Evaluation from a Gender+ Perspective as a Key Element for (Re)gendering the Policymaking Process

ABSTRACT

Feminist scholars have challenged the neutrality of policymaking processes and the outputs resulting from these processes. However, some elements of policymaking have not been studied as well as others. In this article I explore the concept of evaluation from a gender+ perspective as an essential step for a complete gender mainstreaming strategy, which can help to identify gender issues that should be integrated into the content of evaluated policies and to ensure gender does not get lost in the policymaking process. This exploration is carried out by relying on feminist policy and evaluation studies.     

Toward the Systematic Study of Feminist Policy in Practice:An Essential First Step

ABSTRACT

This article proposes an analytical construct, based on feminist and non-feminist policy studies, to be eventually used in the systematic study of feminist policy in practice in postindustrial democracies. The measurement allows for the analysis of democracy, representation, and symbolic reform in terms of the array of policy actors who come forward during the crucial implementation and evaluation stages, the policy instruments that are used in these phases, and policy outcomes. As the article argues, developing this analytical measurement constitutes the essential first step in the emerging research cycle on feminist policy postadoption in a comparative perspective.     

Making feminism count: integrating feminist research principles in large-scale quantitative research on violence against women and girls

ABSTRACT

Applying a feminist approach to research on ending violence against women and girls (VAWG) is critical because gender inequality is an underlying driver of VAWG, and feminist research aims to empower women and girls, as well as challenge prevailing inequalities through the research process itself. However, feminist research approaches have not historically been applied in the international development sector, although statistical evidence on what works to end VAWG is in high demand from governments and donors. In this article, we explore how researchers could practically reconcile an explicitly feminist undertaking, like ending VAWG, when accepted research practices within this field employ methods that are historically not informed by feminist praxis. We argue that quantitative research and feminist research approaches are not mutually exclusive, rather, they can (and do) overlap. Drawing on five decades of combined experience conducting quantitative studies on VAWG in low- and middle-income countries around the world, we highlight the challenges and opportunities for incorporating feminist research principles throughout the research process – from design, community engagement, data collection, analysis, dissemination, and policy influence. We draw on practical examples from research conducted in countries as diverse as Timor-Leste, Kiribati, and Sri Lanka, among others, illustrating that it is not only possible to apply feminist research principles to large-scale, quantitative survey research on VAWG, but that this should become a priority for good development practice.     

“This Is Our Gender Person”

Despite the prevalence of gender experts in international development institutions, their impact in terms of transformative feminist politics remains questionable. Gender experts, and their profession more broadly, have been strongly criticized by a range of feminists working in academic contexts. In particular, some have argued that neoliberalism and feminism have converged,  framing the role of gender experts as primarily to legitimate and embed neoliberal models of development. This article engages with these critiques from the perspective of the gender expert her/himself, drawing on first-hand experiences to tease out some of the tensions and complexities of this work. After setting out some general challenges for gender experts, I focus on one particular aspect of the current gender and development paradigm – the “business case” for gender equality – and explore how it feels to work within such a framework. In doing so, I aim to reflect on the possibilities of promoting transformative change whilst at the same time acknowledging and embracing the dilemmas and contradictions involved in the daily politics of working as a gender expert.     

A Feminist Policy Analysis Framework

ABSTRACT

Most policy analysis models, both inside and outside of social work, approach policy in a gender-neutral manner. This fact belies the many ways our society is organized around gender, which is often regulated through policy. This article outlines a model for looking at policies through a gendered lens by framing a set of questions to be asked in a feminist policy analysis. The complexities and underlying issues inherent in such a model are discussed, as well as the model's implicit goals and values. The model provides an important framework for policy analysts and teaching students about policy.     

“Tapping” Women for Post-Crisis Capitalism

Abstract

Girls and women have become the public faces of development today, through the success of “Gender Equality as Smart Economics” policy agendas and similar development narratives that mediate feminist claims through market logic. Women, these narratives assert, are more productive, responsible, and sustainable economic agents for future growth in the context of global financial crisis and therefore their empowerment is economically prudent. In this article, I provide a feminist reading of Foucault's critique of human capital to examine the discursive terrain of the “Smart Economics” agenda and to understand the knowledge it produces about female bodies, subjectivities and agency. Through a discussion of the World Bank's 2012 World Bank. 2012. World Development Report 2012: Gender Equality and Development. Washington, DC: World Bank.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar] World Development Report on gender equality, I argue that the current narratives of women's empowerment are premised on a series of gender essentialisms and their “activation” through biopolitical interventions. The activation narrative of human capital appears, under feminist eyes, to reflect the notion that the supposedly intrinsic responsible and maternal nature of women can be harnessed to produce more profitable and sustainable development outcomes and, by extension, “rescue” global capitalism.     

