Gender Concepts Women's interests: the diverse, complex and often conflicting interests which women hold as individuals

and which are therefore shaped by class, ethnicity and age as well as by gender. Practical gender interests: which arise because of differing gender roles and are formulated by women (or men) themselves, usually as a response to an immediate perceived need. Strategic gender interests: which arise from analysis of women's subordination (and mens dominance) through feminist analysis and/or by women and men themselves. The aim is not to fulfill an immediate perceived need but to transform gender relations to secure a more lasting situation of gender equality. Recently the need to critically examine mens interests and needs as part of the structures of unequal gender relations has been increasingly emphasized. C. IDENTIFYING WOMEN'S INTERESTS AND NEEDS (Moser and Levy A theory and methodology of gender planning: meeting women's practical and strategic needs p. 8-9) Planning for the needs of low income women in the Third World must be based on their interests. By identifying the different interests women have it is possible then to translate them into planning needs and out of this the requirements for gender aware policy and planning can be formulated, and the tools and techniques for implementing them clarified. In the identification of women's interests it is useful to distinguish between 'women's interests', strategic gender interests and practical gender interests, following the threefold conceptualisation made by Maxine Molyneux (1985). Translated into planning terms these are identified as 'women's needs', strategic gender needs and practical gender needs. Frequently these different needs are confused, and clarification is essential if the limitations of different policy options are to be recognised in terms of the extent to which they really assist low income Third World women. At the outset it is important to distinguish between 'women's interests' and gender interests. The concept of 'women's interests', although frequently referred to, is in fact so general as to be of limited usefulness. For women are positioned within society through a variety of different means, such as class, ethnicity and gender, and consequently the interests they have in common may be determined as much by their social position or their ethnic identity as by the fact that they are women. Within the planning context 'women's needs' obviously vary widely, again determined not only by the specific socio-economic context, but also by the particular class, ethnic and religious position of women within it. Gonsequently, although the category of 'women's needs' is frequently referred to by planners in general policy terms, it is of limited utility when translated into specific planning interventions. Women may have general interests in common but these should be called gender interests, to differentiate them from the false homogeneity imposed by the notion of 'women's interests'. As Molyneux has argued: Gender interests are those that women (or men for that matter) may develop by virtue of their social positioning through gender attributes. Gender interests can be either strategic or practical, each being derived in a different way and each involving differing implications for women's subjectivity. (1985, 232) This distinction between strategic and practical gender interests is of critical importance when translated into planning terms because translated into strategic and practical gender needs it

assists in establishing realistic parameters as to what can be accomplished in the planning process, as well as indicating the very real limitations of different policy interventions. Strategic gender interests then are derived from the analysis of women's subordination and deriving out of this the identification and formulation of an alternative, more equal and satisfactory organization of society in terms of the structure and nature of relationships between men and women to those which exist at present. A diversity of ethical and theoretical criteria, many of which are culturally specific, assists in the formulation of strategic objectives to overcome women's subordination. Depending on the particular socio-political context strategic objectives may include the abolition of the sexual division of labour, the alleviation of the burden of domestic labour and childcare, the removal of institutionalized forms of discrimination, the establishment of political equality, freedom of choice over childbearing, and the adoption of adequate measures against male violence and control over women. Strategic objectives such as these generally are considered 'feminist', as is the level of consciousness required to struggle effectively for them. Historically it has been shown that the capacity to confront the nature of gender inequality and women's emancipation through direct state intervention has been an uphill struggle with limited experience of success. Despite a few optimistic examples, it has proved remarkably difficult to utilize national legislation to remove any of the persistent causes of gender inequality within society as a whole, and through dismantling such fundamental structures to fulfill the strategic gender needs which for feminists are women's 'real' interests (see Molyneux 1985, 232). In contrast, practical gender interests arise from the concrete conditions of women's positioning by virtue of their gender within the division of labour. Unlike strategic gender interests, practical gender interests are formulated by the very women themselves who are within these positions, rather than through external interventions. Practical interests are usually a response to an immediate perceived need which is identified by women within a specific context. These are most commonly practical in nature and relate to the inadequacies in living conditions which women face on a daily basis. Therefore they do not generally entail a strategic goal such as women's emancipation or gender equality. Consequently practical interests do not challenge the prevailing forms of subordination even though they arise directly out of them (see Molyneux 1985, 233). The sexual division of labour within the household gives women primary responsibility not only for domestic work involving childcare, family health and food provisioning, but also for the managing of housing and basic services, along with the capacity to earn an income through productive work. Therefore, in planning terms, policies for meeting practical gender needs focus not only on needs in the domestic arena, such as health care, nutrition and education, but also at the community level on requirements of housing and basic services. In reality practical needs such as these are required by all the family, particularly children. However, they are identified as the practical gender needs of women, not only by policy makers, concerned to accomplish developmental objectives, but also by women themselves. Both therefore are responsible for preserving and reinforcing (even if unconsciously) the sexual division of labour. Since there is often a unity of purpose between national government or local level socio-economic development priorities and practical gender needs, the two frequently and easily become conflated. This naturally serves the purposes of planners who are then identified as meeting 'women's needs'. At the same time it makes it even more difficult for women themselves to recognize and formulate their strategic gender needs.

