What is Gender Analysis Framework and How to Choose a Framework?

A gender analysis is used to evaluate how a policy or a program impacts women, men, or nonbinary people in a society. Whereas, a Gender Analysis Framework (GAF) provides you with a structure for systematically collecting and organizing information about gender roles, relations, economic activities, resources, and decision-making. 

Why Choose a Gender Analysis Framework?

There are different purposes of the gender analysis framework. It guides you with your initial research; planning; monitoring; and evaluating your policy or program.

1. Context analysis

Choosing a suitable framework allows you to arrange your thoughts depending on the context, available resources and output of the analysis.

The gender analysis frameworks might have similarities hence, selecting the right framework depends on the scope and emphasis of your work.

2. Planning

Using a gender framework provides you with a clear understanding of issues, facts, and gender relations that impact women’s lives in society.

The framework helps you with tools and guides you in decision-making by highlighting key points in a simple manner.

3. Communications

The gender analysis frameworks help you with tools to share information and awareness and train people about gender issues.

4. Monitoring and Evaluation

The gender framework tools are designed to guide you to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of a policy or program.

However, keep in mind that;

• Many factors influence a gender situation and gender frameworks consider a limited number of factors as important.

• The factors in a particular framework are selected on the set of values and assumptions i.e. the hypothesis and standards.

Despite the values and assumptions defined by the framework, you as the practitioner might also have some values and assumptions that you want to include in the framework.

• The relationship between these two sets of values and assumptions can help you decide and select the methods and interventions for your analysis.

• You can create your own hybrid version by adapting different components of gender frameworks and adding your own ideas.

Four Points to Consider BEFORE Carrying Out Gender Analysis Framework

First thing, you as a practitioner must understand that carrying out gender analysis is a serious and systematic process. You should have the right skills, knowledge, time, adequate resources and must be well prepared to carry it out.

You should be gender sensitive and coherent to implement the framework with other relevant techniques such as data collection.

Second, you should be aware of the limits of the framework in bringing about change. People carrying out analysis may overlook its consequences.

The purpose of adopting a gender analysis framework is to recognize gender inequalities and address the needs of women in policies and programs.

Third, it is very important to pay attention to cultural and social norms. Usually, the practitioner adopts the strategy of one size fits all and implements tools without considering social and cultural differences.

Finally, it is a common practice to focus solely on gender issues in developmental policies and projects. This practice leads to overlook the importance of achieving gender equality.

Eight Questions You Should Ask When Choosing a Framework?

Keep in mind that it is important to have knowledge about the main concept of the framework. Such as what it is used for. You should have a clear understanding of the approaches of different frameworks.

Below is the list of potential questions that you can ask.

1. To what extent does the framework integrate an analysis of social relations?
2. How flexible is the gender analysis framework? Can it examine change over time?
3. Does the framework primarily analyze social roles? Like who does what? And who has what?
4. Or does the framework primarily analyze social relations? Like how do community members relate to each other? And what type of bargaining power do they have?
5. To what extent a framework includes the value of tangible (property; land; capital or income) and intangible (political or social resources: friendships; networks; skills; experience, self-confidence; credibility; status and respect) resource?
6. What is the final goal of the chosen framework? Does it focus on efficiency or it target empowerment?
7. Does the framework deliver what you are trying to achieve?
8. What is the limitation of the framework you want to use and how it can be addressed?

Six Gender Analysis Frameworks

1. Harvard Analytical Framework

The Harvard Analytical Framework is also known as the Gender Roles Framework. It was published in 1985 and was one of the first frameworks to carry out gender analysis.

The aim of the framework was to identify and understand the economic differences between men and women in a community. The framework provides a guideline to plan and design efficient policies and projects to improve the productivity of women and men.

The framework focuses on four components that are interrelated with each other.

• The first component of the activity profile explores the question of who does what – by recognizing productive and reproductive tasks.
• The second factor is the access and control profile. It discovers the resources used by people in the tasks identified in the activity profile. It also uncovers the access to resources by men or women; who controls the resources and who benefits from them.
• Next is the influencing factor. It allows you to identify the differences in the gender division of labor, access to and control of resources as mentioned in the above two profiles. 
• Finally, the tool offers a series of questions that assist you examine your intervention from a gender perspective.

2. Moser Framework

The Moser Conceptual Framework or the Moser Framework was introduced in the 1980s by Caroline Moser to carry out gender analysis by challenging the traditional planning methods.

The framework focuses on gender roles and gender needs. It aims to promote gender planning by empowering women and attaining equality and equity. 

The Moser Framework revolves around three main concepts.

• The Gender Role Identification or the Triple Role involves the mapping of the gender division of labor by raising questions about who does what? The triple role here represents the reproductive, the productive, and the community work done by women.
• The second aspect talks about the Gender Needs Assessment that is based on women’s needs that is different from men’s.

It further talks about two types of needs;

• Practical gender needs that assist women in their daily activities.
• Strategic gender needs that challenge power inequalities between women and men.

The framework also sheds light on the Control of Resources and Decision-making within the Household that evaluates the ownership and control of resources.

• Lastly, it talks about the WID/GAD Policy Matrix that encourages to evaluate and examine an existing policy or program.

