Gender and Development Glossary

The capacity of individuals to act independently and make their own free choices. In gender studies, it refers to women's ability to make and act on decisions affecting their lives.

A normative framework developed by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum evaluating well-being by the substantive freedoms individuals have to achieve valued functionings.

The economic sector encompassing all paid and unpaid activities related to the care of persons, including childcare, eldercare, healthcare, and domestic work.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, adopted by the UN in 1979, establishing an international standard for women's rights.

The process of expanding people's ability to make strategic life choices, particularly in contexts where this ability has been denied. In gender studies, it emphasizes women's agency and autonomy.

The trend in which women represent a disproportionate share of the world's poor, linked to unequal access to resources, education, and employment.

Socially constructed roles, behaviors, and attributes that a society considers appropriate for men, women, and other identities, as distinct from biological sex.

The allocation of different tasks, roles, and responsibilities to men and women based on socially constructed gender norms rather than biological necessity.

The state in which access to rights, opportunities, and resources is unaffected by gender, ensuring that all people can fully develop their capabilities and make choices without limitations set by gender norms.

Fairness in the treatment of men, women, and gender-diverse people, which may require different treatment to achieve equivalent outcomes, as distinct from formal equality.

An analytical perspective that examines how gender norms, roles, and power dynamics affect a particular issue, policy, or context.

The strategy of integrating gender perspectives into the design, implementation, and evaluation of all policies, programs, and activities.

Social expectations about behaviors, roles, and attributes considered appropriate for men and women in a given cultural context.

A numerical measure indicating equal representation or participation of males and females in a given area, typically expressed as a ratio.

A mechanism that sets a minimum threshold for the representation of a particular gender in political bodies, corporate boards, or other institutions.

Violence directed against a person because of their gender, encompassing physical, sexual, psychological, and economic harm. Disproportionately affects women and girls.

The application of gender analysis to government budgets to assess differential impacts on different genders and promote equitable resource allocation.

A framework for understanding how multiple social identities such as gender, race, class, and sexuality intersect to create overlapping systems of advantage and disadvantage.

Socially constructed expectations, norms, and behaviors associated with being a man, which vary across cultures and time periods and can be harmful or beneficial.

A social system in which men hold primary power and authority in political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, and control over property, with implications for gender inequality.

The rights of individuals to decide freely and responsibly on the number, spacing, and timing of their children, and to have access to reproductive healthcare.

Data collected and tabulated separately for males and females, enabling analysis of gender differences in outcomes, access, and participation.

Systematic ways in which social structures harm or disadvantage individuals, including through embedded gender inequality in institutions, laws, and norms.

The condition of having insufficient discretionary time after accounting for necessary activities, disproportionately affecting women due to unpaid care responsibilities.

An approach originating in the 1970s that sought to integrate women into existing development processes, without fundamentally questioning the structures producing inequality.