Gender analysis

Gender analysis is a type of socio-economic analysis that uncovers how gender relations affect a development problem. The aim may just be to show that gender relations will probably affect the solution, or to show how they will affect the solution and what could be done. Gender analysis frameworks provide a step-by-step methodology for conducting gender analysis.

In many developing societies, although not in all, women have traditionally been disadvantaged compared to men. Until recently, studies of these societies for the purpose of planning development covered women narrowly in terms of population, health and family planning. Relatively little was known about other concerns such as domestic violence or involvement in economic activities. Gender analysis provides more information, bringing benefits to women and to society as a whole. The Women in Development (WID) approach emerged in the 1970s, calling for treatment of "women's issues" in development projects. Later, the Gender and Development (GAD) approach proposed more emphasis on gender relations rather than seeing women's issues in isolation.

An example of the effect of skipping gender analysis is provided by a project that introduced handcarts to a village for use in collecting firewood. It was thought that the men would use the carts to collect the wood, freeing up the women for other activities. In fact, the men collected the wood for sale, keeping the money. As they depleted supplies near the village, the women had to travel further to collect wood.

Gender analysis has commonly been used as a tool for development and emergency relief projects. The socially constructed roles of men and women must be understood in project or program design, as must roles related to class, caste, ethnicity and age. The techniques are also important in understanding management of natural resources. Gender analysis is relevant to education, although the frameworks used for development projects must be adapted to meet the needs of educational projects.

The Harvard Analytical Framework, also called the Gender Roles Framework, was developed by the Harvard Institute for International Development in collaboration with the Women In Development office of USAID, and was first described in 1984 by Catherine Overholt and others. It was one of the earliest of such frameworks. The starting point for the framework was the assumption that it makes economic sense for development aid projects to allocate resources to women as well as men, which will make development more efficient – a position named the “efficiency approach".

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