Gender needs

As the roles of men and women in societies are often different, their needs vary accordingly.

Caroline Moser makes the conceptual distinction between practical and strategic gender needs. She defines these two types of needs as follows:
Practical gender needs
(PGNs)
are the needs women identify in their socially accepted roles in society. PGNs do not challenge, although they arise out of, gender divisions of labour and women’s subordinate position in society. PGNs are a response to immediate perceived necessity, identified within a specific context. They are practical in nature and often inadequacies in living conditions such as water provision, health care and employment.

Strategic gender needs
(SGNs)
are the needs women identify because of their subordinate position in society. They vary according to particular contexts, related to gender divisions of labour, power and control, and may include such issues as legal rights, domestic violence, equal wages, and women’s control over their bodies. Meeting SGNs assists women to achieve greater equality and change existing roles, thereby challenging women’s subordinate position.

Is the distinction between practical and strategic gender needs a useful one for development planners?
According to Moser, it is important for planners to understand the distinction because frequently, different needs are confused. Clarification helps in identifying more realistic parameters as to what can be accomplished through development planning, as also the limitations of different policy interventions.

@prieti

Good post dear!

Well, m' gonna commit the crime of disagreeing to the research quoted above so pardon in anticipation. My disagreement arises here from the confusion created by the explanation of the PGNs and SGNs, as both the explanations mentioned that 'needs are identified by women'. I wonder why don't men identify these concepts, and if they don't do so, the above phenomenon will be completely useless for the planners, as it supports only women's side of identifying the needs.



Regards,

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@qurat

thanks a lot dear sis for appreciating....

well i think, disagreeing to any research is not a crime...everyone has different ideas and notions about any domain...one can express his/her opinions freely...

u r right that the above research aims at the needs identified by women...actually this research was totally aimed at women issues ....
The notion of “strategic gender needs”, was first coined in 1985 by Maxine Molyneux, and it helped develop gender planning and policy development tools, such as the Moser Framework, which are currently being used by development institutions around the world.

Mosers concept was basically a plan for low income women in the Third world which was based on their interests... in other words,their prioritized concernerns...when identifying interests, it is useful to differntiate between "womens interest", "PGN interests", and "SGN interests" following the threefold conceptualization made by Maxine Molyneux...having identified the diffeent intersts of women, it is possible to translate them into planning needs....in other words the means by which their (womens) concerns may be satisfied...

SGN are often normally identified as "feminist" as it is the level of concioucness required to struggle affectively for them...

(research was conducted by a female so she has more emphasised on the womens need)

regards,

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