Feminist Evaluation

Feminist evaluation is an approach to program evaluation that emerged as a distinct model at the end of the 1990s. Feminist evaluation draws from rich literatures of feminist theory and feminist research methods in the social sciences, philosophy of science, liberal arts, and natural sciences. An initial impetus behind the articulation of a feminist evaluation model was a recognition of the negative consequences of lack of attention to gender and gender inequities in conceptualizing, designing, conducting, and analyzing data from program evaluations. These gender inequities that result in social injustice are placed at the center of the feminist evaluation model. The model development grew to encompass principles about evaluation, knowledge, discrimination, and ways of knowing. Feminist evaluation is different from, but shares values with, other evaluation models; the controversies that have arisen over the model have tended to focus on use of the term feminist, the range of possible roles for the evaluator, and whether one has to identify ideologically as a feminist to conduct a feminist evaluation. As feminist theory and feminism have garnered the attention of a new generation, the term feminism and its aims are being reformed, resulting in the continued development of feminist evaluation as a model. This entry examines the origins of the approach, how feminist evaluation is situated within the greater landscape of evaluation [Page 673]models, eight feminist evaluation principles, and the dimensions and controversies of feminist evaluation.