Any development initiative must be based on a thorough understanding of gender within the development context. Gender refers to women's and men's roles and responsibilities that are socially determined. Gender is related to how we are perceived and expected to think and act as women and men because of the way society is organised, not because of our biological differences. Gender roles differ from the biological roles of women and men, although they may overlap in nearly all societies. Women's biological roles in child bearing may extend their gender roles to child rearing, food preparation, and household maintenance. Gender roles demarcate responsibilities between men and women in
These roles can and do shift with social, economic, and technological change. For example, factors such as the introduction of new crops and technologies, mounting pressure on land, or increasing poverty or migration can change the roles of men and women in agriculture.
The distinction between sex and gender is made to emphasise that everything women and men do, and everything expected of them, with the exception of their sexuality distinct functions (eg child-bearing) can change and does change, over time and according to changing and varied social and cultural factors.
Gender awareness refers to an individual or organisation's:
Gender sensitive planning is a process of rational decision making by women and men to transform the present undesirable inequitable situation to a desirable, equitable future situation in the best possible way.
Gender sensitive planning calls for comprehensive information on the condition and position of women and men, thereby suggesting actions for transforming their undesirable condition and position. it gathers information on who does what, whose problem is what, who has what, what factors influence, and also analyses where and how to intervene to increase gender equity in the communities and moreover it develops plans to bring improvements in the roles and responsibilities of men and women.