women staff, levels and occupations of men and women within the organisation, facilities and support systems for workers with family responsibilities.

For further information, please contact the South-East Asia and the Pacific Multidisciplinary Advisory Team (SEAPAT) at Tel: + 63.2.815.2354 or + 63.2.819.3614 and Fax: + 63.2.812.6143
E-mail: seapat@ilo.org

Created by SF. Approved by WRB. Last updated on 31 August 1999.