3. Gender Analysis Matrix (GAM)

The Gender Analysis Matrix (GAM) framework was developed to fulfill the gap by evaluating work at the grassroots level and by concentrating on participatory planning.

The aim of the framework was to determine the intervention of development on women and men. The framework encourages analysis by the community to identify gaps and challenge their assumptions about gender roles.

The GAM focuses on two concepts to analyze the impact of developments.

•  The framework is designed to carry out development analysis at four levels of society i.e. women, men, households and community. Depending on the need the framework allows evaluation of other levels such as class, age, group or ethnicity.
• Secondly, GAM explores four kinds of impact on a society by evaluating how gender differences impact on labor, time resources, and sociocultural factors.

4. Capacities and Vulnerabilities Analysis Framework

The Capacities and Vulnerabilities Analysis (CVA) was specifically designed for humanitarian and disaster preparedness issues.

This framework aimed to guide agencies and organizations to plan policies and programs during crises. It focuses on meeting immediate community needs and at the same time building and achieving long-term socio-economic developmental goals.

The CVA framework’s approach mainly lies in the strengths (capacities) and weaknesses (vulnerabilities) of people. That determines how the crises will impact them and how they will respond to them.

The policies and programs using this framework can investigate three categories during a crisis.

• The first category is the Physical or Material Capacities and Vulnerabilities. It talks about a community’s resources such as land, water, climate, food, skills, housing and technologies etc. These resources can be used to analyze and build policies and programs.
• The second category is the Social or Organizational Capacities and Vulnerabilities. It refers to the family and community systems as well as political structures and informal systems of decision-making in a society. Analyzing different gender roles and division of labor may identify gender gaps and help to eliminate them.
• The last category is about Motivational and Attitudinal Capacities and Vulnerabilities. This captures cultural and psychological factors that might be historical, social, or religious.

The categories discussed above should be investigated using a gender lens that explores social relations and examines different levels of society.

5. Social Relations Approach

The Social Relations Approach was developed for planning programs with an approach for the development of human well-being.

The aim of the Social Relations Approach was to analyze gender inequalities in the distribution of resources, responsibilities and power. The framework also intended to design policies and programs that empower women to be agents of their own development.

The framework has three key concepts and focuses on the relation between the state, the market, the community, and the family.

• First, Development as Human Well-Being describes the survival, security, production and autonomy to fully participate in decision-making at personal and collective. Hence development here is not merely economic growth.
• Second, Social Relations refers to the structural relationships that define the position of women and men in a society. These relationships also determine the rights, control, resources and responsibilities of our own life and of others.
• Third, the Institutional Analysis unfolds the inequalities that are reinforced by the institutions that include the international community, the state and the marketplace.

The Social Relations Approach challenges the traditional institutional methods that are interrelated and reproduce inequalities.

6. The 4R Method

The 4R method unfolds the gender pattern of an organization to explore its impact and in what means the resources are allocated.

The method, with the help of the available data not only guides to plan the shortcoming but also helps to formulate objectives that promotes gender equality.

The framework looks at gender inequalities in four dimensions.

• First, the Representation dimension guides you to explore gender representation in an organization at different levels as well as in the process of decision-making.
• Second, the Resources evaluate how money, time and information is distributed among women and men.
• Third, the Realia refers to analyze conditions of gender distribution, representation and resource allocation. Patterns that emerged with the previous two Rs will guide you to identify gender disparities.
• Fourth, Realization is the phase where you formulate new objectives and measures to achieve gender equality.

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Concluding Remarks

The gender analysis frameworks mentioned above may seem to overlap each other. But they are focused on different dimensions.

Such as the Harvard and the Moser frameworks are important to get in-depth knowledge about the gender division of labor and understanding the role of productive and reproductive activities carried by women and men.

If you want to analyze change over time and gender disparities in the distribution of resources, responsibilities and power, then the Social Relations Approach can be a good choice.

Similarly, the 4R method is suitable to explore organizational patterns whereas the Gender Analysis Matrix evaluates the gender gaps at the grass-root level.

But if for some reason you find them too bureaucratic and complicated then it is better to avoid them or use a mixed method by using some components of a framework and some of your own thoughts and ideas.

FAQ

Key points to consider before using the gender analysis framework?

You should;

• Have the right skills, knowledge, time and resources to carry it gender analysis.
• Pay attention to social and cultural norms
• Be aware of any limitations of the framework you are using
• Focus on the target objective of gender analysis

What are the different types of policies?

From a gender perspective, there are two major types of policies.

Gender-blind policies are those that don’t take gender differences into consideration while developing policies

Gender-aware policies are those that recognize that different genders have different needs and policies should be designed to fulfill those needs

How to choose a gender analysis framework?

Choosing a gender analysis framework depends on the needs of your policy or project.

However, you should consider the scope; planning; monitoring, and evaluation of your policy or program.

Acknowledgment

This document is an inspiration and expansion of the work published by;

• Gender Mainstreaming Manual l – A book of practical methods (JämStöd, 2007)
• Gender analysis (EIGE, 2019)
• How to Do a Gender Analysis (Swiss Agency)
• A Guide to Gender-Analysis Frameworks (March, Smyth, & Mukhopadhyay, 1999)