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T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities Resources and Services
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T5 Gender Roles and Responsibilities Resources and Services
This adapted gender roles and responsibilities activity explores the division of labour and workload between men, women, boys and girls related to animal care and use [49]. All family members are usually responsible for looking after the animals in the household, although different people are responsible for different tasks and use animals for different purposes. Sometimes animal welfare interventions unintentionally target only men or only women. However, to improve all aspects of animal welfare and promote gender equality, both men, women and children who play a role in the lives of animals should be invited to participate in this activity. It can be helpful to conduct T4 Daily Activity Schedule prior to undertaking this activity so you can contextualize gender roles and responsibilities related to animal care and use understand within men’s and women’s broader daily activities and associated time and labour commitments.
| Tool purpose: | Time needed: |
| • To understand men’s and women’s animal care-giving and use roles and responsibilities, and identify whether they desire changes in the division of labour. • To inform appropriate targeting of animal welfare extension messages, capacity building and training to relevant household members • As a useful entry point activity for involving men and women in an animal welfare improvement project and beginning to understand different opportunities and constraints men and women face in promoting animal welfare. | 2 hours |
| Materials needed: | |
| Markers, chart paper, post-it notes, cards or coloured powder/chalk, sticks, stones, beans or other locally available activities. |
Keyword Search Tags
Project Phase:
Initiation, Planning, Evaluation and Exit
Approaches for Working With Communities:
Community Development Approach; Community Engagement; Social Outreach and Campaigns
Behavioural Drivers (COM-B):
Behaviour Change Diagnosis and Planning, Opportunity
Project Support:
Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) Tools, Needs Assessment, Gender Analysis
Specific Topics:
Animal Husbandry and Management
Gender roles & responsibilities
An animal-owning community in Halaba, Ethiopia, used this activity to explore differences in roles and responsibilities between men and women. The group of men and women started by identifying animal use and care activities together. The mixed group then divided into two smaller groups - one group of men and one group of women - to examine the distribution separately. The group used 10 pebbles to score the division of labour for each identified activity.
Figure T5A Animal-related men’s and women’s roles and responsibilities
Men and women viewed the differences in division of roles and responsibilities differently, as reflected in figure T5A. In many cases, men considered themselves to have more responsibility for caring for animals than women. For example, men claimed that they are the main seekers of service provision and health treatment (vaccinations) for animals. The main differences between men and women were:
- Women have more responsibility for providing water and cleaning the animal’s shelter
- Men have more responsibility for grooming, cleaning equipment, allowing the animals the play and roam freely
- Men use animal’s more for incoming generating activities
- Women came up with more animal use activities following the division of women’s and women’s groups
Once the mixed group of men and women were divided, women identified three more categories of animal usage (highlighted in red), which men were mostly responsible for, including transporting agriculture for household consumption (urban to rural), transporting agricultural inputs for household use and free transport of people around the community or to local events.
Participants discussed why some of the activities were only carried out by men or women and what effect this had on their animals. Men commented that women do more for the animals than they would have acknowledged before undertaking the activity and that there might be an opportunity for women to take on more responsibility. Women also expressed an interest in taking on more responsibility and suggested an opportunity for:
- Men to share more of the water provision and shelter cleaning activities
- Women to share more of the equipment cleaning and hoof care activities
- Women to use the animals more for income-generating activities
Following the community activity, the facilitators examined the two charts side-by-side and identified an opportunity for training women on humane handling, which they had already provided to men and witnessed significant improvements. They noted this opportunity in the team action tracker and made a point of discussing interest with the group in the next community session.
