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.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender sensitive policymaking
• feminist policy studies
• feminist evaluation
• gender-sensitive evaluation
• gender mainstreaming strategies
• evaluation of gender equality policies

Notes

1. See Introduction to this special issue (Lombardo, Meier & Verloo 2017).

2. The term “gender +” is used to include an intersectionality perspective, that is, a recognition that gender is intersected by other inequalities, such as ethnicity, class, age, disability, and sexual orientation.

3. http://mymande.org/evalpartners.

4. Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

María Bustelo

María Bustelo, PhD in political science, is associate professor of political science and public administration and delegate of the Rector for the Equality Unit at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM). She is the director of the Master on Evaluation of Programmes and Public Policies (UCM) and has been president of the European Evaluation Society 2012–2013. She has integrated the UNWomen Global Evaluation Committee since 2014 and has been the leader of several National and European research projects at the UCM on the quality of gender equality policies. She has a number of publications on evaluation theory and methodology as well as on gender equality policies, including intersectionality, gender mainstreaming evaluation, and policy frame analysis. Her latest publications include a book coedited with Lucy Ferguson and Maxime Forest titled The Politics of Feminist Knowledge Transfer: Gender Training and Gender Expertise (Palgrave, 2016).