Gender, Intra-household
Inequality and Poverty
Measurement
Adapted by the IRIS Center at the University of Maryland
from a presentation by Stacey Young,
Senior Knowledge Management Advisor at the USAID
Microenterprise Development Office, 2007
1a
Why use poverty measurement
tools?
• to comply with USAID regulations (funding
implications)
• to learn about clients (product, program)
2
The PATs measure poverty
• using proxy indicators
• at the household level
However, not all household members are equal
– household is used as a proxy for an
individual
3
What does this have to do with gender?
• Answers to survey questions about proxy indicators
may differ depending on the gender of the interviewer
and interviewee – this has implications for how you
implement the poverty tools and for the accuracy of
the data you collect
• The focus at the household level can distract from the
fact that some members of the household may be
poorer than others – this has implications for the field
of poverty measurement and for how your project
addresses poverty
4
Who is in the room?
What are some survey questions that might give
different answers depending on who is in the room
during the interview?
• the gender of interviewer and of the respondent
• the gender of the other household members present
during an interview
5
• what is the household’s source of drinking water?
(Bangladesh)
• does anyone in the household have a bank account?
(Peru, Guatemala and Bangladesh)
• total area of all plots of land you own? (Vietnam)
• sufficiency of food consumed (quantity/quality)?
(Bangladesh)
• does the household own: livestock, wristwatch, farm
equipment, camera, radio, TV, pickup truck, bicycles,
boats and canoes, etc. (various assets on all tools)
6
What is the household’s source of drinking
water?
(Who carries it?—usually women, children)
• Male respondent: “The tap over that way.”
• Female respondent with male present: “The tap over
that way.”
• Female respondent with no male present: “Usually
the tap over that way, unless I’m running late with my
household chores and have a few coins, in which
case I buy a can full from the boy who brings full cans
with his wheelbarrow.”
7
Does anyone in the household have a
bank account?
• Husband responds, when wife is present:
“Not me.”
• Woman responds, when male relative is
present: “Not me.”
8
How many saris does the household
own?
• Male respondent: “I don’t know.”
• Male respondent trying to impress the
interviewer: “[an exaggerated number].”
• Female respondent whose husband is
present: “[fewer than she actually has].”
9
What is the total land area of all the
plots of land you own?
• Will a woman interviewee count only her plots, hers
and her husband’s, hers and her co-wives’?
• Will interviewees count land devoted to cash crops or
only land where staple crops are being grown? What
if the cash crop land is controlled by one member of
the household – will they consider it to belong to the
household?
10
Boats, canoes, pickup truck, farm
equipment?
• Will a woman always count these if they’re
used only by male household members?
11
Enough of the right kind of food?
• Is there a hierarchy to who eats what type of
food, and when? If so, a respondent’s
answer may depend on whether you’re
asking the one(s) who ate first, second or last
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What is the solution?
Think about:
 Who is asking
 Who is answering
 Who is listening to the conversation
• Choose your interviewers and respondents
accordingly
• Train the interviewers in techniques to control
the interview setting
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• Identify questions that different household
members might answer differently and plan
follow-up questions to probe
• Have interviewers practice in advance
Small group work: choose one of the problem
questions and develop follow-up questions to
probe further; report back to the whole group.
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