Meeting Practical and Strategic Gender Needs in Employment For low income women seeking employment, one of the most critical problems is a lack of adequate skills. Therefore, the provision of skill training can meet an important practical gender need. How far skill training also reaches more strategic gender needs depends on the type of training. For instance, many of the traditional community development welfare orientated domestic science training courses are intended to make women better provisioners within the household through, for instance, the introduction of new recipes. Widespread evidence shows that low income women often drop out of such courses because, in failing to recognize their productive role, it does not equip them with skills that can increase their potential to earn an income. Although the domestic science training may meet very real practical health and nutrition needs, by excluding an income earning component it does not meet the more important practical gender need to earn an income, let alone meeting more strategic gender needs. In contrast to this, skill training in such areas as primary school teaching, nursing and dressmaking can and do meet the practical gender needs of women to generate an income. But because these are areas where women traditionally work, this training, common in anti-poverty programmes, for example, does not in any way challenge the sexual division of labour in society. However, skilling of women in areas traditionally identified as 'men's work' may not only widen employment opportunities but also break down occupational segregation dictated by the sexual division of labour in society, and as such may also meet more strategic gender needs of women. A good example is provided by the training of women in building skills such as masonry and carpentry. In those societies where women do participate in house construction it is usually as unskilled workers. Skill training for women in the construction sector consequently is often met by hostility and resistance because it is confronting the sexual division of labour. Yet, as case studies from, for instance, Sri Lanka (Fernando 1985), Jamaica (Schmink 1984) and Nicaragua (Vance 1985) have shown, once implemented women construction workers tend to find work with the tacit acceptance of male colleagues. For those concerned with the successful implementation of low income housing projects, this provides an important solution, when it also enables women to reduce the costs of their house construction through self building. Meeting Practical and Strategic Gender Needs in Housing Housing is another sector in which the distinction between practical and strategic needs is revealing. Although the provision of housing is meeting family needs, these are frequently identified as meeting the practical gender needs of women because it is women who, in their domestic roles are the principal users of housing. However, this does not necessarily mean that women become the owners of either the house or land. In recent housing projects (both site and service and squatter upgrading), tenure has been increasingly identified as the critical issue with rights to land generally given to men on the assumption that they are the household heads. Where housing projects have been designed to provide for ownership regardless of the sex of the 'household head' this has allowed women to achieve the strategic gender need of the right to own property. Although this may be very difficult to accomplish in those countries where women by virtue of their lack of legal standing do not have rights of ownership, in other situations where it is more a question of tradition there may be relatively simple means of making land ownership rights available to women. For instance, in an upgrading project in the Middle East it was found that because a woman staff member happened to be in charge of handling title deeds in the community development

office, the men in the community allowed their wives to complete the relevant paperwork. As a result title deeds ended up in the women's names, thus meeting, if unintentionally, a strategic gender need. Meeting Practical and Strategic Needs in Basic Services The area of service provision provides two final examples. The place of location of childcare facilities such as a crche, for instance, can have very different implications for meeting practical and strategic needs. If it is located at the woman's place of work, it will certainly meet the practical gender need of women for adequate childcare facilities, essential if women are to undertake employment. If the crche is located within the community, this may encourage a sharing of responsibilities within the family, although it is likely that if anyone other than the mother fetches and delivers the child it will be another female member of the family. If, however, the crche is located at the father's place of work, this provides the opportunity for meeting both practical and strategic gender needs since it involves the father in taking some of the responsibility for childcare. In the transport sector one of the most critical problems faced by women is that the organization of transport services does not recognize their triple burden. In most cities transport services are organized to meet the needs of the male world force schedules with buses running from the periphery to the centre at peak periods during the morning and evening. Low income women often not only use public transport more than men but require it for a number of other activities, such as collecting their children from school, shopping and making health related trips, in addition to getting to their own part-time jobs. Because buses are so often withdrawn during the daytime, women's average daily travel time can be three times longer than men's. The provision of adequate off-peak transport provision meets a critical practical gender need of women, although it does not alleviate women's burden of domestic labour and childcare. In many large cities the fear of male harassment prevents low income women from using public transport, particularly late at night. Where women-only transportation is introduced, this not only meets a practical gender need but may also meet the more strategic gender need of the adoption of adequate measures against male violence. In identifying the distinctions between practical and strategic gender needs the examples mentioned above also show the limitations of individual sectoral interventions, and the necessity to provide integrative strategies across sectoral lines. For planners, practical gender needs are very important in their own right. Indeed they are often the only specific policy target of those concerned with the planning for women's needs. It is nevertheless crucial to recognize that practical gender needs can only become 'feminist' in content if and when they are transformed into strategic gender needs. For planners the capacity to accomplish this depends on their ability to translate the theory of gender planning into practice. This requires the development of a specific gender planning methodology which is described in Part Two of this paper.