Gender Planning in the Third World: Meeting Practical and Strategic Gender Needs

Recognition of the important role that women play in Third World development has not necessarily been translated into planning practice. This paper describes the development of gender planning, which in identifying that women and men play different roles in Third World society and therefore often have different needs, provides both the conceptual framework and the methodological tools for incorporating gender into planning. These relate to the categorization of the triple role of women and the distinction between practical and strategic gender needs. The paper illustrates the capacity of different interventions to meet gender needs, and provides a critique of different policy approaches to “women in development” from a gender planning perspective.