- 11 (Registered)
Mapping the Factors that Influence Gender Dynamics
Influencing factors affecting gender relations are those variables that most directly affect the respective sets of rights, obligations, opportunities, activities and positions of women and men within a given society and which can, therefore, influence interventions geared towards development. These influencing factors may act at macro-level (general context of a country or sector), meso-level (related to institutions, structures and services) and or micro-level (pertaining to a specific area or group), and could constitute events, facts, values, rules, laws or customs.
An analysis of influencing factors will enable us to:
- chart the social structures, legal norms, processes and relations that have given rise to a disadvantaged position for certain groups within a society and which are therefore used to guide development-oriented action with a view to transforming such structures, processes and relations;
- expose those factors that have a transforming effect on the position and conditions of women and men and their mutual relations;
- assess the project’s feasibility, based on external factors that could either undermine, or spur on the task of attaining the objectives of the intervention.
How do we conduct an analysis into the factors that influence gender relations?
There are many different kinds of influencing factors capable of affecting gender dynamics:
- Legal-political factors: refer to the influence exerted by the State and its policies and legislation. Legislation and public policies, budgetary policies, structural adjustment policies and sector-wide policies have different effects on women and men. We must also analyse the extent to which women participate at State-level and within civil society, including the degree of commitment at these levels to defending the human rights of women.
- Socio-economic factors: take into account the different roles that men and women play in economic activities, both at macro-level (cuts in social spending, privatizations of public services, unemployment, etc.) and micro-level (levels of family income, access to borrowing, types of productive activities, types of family structures, etc.).
- Socio-cultural and religious factors: tend to have a hugely important bearing on gender relations and on women’s position within society. Culture determines the identity and roles assigned to men and women in each society, and also the value attached to such roles within the family and within the community or society as a whole.
- Environmental factors: relations governing the holding, ownership and control of resources and products, and decision-making in relation to the environment have considerable ramifications on gender dynamics.
- Technological factors: address how technology can have different effects on the potential, productivity and capacities of women and men. These factors also encompass gender-related differences in accessing and acquiring training in new technologies.
- Linguistic and educational factors: in multilingual environments, it is often the case that women speak their mother tongue but are unfamiliar with the official languages of the country, or the most commonly used language in a given area. This restricts their access to information, to productive resources and to all the activities that are performed outside their immediate surroundings. A similar situation can arise as a result of the poor training received by women in many contexts and their typically high rates of illiteracy.
“Certain interpretations of traditions and customs can lead to women being excluded from citizenship and basic rights, while also imposing a status of permanent dependence and legal minority and even justifying violence and abuse towards women, thus dehumanizing them as a second rate social group.”
Once the key influencing factors have been identified, we must evaluate how they affect gender dynamics in each specific case and whether they are factors that can help to usher in change or those resistant to change.
- Factors of change: those influencing factors that can help development-oriented action to promote or foster gender equality within a given community.
- Resistant factors: those influencing factors that drag back the positive effect that development-oriented action can have on the advancement of gender equality.
The following steps should be taken when conducting an analysis into influencing factors:
- pinpoint the influencing factors that represent factors of change in one column and associate them with one of the spheres of influence: the household, the community, the market or the state;
- enumerate the influencing factors that constitute resistant factors in another column and associate them with one of the spheres of influence: the household, the community, the market or the state;
- measure the intensity of each factor from 1 to 5, with 1 being the weakest and 5 the strongest;
- draw up a diagram to visualise the situation and match the situation to the suitable strategy.
“All development projects and actions will attempt to find support from factors of change, while counteracting, insofar as possible, resistant factors through the strategies best suited to tackling them.”