3. Practical Gender Needs and Strategic Gender Needs

Objectives

(Estimated Session Time: 1 hour)

Session Flow and Description 10 minutes

Introduction - 10 minutes

Plenary Group Presentation - 20 minutes

Handout 3.3a, Practical Gender Needs and Strategic Gender Needs

Include:

Discussion Questions

Individual Exercise - 10 minutes

Examine the list of gender needs generated at the beginning of the session on the flip chart. Identify needs as PGN or SGN. Be prepared to explain why. If no SGNs were identified, list some.

Plenary Group Discussion - 15 minutes

Go over the list and ask for volunteers to identify each as a PGN or an SGN based on their individual exercises.

Discussion Questions

Post-Session Assignment: Becoming a Gender Equity Witness - 5 minutes
Handouts

Facilitator Preparation

Practical Gender Needs and Strategic Gender Needs
Practical Gender Needs (PGNs Strategic Gender Needs (SGNs)
  • PGNs are needs women identify in their socially accepted roles in society. PGNs do not challenge gender divisions of labour or women’s subordinate position in society, although arising out of them. PGNs are a response to immediate perceived necessity, defined within a specific context. They are practical in nature and often are concerned with inadequacies in living conditions, such as water provision, health care and employment.
  • SGNs are needs women identify because of their subordinate position to men in their society. SGNs vary according to particular contexts. They relate to gender divisions of labour, power and control, and may include such issues as legal rights, domestic violence, equal wages, and health care. Meeting SGNs helps women achieve greater equality. It also alters existing roles and, therefore, challenges women’s subordinate positions.
  • Tend to be immediate, short term
  • Tend to be long term
  • Unique to particular women
  • Common to almost all women
  • Relate to daily needs: food, housing, income, healthy children, etc.
  • Relate to disadvantaged position: subordination, lack of resources and education, vulnerability to poverty and violence, etc.
  • Easily identifiable by women
  • Neither basis of disadvantage nor potential for change is necessarily easily identifiable by women
  • Can be addressed by provision of specific inputs: food, hand pumps, clinic, etc.
  • Can be addressed by consciousness raising, increasing self-confidence, education, strengthening women’s organisations, political mobilisation, etc.

Addressing PGNs Addressing SGNs
  • Tends to involve women as beneficiaries and perhaps as participants
  • Involves women as agents of change or enables women to become agents of change
  • Can improve the condition of women’s lives
  • Can improve the position of women in society
  • Generally does not alter traditional roles and relationships
  • Can empower women and transform relationships


Revision #2
Created 10 February 2024 13:03:28 by Pooja Thyagi
Updated 10 February 2024 13:06:54 by Pooja Thyagi