Bringing about social justice through feminist research for monitoring,evaluation, and learning? A conversation from Oxfam GB

ABSTRACT

At Oxfam, we have spent much of the last two years talking about feminist principles. In the context of the #Metoo and #Aidtoo movements, the presence (or absence) of these feminist values and principles is increasingly – and rightly – under the spotlight. In this article, we reflect on what it takes to embed these values in our research practice within the monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) function of an international non-government organisation such as Oxfam. These values shape our understanding of the purpose of carrying out MEL activities as a tool for bringing about social justice, through examining gender and power relations, why they exist and how they change. We reflect on the successes and challenges we have faced while utilising evaluation for greater gender equality. By doing so, we aim to start shedding light on the structural changes needed to bring about social changes through MEL, and research more broadly.     

Transvestophilia and gynemimesis: Performative strategies and feminist theory

ABSTRACT

This article considers cross-dressing within feminist and cultural theory from the perspective of performance. It offers a close reading of the materiality of particular examples of transvestism, mostly drawn from the Australian context. The specificity of these performances reveals that bodies can both reproduce and fail to comply with discursive regimes of gender.     

Gendering the inequality debate

In the past 30 years, economic inequality has increased to unprecedented levels, and is generating widespread public concern among orthodox, as well as leftist and feminist, thinkers. This article explores the gender dimensions of growing economic inequality, summarises key arguments from feminist economics which expose the inadequacy of current mainstream economic analysis on which ‘development’ is based, and argues for a ‘gender and equality’ approach to economic and social policy in both the global North and South.     

Rethinking Girls “At-Risk”

Abstract

This conceptual article critically analyzes influential theoretical frameworks concerning adolescent female development, including psychosocial identity stage theory, person-in-environment theory, and feminist psychology. Based on the strengths and limitations of these approaches, the author introduces social workers to an emerging framework that addresses the gender, race, and class intersections that contextualize adolescent girls' developmental experiences. This perspective also discusses young women's capacity to resist norms and stereotypes in their search for an authentic identity. This innovative theory complements a strengths-based approach to social work and can be used to guide research andpractice with this population.     

The Visibility of Feminist Thought in Family Studies

We assessed feminist visibility in family journals by tallying the feminist content of articles in Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Family Issues, and Family Relations. There was an increase in feminist visibility from 1972 to 1992, at which point the growth of visibility stalled. From 1992 to 2002, almost 1 out of 4 articles appeared to be influenced, at least minimally, by feminist scholarship when including in our tally a measure of articles' mentioning of gender in its abstract or title without a detectable feminist perspective in the article. Only about 6% of articles, however, involved an explicit feminist analysis. We offer explanations for this apparent glass ceiling for feminist visibility and make suggestions for future research.     

How organizational research can avoid the pitfalls of a co-optation perspective: analyzing gender equality work in Austrian universities with organizational institutionalism

The concept of co-optation offers vocabulary to discuss how concerns and demands of feminist movements are transformed on their way to, and within, mainstream organizations and policymaking. However, applications of this concept can have problematic implications, failing to grasp the complexity of social change efforts and contributing to divisions, rather than alliances, between different groups that work and fight for gender equality. This article argues that conceptual tools from organizational institutionalism can help to avoid these pitfalls by capturing the ambivalence of organizational change initiatives, and allowing us to identify not only counterintentional effects, but also subtle and unexpected opportunities of organizational gender equality work. I illustrate my arguments with empirical examples from research on gender equality work in Austrian universities.     

Studying the Gendering of Organizational Culture Over Time: Concerns,Issues and Strategies

Beginning with the premise that ‘organizational culture’ is a useful heuristic for the study of gender at work, this article focuses on the problem of studying the culture of organizations over time, setting out to demonstrate how the social construction of corporate history has, until now, lent itself to gendered notions of business practices. Arguing that history itself is but one of a series of discourses about the world, the article outlines a feminist strategy for the study of organizational culture over time that includes: (i) feminist historiography as history written from a feminist point of view; (ii) a commitment to the notion of history as discourse rooted in the present; (iii) a view of women’s rights development as a paradoxical process of progress and regress; (iv) a gender focus approach that studies the impact of discrimination on the social construction of masculinity/femininity and sexual preference; and (v) an approach that is sensitive to the contextualization of gender. British Airways is used as a case study to illustrate some of the problems of historic re/construction and feminist historiography.     

Counting the cost of difference: a reply to Sullivan

ABSTRACT

Counting the Cost of Difference’ replies to Alice Sullivan’s piece on gender auditing in the UK Census. While Sullivan argues that the proposed changes to audit gender identity will dilute the meaning of ‘sex’ and thus the needs of women, I suggest that auditing on self-declared gender in Census 2021 signals a move towards the further recognition that gender is fluidly and diversely experienced and practiced in contemporary society. This should, I suggest, be welcomed rather than feared by feminist thinkers.     

