Feminist Evaluation and Gender Approaches: There's a Difference?

Abstract

Background: Feminist evaluation and gender approaches offer evaluators distinct ways of thinking and applying evaluations. A Namibian case narrative demonstrates how feminist evaluation and gender approaches, among others, resulted in a useful and used evaluation.  Purpose: The purpose of this article is to provide readers with a historical overview and description of feminist evaluation and gender approaches and is intended for those who are interested in understanding these approaches to evaluation. Setting: Southern Africa. Intervention: A nonprofit that advocates for sex workers safety and the decriminalization of sex work. Research Design: A comparative framework is used to describe feminist evaluation and gender approaches. The evaluation employs qualitative methods that explored the reality of sex work and sex workers through both semi-structured and exploratory questionnaires. The approach was guided by feminist evaluation, gender approaches, and to a lesser extent drew on several other evaluation approaches. Data Collection and Analysis:  Interviews and document reviews were used to collect data and content and thematic analyses were used to analyze data. Findings: Feminist evaluation and gender approaches should be viewed as distinct approaches. Their use should be of interest both to evaluation scholars and to those who design, implement and/or use evaluations. Keywords: feminist evaluation, gender, gender approaches, international development, program evaluation