Bringing a feminist lens to programme evaluation

[KALYANI MENON-SEN]

I'm just back from the latest in a series of workshops conducted by ISST as part of their "Engendering Policy Through Evaluation" project.

Much of the conversation at the workshop was around the notion of "feminist evaluation" and how it should be defined. Is "feminist evaluation" a distinct field of practice with its own precepts, principles, methods and tools? Or is it simply the application of fundamental feminist principles and tools of analysis into the practice of evaluation?

In this context, I am attaching a paper that reflects the second approach and might be of interest to some members of this community.

An intriguing dimension in this particular case is the fact that the programme being reviewed was developed by feminists and strongly embeds feminist principles in its framework, but is located within the government and struggles to deal with gendered institutional structures.

Comments are very welcome.

KALYANI

KMS BOOK CHAPTER SONGS OF CHANGE IN A MINOR KEY.pdf

[Ranjani K.Murthy]

Dear Kalyani

Yes, I agree with you that feminist evaluation is application of feminist principles and tools of analysis into the practice of evaluation?

I however feel just like with regard to 'gender', ideas on what are 'feminist'  principles vary- from liberal notions to one rooted in power relations and hierarchical  institutions and structures. I think in addition to theoretically arrive at what is feminist evaluation, it would be good look back at evaluations which led to a "ha-ha" feeling and pointed to directions for social transformation as to what contributed to the same. 

Over the next few days, I will read the case study attached and revert back. 

Best 

Ranjani

[Rituu B Nanda]

Response on Twitter 

1. FeministEval ‏@FeministEval  1h

   Is feminist evaluation a distinct field of practice?Or is it application of feminist principles to analysis in eval? http://tinyurl.com/o58pvhk 
2. Dennis Bours ‏@Dennisbours  46m

   @FeministEval Like 'sustainability': Distinct field great start 2 give attention, but integration needed to drive wider acceptance and use.