Gendered Perceptions of Community Needs and Concerns

Abstract

Acentral tenet of feminism is that women engage in community practice differently than men. This study explores whether gender differences exist in perceptions of community needs, strengths, problems and responsibilities. Also examined are differences within male and female groups along the dimensions of race, location, years at current address and ownership status. This analysis is based on survey responses from 191 residents in one urban community. Contrary to feminist theory, findings reveal strong agreement between men and women. There were, however, numerous differences within gender groups, especially among women. Implications for feminist scholarship, community practice, and social work education are discussed.     

The gendered experiences of local volunteers in conflicts and emergencies

ABSTRACT

This article explores the gendered experiences of local volunteers operating in conflicts and emergencies. Despite decades of progress to integrate gender issues into development and humanitarian research, policy, and practice, the gendered dynamics of volunteering are still little understood. To redress this, this article draws on data collected as part of the Volunteers in Conflicts and Emergencies (ViCE) Initiative, a collaboration between the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement led by the Swedish Red Cross, and the Centre for International Development at Northumbria University. Contributing original empirical findings on the intersection of gender, volunteering, and emergencies, this article offers new ways of thinking about how gender equality and women’s empowerment can be advanced in humanitarian crises, as seen through the experiences of local volunteers.     

Setting the Agenda

Abstract

Foreign funding for women's non-governmental organizations (NGOs) during democratic transition plays a crucial role in shaping values and attitudes within civil society. Concepts of feminism, gender equality and the role of women in democratic politics are affected by the discourse established by foreign funders. In this article, the role of US and Nordic gender policies are examined in the Estonian context using a feminist constructivist framework. I explore the effects of neoliberal versus social-democratic gender policies and conclude that, while funding for women's NGOs serves to create a necessary discourse on women's equality, these policies may actually serve the funders' needs to gain geopolitical influence in the region.     

Caught between the orientalist–occidentalist polemic: gender mainstreaming as feminist transformation or neocolonial subversion?*

Here we provide a critical reading of gender mainstreaming as a potential emancipatory force that has been co-opted within orientalist–occidentalist polemics. This remains a critical period in the “mainstreaming” debate, where feminist reappropriation is necessary to repoliticize the concept and reorient development sector focus from tokenistic inclusivity to social transformation. We consider two sides of the debate. In the first scenario, the requirement for gender mainstreaming in international development discourse has not only failed to address its original feminist goals, but has become (or remained) an extension of orientalist, neocolonial projects to control and “civilize” developing economies. Here, a putative concern for gender equality in development is used as a means to distinguish between the modern, civilized One and the colonial, traditional Other. In the second scenario, gender mainstreaming is held up as all that these “othered” occidentalist forces stand against; an exemplar of the inappropriate imposition of “western” moralistic paradigms in non-western contexts. Ultimately, the co-optation of gendered discourses in development through these orientalist–occidentalist polemics serves to obfuscate the continued depoliticization of mainstreaming. A critical question remains: can gender mainstreaming ever transcend this discursive impasse and reassert its feminist transformatory potential?     

Bridging Rhetoric and Practice: New Perspectives on Barriers to Gendered Change

ABSTRACT

This article presents a new methodology, Gender Knowledge Contestation Analysis, and uses it to examine the processes under way when transformative gender equality policies, such as gender mainstreaming are implemented. Drawing on data gathered in the European Commission, the findings show the processes linking high-level rhetorical policy statements, strategic policies, and daily working practices. This analysis enables exploration of the mechanisms through which indifference to and nonawareness of gendered policy problems are collectively constituted and methods through which they can be challenged. Findings thus deepen our understanding of barriers to the implementation of gender mainstreaming and the steps required for its effective implementation.     

A Reappraisal of the Quality of Women Candidates

Abstract

This article focuses on “second-wave” feminist perspectives on the role of the state and its effectiveness in removing gender-based inequality in Indian society. The major argument is that feminist rethinking of the relationship of women to the state illustrates the maturity of the Indian women's movement and its recognition that well-planned, mobilized, and effective state policies are crucial to the promotion of women's interests. Recent scholarship has addressed, more systematically and more critically than any in the past, the nexus between social and political processes and the subordination of women. It provides a contextualized and nuanced understanding of the complex interconnections between gender, state, religion, and community. Consequently, not only have feminist writings of the past two decades in India added to current gender sensitive scholarship on the state and development, they have also facilitated the construction of programmatic guides for realizing “strategic gender interests.”