CARE Gender Toolkit

For gender and power analysis preparation, exercises used include: 

Gender, Equity and Diversity Training:

Gender and power relations can affect the perceptions, preferences and roles of the women and men with whom we work. All of us carry assumptions, values and norms about gender, power, and empowerment that can shape how we communicate, what we see, and the ways we analyze gender roles and relations.

To prepare staff to confront issues on gender and sexuality, to take a respectful and non-judgmental stance in the research process, and avoid imposing our own assumptions or values onto others, CARE has engaged research teams in a number of self-reflection exercises on gender and power. This reflection is critical to support staff to feel comfortable and become effective in facilitating reflection on values and assumptions within communities:

• Basic concepts of gender and power:
• The Ideal Man and Woman
• Women’s Empowerment Illustration
• Power and women’s empowerment
• Illustrating Empowered Women
• Silent Power Tool
• Circles of Sexuality
• Reflections on experiences with gender and power: 
• Gender Conditioning and Socialization
• Gender Roles and Activities
• Life Histories
• Experiential Workshop on Power and Inequity
• Appreciative Inquiry - Sharing positive stories/dreams of success
• Fishbowl Exercise - Discussing Discrimination in the Workplace
• Breaking taboos to discuss assumptions, experiences and values concerning gender and power:
• Mini-Exercise to catch gendered assumptions and biases
• Taking a Stand: Values Clarification
• Crossing the River and Rebuilding the World: scenarios to probe into our notions of power, social status and sexuality
• Discussing Sex and Sexual Pleasure 
• Body Mapping

Coaching on critical research skills, which includes:

The second key theme is to dedicate time toward supporting participants to step into the research role, which requires skills in critical probing, exploring and challenging in a way that may be new for many staff who have not engaged in research in the past:

• Coaching skills in exploring, negotiating, fostering and challenging
• Reflective practice
• Honing facilitation skills: Role-play

HAVE MORE TOOLS? PLEASE SHARE! Have you engaged other training tools related to gender analysis that you would recommend be featured in this collection? To suggest a new tool, please fill out the New Tool Form, and email to PQLibrarian@care.org.

• Basic concepts of sex and gender
• Gender socialization and gender daily time use exercises
• Power and women’s empowerment
• Gender biases  

The Inner Spaces Outer Faces Initiative (ISOFI) and the Social Analysis and Action (SAA) toolkits outline exercises that reflect on perceptions surrounding gender and sexuality as well as develop skills in critical analysis and reflection. Exercises included:

• Basic concepts of sex and gender
• The circles of sexuality (basic concepts)
• Gender socialization and daily time use exercises
• Silent power tool for understanding experiences of power
• Fishbowl exercise for probing into experiences of discrimination and inequity
• Values clarification around gender norms
• Scenarios to understand power and perceptions
• Discussing sex and sexual pleasure
• Reflective practice exercise

Like analysis itself, leading preparation sometimes requires support from outside of the office. It may be helpful to map out other organizations working within the national context who have the specialization and training skills to lead some of this reflection, seek inputs from other offices who have undergone this work in the past, or recruit key experts within and outside of CARE to help in planning and leading such exercises.

• CARE's GED Training Manual (English). Also in French and Spanish.
• CARE's GED Facilitator Training Guide (English)


• CARE Academy Website


• Gender Wiki

Other resources you may wish to consult for further ideas for gender training include:

Resources on Gender and Diversity Sensitivity/Awareness

• Courses and Manuals
• CARE’s Gender Equity and Diversity Facilitation Manual in English, French and Spanish, available at Module 8 of CARE’s Women’s Empowerment Strategic Impact Inquiry Methodological Compendium: http://pqdl.care.org/sii/pages/methods.aspx.
• Interagency Standing Committee’s e-learning course on gender in humanitarian contexts, entitled Different Needs – Equal Opportunities: Increasing Effectiveness of Humanitarian Action for Women, Girls, Boys and Men: http://www.interaction.org/iasc-gender-elearning.
• CARE (2009). Gender Equity and Diversity Basics, Online Course Available at: http://www.careacademy.org.
• CARE (2007). Ideas and Action: Addressing the Social Factors that Influence Sexual and Reproductive Health. Available at: http://www.care.org/reprohealth.
• CARE and ICRW (2006). Walking the Talk. Inner Spaces, Outer Faces Initiative: A Gender and Sexuality Initiative.  Available at: http://www.careacademy.org/ISOFI.
• Other Resources
• CARE (2009). Women’s Empowerment SII Framework. Women’s Empowerment Strategic Impact Inquiry Library, CARE. Available at: http://pqdl.care.org/sii.
• CARE Ecuador (2007). Experiential Methodologies: a proposal for developing qualitative research. Women’s Empowerment Strategic Impact Inquiry, CARE. Available at: http://pqdl.care.org/sii/SIILibrary/Forms/Latin%20America.aspx.
• P Welsh (July 2007). Final Report: Workshop on “Gender, Masculinities and Sexuality.” Western Balkan Gender-Based Violence Prevention Initiative. Kotor, Montenegro: 23-26 June, 2007.
• P Welsh (February 2007). Gender, Masculinities and Violence Workshop: Programme and Handouts. Western Balkan Gender-Based Violence Prevention Initiative. Belgrade, Serbia: 27 February-2 March.
• V Magar (2006). Gender and Sexuality Training Report. CARE NW Balkans
• CARE Uganda (2005). Participatory Workshop on Women’s Empowerment. Available at Module 2 of the Women’s Empowerment SII Methodological Compendium: http://pqdl.care.org/sii/pages/methods.aspx.
• T Klouda (2005). Sex and Development. CARE International - East/Central Africa Region. 
• E Martinez (2005). Basic Concepts of Power. Module 2 of the SII Methodological Compendium. Women’s Empowerment Strategic Impact Inquiry, CARE. Available at: http://pqdl.care.org/sii/pages/methods.aspx.
• Just Associates (2002). Tools for Analyzing Power: Exercises to Help Groups Understand and Analyze Power.  Available at: http://www.justassociates.org/publications_files/toolsforanalyzingpower.pdf.
• L VeneKlasen and V Miller (2002). A New Weave of Power, People & Politics: The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation. Just Associates. Available at: http://www.justassociates.org/ActionGuide.htm.
• S Williams, J Seed and A Mwau (1994). The Oxfam Gender Training Manual. Oxfam UK and Ireland.

Resources on Building Research and Analysis Skills

• B Bode and D Wu (2010). East Africa Regional Capacity Building Initiative in Situational Analysis. CARE International – East/Central Africa Regional Management Unit.
• CARE (2007). Ideas and Action: Addressing the Social Factors that Influence Sexual and Reproductive Health. Available at: http://www.care.org/reprohealth.
• T Klouda (2007). Training CARE Staff to Explore, Negotiate, Foster and Challenge. Available at Module 3 of the Women’s Empowerment SII Methodological Compendium: http://pqdl.care.org/sii/pages/methods.aspx.
• T Klouda (2006). Implementing the Reflective Social Challenge Approaches: Mwanza WAGE Situation Analysis of Households Managing Long-term Care and Support. Available at Module 2 of the Women’s Empowerment SII Methodological Compendium: http://pqdl.care.org/sii/pages/methods.aspx.
• T Klouda (2006). Reflective Social Challenge. 
• R Caldwell (2002). Project Design Handbook. CARE. Available at: http://pqdl.care.org/Practice/Forms/AllItems.aspx.
• P Whiffen (2000). Techniques for Capturing Learning in Tearfund. Tearfund: London.
• P Senge, et al (1994). The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. Currency Books, Doubleday: New York, NY.