Gender Concepts Project seminar in Egypt, September 2010

3 Working Concepts Gender division of labour Practical needs and strategic interests Access and control

Gender Division of Labour Men and women are often engaged in different kinds of activities The different types of activities can be divided into –Productive activities –Reproductive activities –Community activities

Gender division of labour – cont. Reproductive activities: –Activities required to guarantee the maintenance and reproduction of human resources –Examples of reproductive tasks Cooking Cleaning Childcaring –In many countries women perform the majority of reproductive activities

Gender division of labour – cont. Productive activities: –Work done for pay in cash or kind. Includes market production with an exchange value, and subsistence/home productives, with actual use- value, and also potential exchange value –In most countries both men and women are engaged in productive activities, but often very different ones with different levels of pay More men than women are professionals Women more often in insecure and informal work Men engaged in cash-cropping; women in subsistence farming Men earn more than women

Gender division of labour - cont Community Activities –Activities to ensure provision and maintenance of scarce resources of collective consumption; local politics –The former often carried out by women as voluntary unpaid work –Men are often engaged in local politics, involving status and sometimes payment –Ex: securing water resources, establishing health units, building churches and schools

Gender division of labour What does the gender division of labour has to with project work?

Practical needs and strategic interests Practical Needs –Practical Gender Needs are a response to immediate perceived necessity, identified within a specific context. They are practical in nature and often concern inadequacies in living conditions such as water provision, health care and employment. –They do not challenge, although they arise out of, gender divisions of labour and women’s position in society –Ex: maternal health care, well near-by, micro-finance training,

Practical needs and strategic interests Strategic interests: –Challenge the gender divisions of labour, power and control and may include issues such as legal rights, domestic violence, equal wages, and women’s control over their bodies. These vary according to context –Meeting these interests assists women to achieve greater equality and change existing roles, thereby challenging women’s subordinate position.

Why is a distinction between practical gender needs and strategic gender interests important in project work?

Access and Control Access –Access to resources implies that women/men are able to use and benefit from specific resources (material, financial, human, social, political etc) Control –Control over resources implies access to a ressource and also decision- making about the use of the ressource Ex: –Women can access land without controlling it –They can also own land and thus control – that is decide over the land (organisations, meetings, projects groups – about power)

Why is the distinction between access and control important for project work?

Addressing gender in different ways Gender-blind –Do not account for gender and inequalities may be reinforced or made worse THIS IS A NO-GO FOR PROJECTS FUNDED BY DUF Gender neutral –Gender norms, roles and relations are not affected (not worsened or not improved) Gender specific –Meet needs of one or other gender within existing distribution of policies Gender transformative –Transform unequal relations, transform power relations. Changes in control over resources and decisions-making and support to women’s empowerment

YOUR PROJECTS Is you project (about to become) gender-blind? Think about the gender context of your project. What is –The gender division of labour –The gendered access and control over resources –Women and men’s practical needs and strategic interests Are you aiming for it to become: –Gender-neutral –Gender specific –Gender transformative What are your next steps?

Presentation and discussion In groups of two partnerships. Taking shift to be ’presentor’ group and ’advisor’ group. Decide who is first ’advisor’ group and who is ’presentor’ group. Presentor group gives 15 minuttes presentation. Then advisor group gives 10 minuttes of suggestions and advice to presentor group who has turned their back away. The presentor group is not allowed to say anything. Presentor group turns around again and gives 5 minutes of response. A time keeper is selected among the advisor group. You then shift roles and do the same again