Feminist evaluation

As described and analyzed in Podems (2010), feminist evaluation:

• “has its roots in this understanding of feminist research. Feminist evaluation emphasizes participatory, empowering, and social justice agendas (Patton, 2008).”

• “is often described as ‘fluid, dynamic, and evolving’ (Seigart & Brisolara, 2002, p. 2).”

• “it is described as a way of thinking about evaluation (Beardsley & Hughes Miller, 2002; Hirsch & Keller, 1990; Hughes, 2002; McRobbie, 1982).”

• Is typically based on six tenets. “Sielbeck-Bowen et al. (2002) defined these six tenets as follows:

o   Feminist evaluation has as a central focus the gender inequities that lead to social injutice.

o   Discrimination or inequality based on gender is systemic and structural.

o   Evaluation is a political activity; the contexts in which evaluation operates are politicized; and the personal experiences, perspectives, and characteristics evaluators bring to evaluations (and with which we interact) lead to a particular political stance.

o   Knowledge is a powerful resource that serves an explicit or implicit purpose.

o   Knowledge should be a resource of and for the people who create, hold, and share it. Consequently, the evaluation or research process can lead to significant negative or positive effects on the people involved in the evaluation/research. Knowledge and values are culturally, socially, and temporally contingent. Knowledge is also filtered through the knower.

o   There are multiple ways of knowing; some ways are privileged over others. (pp. 3–4) “

Gender

Scott (1986): “My definition of gender has two parts and several subsets. They are interrelated but must be analytically distinct. The core of the definition rests on an integral connection between two propositions: gender is a constitutive element of social relationships based on perceived differences between the sexes, and gender is a primary way of signifying relationships of power.”

Gender approaches to evaluation

Podems (2010): “Although there is no single GAD approach, any GAD approach focuses on the interconnection of gender, class, and race and the social construction of their defining characteristics. In the GAD approach, gender relations are an analytical category.

In using most GAD approaches, an evaluator adopts a two-pronged approach to the study of women. A GAD-based evaluation framework would (1) investigate women’s material conditions and class position and (2) explore the patriarchal structures and identify ideas that define and maintain women’s subordination. The evaluator would also consider and explore the relationships between women and men. An evaluator using a GAD approach to evaluation would draw on feminist theory, assume that gender relations were socially constructed patterns of behavior, and incorporate this assumption into their research decisions and analysis (Bamberger, 2002; Connelly et al., 2000; Jacobson, 1994).”

Gender-sensitive evaluation

Espinosa (2013): “This approach focuses on the structural inequalities between women and men, as well as on the exclusion of women in the development process. In addition, assuming that all development policies have differential effects on women and men, the GAD approach stresses the need for mainstreaming a gender perspective within the whole policy cycle including in evaluation. So, gender-sensitive evaluation, as a concept, is defined as a key tool for exploring the structural causes of gender inequalities and for determining the differential implications for women and men of development activities (De Waal, 2006). Therefore, it is based on feminist contributions to evaluation, their focus on the systemic and structural nature of gender inequality and their demand for more social justice (Bustelo, 2011; Sielbeck-Bowen et al., 2002).”

Gender-transformative evaluations

Murthy, R. & Zaveri, S. (2016): “‘Gender-transformative/socialist feminist evaluations are based on an understanding of how gender and social relations of class, sexuality, caste, abilities, religion etc define exercise of power in different institutional contexts; and involve an assessment of the contribution of the program to changing these power relations in favour of marginalized groups in the context of a larger neo liberal paradigm. Such evaluations also explore changes, if any, in gendered and social norms of implementing organisations. The evaluation process ideally reflects a gender, rights and equity lens.”

Sexual democracy

Fassin, E. (2011): “Instead of starting from (allegedly) demo cratic institutions, a democratic society can be defined by its claim that laws and norms are not imposed by some transcendent authority (whether it be God, Nature, Tradition, or any other principle that is meant to escape historical change and political critique), but rather by the immanent logic of public deliberation and private negotiations. As a consequence, the order of things is presented explicitly as a social, not a natural, order, steeped in history and thus subject to change, fundamentally political and thus an object of critique: liberty and equality become legitimate claims, whose very definitions are at stake in these political struggles concerning both gender and sexuality.

Sexual democracy can be understood by its proponents as the ultimate frontier of demo cratization, while sexual difference appears to its opponents as the last refuge of transcendence— a natural reservation immune to history and politics, protected from the turmoil of democratic critique.”

Necesidades estratégicas (de las mujeres)

Ferreyra (2022): “…las necesidades estratégicas son aquellas que se formulan a partir de este análisis de subordinación de las mujeres a los hombres, tienen un interés estratégico de género identificado con una organización más igualitaria y satisfactoria, y se formulan en términos de estructura, como en la naturaleza de las relaciones entre hombres y mujeres, ya que tienden a estar dirigidas al cuestionamiento del orden de género.”

Necesidades prácticas (de las mujeres)

Ferreyra (2022): “…en la política pública, que suele ser una respuesta a una necesidad percibida como inmediata, y que no necesariamente implica un objetivo estratégico para la liberación…”

Women-focused evaluation

Espinosa (2013): “This type of exercise focuses on the integration of women in the development processes. It aims to analyze the situation of women before, during and after a development action and their participation in it. Its ultimate purpose, therefore, is to generate learning and accountability in relation to the inclusion of women in development.”