| Gender Roles and Responsibilities | |
|---|---|
| Step 1 | Ask the community helper to draw a large table, either on the ground or on chart paper. There should be three main columns: ‘activities’, ‘men’ and ‘women’. Please note: Additional columns can be added to include boys and girls (children) if desired. |
| Step 2 | Ask participants about the activities and decisions men and women are responsible for related to the care and use of their animals. Have the community helper write them down on cards using words or drawings or use locally available materials representative of the activities identified. If this activity is being conducted about working animals, once all activities related to care have been identified, ask participants to identify any ways they use their animal, and have the community helper list these within the first column. Include activities carried out on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis (e.g. seasonal, or periodic work such as festivals or special events), as well as key decisions important to the care and use of the animal |
| Step 3 | Ask the group to indicate how the workload for each identified activity is divided or shared between men and women (and boys and girls if included), using up to ten seeds, stones, or marks/dots to score their relative contributions. You might start the conversation by asking the question: ‘Who is responsible for each activity?’ For example: A score of 10 = full responsibility; 0 = no responsibility. If men and women are both responsible for carrying out the activity, the pebbles would be divided equally (see figure T5A, in ‘care’ + ‘feeding’, men and women scored evenly). Once the chart is complete, ask the community helper to circle the scores with large discrepancies between men’s and women’s responsibilities. |
| Step 4 | Ask the community to discuss the results of the activity. The facilitator or supporting note taker should take notes on key insights that emerge from the discussion. Consider using the following guiding questions to facilitate the discussion: • Who is predominantly responsible for care? For use? How were these roles and responsibilities determined? • Referring to identified discrepancies circled in the chart, why are these activities predominantly done by men or women? • How would animal welfare improve if roles and responsibilities in animal care and usage were shared more between men and women within the household? • What would need to change to give them greater opportunities to share their roles and responsibilities in animal care and usage between men and women within the household? If feasible, bring the two groups back together to discuss any differences in scoring of perceived roles and responsibilities of men and women in the two charts, along with any desired changes to roles and responsibilities identified by each group. Summarize the results of the activity and discussion and ask participants to reflect on what they learned through this activity. |
| Step 5 | Once the activity is complete, take a photo or record of the outputs on a piece of paper, ensuring the community has a copy for their records. A copy is retained by the facilitator for future reference or planning. Take note of any of following identified during this activity within your project action tracker: • Roles and responsibilities of men and women related to animal care and use – for tailoring communications and trainings as needed • Changes in gender roles and responsibilities identified by participants as having potential to improve animal welfare • Changes recommended by participants as necessary to creating greater opportunities for sharing roles in animal care and use to improve animal welfare. • Social and physical opportunities, capability, and/or motivational/self-belief drivers related to men’s and women’s animal care and use roles and responsibilities which you as a facilitator identified through discussions. • Key influencers/gatekeepers of gender roles and responsibilities mentioned by participants during discussions |
Facilitator’s notes: Gender roles & responsibilities
- As topics related to gender may be sensitive, facilitators are encouraged to gauge participant’s level of comfort to effectively facilitate group discussion.
- The gender roles and responsibilities activity works best when carried out in small groups of men and women separately, with each group analysing the gendered division of labour/work for both male and female members of the household. Depending on what is culturally appropriate in the local context, the two groups may be brought back together at the end of the activity to review the results of each chart and discuss any differences if feasible.
- This activity can highlight societal wide patriarchal assumptions and related social opportunities (e.g. social norms, peer support), physical opportunities (e.g. time, access to resources and services), as well as capability and motivational elements related to self-beliefs and societal values, which may either hamper or hinder certain animal care and use practices as a result of people’s gender. Listen for these within discussions and note them in the team action tracker if they emerge.
- It is important to recognize that the interplay between social, economic, and/or other vulnerable statuses may result in members of the same gender group having different roles and responsibilities and levels of paid and unpaid, labour burdens (e.g. women of higher socioeconomic status may transfer their roles and responsibilities to women of lower socioeconomic status). It is important to enable these different experiences to be acknowledged and understood.
- Discussions may identify potential (positive or negative) influencers or gate keepers that affect men and women’s roles and responsibilities related to animal care and use. Observe and listen to understand who influences gender roles and responsibilities (e.g. household member, social norms) and whether any changes in roles and responsibilities to improve animal welfare are desired. Take note of any identified key influencers for consideration in future involvement in the project as appropriate to supporting the desired changes in animal care and use roles and responsibilities. Key influencers may need to be engaged at the household level to influence household decisions, or to engaged to influence norms at the broader societal level.
Next Steps
As part of a community needs assessment and shared vision, the gender roles and responsibilities activity is useful to conduct when accompanied by one or more of the following tools to get a full picture of community dynamics for informing project planning:
- T1 Mapping to understand which resources and services are important to the community.
- T2 Mobility Map to understand where people spend most of their time and how long it takes to get places.
- T3 Venn Diagram (T3b Social Networking Venn Diagram) to identify key individuals, groups and actors perceived to be most important to people and their animals.
- T4 Daily Activity Schedule (if not yet carried out) to understand broader labour burdens and the activities which are most time consuming.
- T6 Seasonal Calendar to identify seasonal trends in resources, activities, and potential risks to animal owning communities.