Within gender differences in tree management: Is gender distinction a reliable concept?

Abstract

Gender is often a useful distinction for analysis and project design, but in some cases it is too narrowly applied to capture some of the fundamental differences among female producers. Evaluating agroforestry practices in the Siaya and South Nyanza districts of Kenya, the authors argue that, in designing agroforestry interventions and assessing policy or program impacts, there is a need to go beyond simple gender distinctions and look at additional stratifiers such as the individual producer's access to resources, including use rights and control over the benefits from and use of a particular resource. Furthermore, the study reveals some of the difficulties in separating activities and effects by gender in households where agroforestry decisions are often joint. The results of their study show that species choice, tree product marketing and use, and the employment or soil conservation and fertility management practices arenot clearly differentiated by gender, but rather, more variable across the marital status of women.