Two things seem to hide the gender imbalance in villages. One is the way village people conceptualise who lives there, and the other is the way outside organisations consult with villages. A count of the total village population will include people still connected with the village but not living there. It may include men who have lived in Germany for the last 10 years but send money home, or men who live in the city and pay visits to the village once a month. The other way to express the number in a village is by family numbers.
Outside organisations consulting villages first seek the village head, who is invariably a man.
Representatives of the visiting organisations are often also men and it may not be seen as appropriate for them to consult women even if they wanted to. Consultation is usually mediated through key men. When women are consulted separately, their priorities become more visible. Through the Kosovo Women's Initiative, Oxfam is trying to work differently. Before women can be consulted, we need to know more about them.