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International Labour Organization
SEAPAT
South-East Asia and the Pacific Multidisciplinary Advisory Team

Unit 1: A conceptual framework for gender analysis and planning

Tool: Gender activity profile

The identification of the gender division of labour is crucial because it defines men’s and women’s socio-economic opportunities, constraints and incentives.

If little or no information is readily 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. Such a profile may be drawn up for the macro, meso, or micro level, as appropriate to the development activity under consideration.

The main questions to ask are:

• who does what?
• where do men and women work?
• when do men and women work and for how long?

Example 1
 

Activity Profile
Socio-economic activity:	Women/girls	Men/boys	Time	Location
Production activities: paid labour activities: activity 1: activity 2: etc.     unpaid labour/productive activities activity 1: activity 2: etc.
Reproductive activities: unpaid labour for the household: activity 1: activity 2: etc.     unpaid labour for the community: activity 1: activity 2: etc.     leisure time/education & training: activity 1: activity 2: etc.

Example 2
 

Activity Profile
Location	Activity	Gender	Time
e.g. govt forest land, community forest land, homesteads, upland fields, lowland fields, village, city.	e.g. fuelwood and fodder collection, ploughing, weeding, harvesting, cooking, child care, wage labour.	F: exclusively female F/m: predominantly female M/F: equally male/female M/f: predominantly male M: exclusively male	e.g. daily, weekly, seasonal, dry season, rainy season, 3 hr daily, 35 hr weekly

[Adapted from Gender Issues in the World of Work: Gender Training Package, ILO, Geneva, 1995 and Vicki L. Wilde and Arja Vainio-Mattila, International Training Package: Gender Analysis and Forestry, FAO, Rome, 1995.]

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