Gender Analysis in Grantmaking: Reflection

During discussions with grantees, encourage curiosity. The biggest resource for helping grantees improve programs isn’t a grantmaker’s knowledge — it’s a grantee’s curiosity. Uncovering the gender implications of a program, and then figuring out how to respond to them, are creative acts. If grantmakers bypass the challenge of nurturing curiosity and baldly inject gender into the discussion, grantees may not see the relevance of gender to their work, or how it can contribute to program effectiveness. Grantmakers report a different result when they can stimulate curiosity. In the best cases, they begin making observations about their own programs, and then reflecting on them. “You hear, ‘Oh that’s interesting,’” she said, recounting a typical example. “‘We have more boys in the public speaking program, and our girls are involved in internal leadership. Why is that?’” When grantees frame questions about their own work, real gender analysis begins.