GAD looks at the larger inequities of unequal relations between the rich and the poor, the advantaged and the disadvantaged and within that, the additional inequities that women face. Those addressing more fundamental issues related to women's subordination and gender inequities are defined as strategic gender interests. Practical gender needs are immediate and material and can be met in the short term through practical and visible solutions. Strategic gender interests are long term and related to structural changes in society regarding women's status and equity. They include legislation for equal rights and opportunities, reproductive choice, and increased participation in decision making.
Examples are representation in committees or in decision making structures.
Ways in which a culture or society prescribes rights, roles, responsibilities, and identities of women and men in relation to one another. The collection of data on men and women separately in relation to all aspects of their functioning - ethnicity, class, caste, age, location. The degree to which each gender has control over the utilisation, the decision making and benefits of any specific resource, within the household and in the community. The efficiency rationale holds the development activities will be more effective with the full involvement of women and men in their full capacities. The equity rationale regards the equal representation of women's and men's interests in development as a matter of justice.