Mobility Analysis

  • Objective: To understand the dynamics surrounding women’s mobility and how this varies across well-being, ethnic and religious categories.
  • Materials/Preparation: Flipchart paper, markers.
  • Participants: Groups or interviews of women in the same class or caste.

Steps

Following introductions and an explanation of the objective, researchers begin by drawing a circle at the center of a large sheet of paper. The facilitator explains that within the circle represents the space within the home. Researchers then asked what things women do within their homes, writing or drawing responses within the circle.

Following this, the facilitator then draws a circle enclosing the first. The facilitator asks women what work or activities bring them out of their homes. In terms of their outside of home activities, participants discuss both where they went and what they did in those locations.

Researchers then discuss with women what activities they did within their villages, and where. Drawing another circle around the previous one, facilitators lead a discussion on activities women do outside of their parish (or village development committee in Nepal’s context).

Next, facilitators ask: Do they move in many places of the village and why? Where and when do they go outside the village – for what purpose? Is it inside or outside the parish or sub-county?

The conversation continues as facilitators draw another circle to represent activities in or outside of the parish, district, etc. with each broader administrative unit.

In the conversation, researchers discuss with participants:

  • What happened when they reach there?
  • Why did they have to go there?
  • With whom do they go outside the village?
  • And how far out of the village is it?
    • Probe → How long does it take to get there? What is the transportation arrangement?
  • What types of problems do they face while going to those places?
  • How do they manage to tackle those problems?
A set of circes showing people's widening spheres of mobility (ex. house, sub-village, village, sub-county, district)

Steps

Following introductions and an explanation of the objective, researchers begin by drawing a circle at the center of a large sheet of paper. The facilitator explains that within the circle represents the space within the home. Researchers then asked what things women do within their homes, writing or drawing responses within the circle.

Following this, the facilitator then draws a circle enclosing the first. The facilitator asks women what work or activities bring them out of their homes. In terms of their outside of home activities, participants discuss both where they went and what they did in those locations.

Researchers then discuss with women what activities they did within their villages, and where. Drawing another circle around the previous one, facilitators lead a discussion on activities women do outside of their parish (or village development committee in Nepal’s context).

Next, facilitators ask: Do they move in many places of the village and why? Where and when do they go outside the village – for what purpose? Is it inside or outside the parish or sub-county?

The conversation continues as facilitators draw another circle to represent activities in or outside of the parish, district, etc. with each broader administrative unit.

In the conversation, researchers discuss with participants:

  • What happened when they reach there?
  • Why did they have to go there?
  • With whom do they go outside the village?
  • And how far out of the village is it?
    • Probe → How long does it take to get there? What is the transportation arrangement?
  • What types of problems do they face while going to those places?
  • How do they manage to tackle those problems?

Variation

In addition to discussing women’s mobility in these zones, the Inner Spaces Outer Faces Initiative went a step further to identify the conditions surrounding women’s ability to travel across these areas. Building from the previous discussion, facilitators ask teams to identify and mark with different symbols where women can:
  • Go unaccompanied without the permission of her husband, father or other male relative
  • Go unaccompanied with the permission of her husband, father or other male relative
  • Go accompanied without the permission of her husband, father or other male relative
  • Go accompanied with the permission of her husband, father or other male relative
  • Go for an extended period of time

To probe deeper, the Inner Spaces Outer Faces Initiative offers a number of questions:

  • In this community, are people allowed to move about freely? What do others think if certain people leave their homes unaccompanied? Do some people feel unsafe moving around by themselves?
  • Are men able to move about the community outside their homes freely? Why or why not?
  • Which places in your community are men not allowed to go? Are some places restricted at some times and open at other times? Are certain men restricted more than others? Why or why not?
  • Are women able to move about the community outside their homes freely? Why or why not?
  • Which places in your community are women not allowed to go? Are some places restricted at some times and open at other times? Are certain women restricted more than others? Why or why not?
  • Why does a woman’s reputation change if she leaves her home unaccompanied? Is restricting women’s mobility related to sex or “having sex”? Is it fair?
  • Are expectations different for women of different classes, castes, religions, age, or marital status? Why?
  • Do you think restriction of mobility harms women and their families? How?
  • Would you like to change the situation you describe? What can you do as an individual? What can you and other members of the community do to change the situation? How can the project assist you and other community members in making this change?

 

Variation: Bangladesh

In addition to the areas explored above, in CARE Bangladesh, facilitators also explored:

  • Importance of Places: By asking participants to write important places on larger cards, and less important places on smaller cards.
  • Frequency of Visits: By asking participants to draw a line on the card, with a thick line representing frequently visited places and a thin line representing sometimes visited places, and a dotted line for rarely visited places.
  • Who Visits Different Places (by class): Using different colors, the facilitator draws on the cards to illustrate the places that rich, middle-class or poor women can access.
  • Barriers Accessing Certain Places: In discussions, the facilitator probes about:
    • How do men or others in the community view women's mobility to each place mentioned?
    • What types of problems do women face when going or returning to these places, and what strategies do they use to overcome barriers?
    • What was the situation in the past in reaching different places? what is the situation today? And what will it probably be in the f

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Resources

  • S Sharma (2009). Participatory Methods, Processes and Analyses: A handbook for identification of underlying causes of poverty and formulation of strategies. CARE Nepal.
  • CARE and ICRW (2006). Walking the Talk. Inner Spaces, Outer Faces Initiative: A Gender and Sexuality Initiative.