The Gendered Grantmaking Continuumi
The Gendered Grantmaking Continuum tool has been developed through a project on gender
and global grantmaking initiated by Grantmakers without Borders, with support from the
Channel Foundation and the International Network of Women Funds, and further elaborated
through work with the International Human Rights Funders Group. It is intended to support
grantmakers in assessing organizational approaches to integrating gender perspectives into
their work, internally -- within their own organizations, and externally -- in their partnerships
with grantees.
The primary objective behind gender integration in grantmaking is to support projects,
programs and policies that:
1. do not reinforce existing gender inequalities (Gender Neutral)
2. recognize existing gender inequalities (Gender Sensitive)
3. re-define women and men’s gender roles and relations (Gender Positive / Transformative)
4. empower people of all genders to take action to claim their rights (Empowering)
5. seek sustainable, structural change in gender relations and redress/justice for
discrimination and violence committed as a result of gender inequality (Gender Justice)
This tool is meant to assess the degree of integration of a gender perspective in any given
project and organization on a continuum. Each stage of this continuum is described in detail in
the following sections. It can be visualized as follows:
The Gendered Grantmaking Continuum Tool, Draft, Linksbridge 2010
Gender Blind/Gender Neutral
• A gender neutral approach is one where a gender analysis is assumed unnecessary and
•
•
•
•
•
irrelevant.
This approach assumes neutrality is acceptable, and ignores the reality that we all live in a
gendered world.
Neutrality reinforces and reproduces gender injustices, exploits inequalities and reinforces
stereotypes.
Literally, to be gender ‘blind’ is to refuse to see gendered differences.
Examples of programming that takes a gender-blind approach could include:
• Education programs that do not assess gender differences in access to schools and
underlying causes of differential access.
• Reproductive health programs that use a virile, strong man to promote condom use; or
that focus on encouraging women to negotiate safe sex with male partners.
An organization that is ‘gender-neutral’ does not have a gender analysis or policies related
to gender in its programming approach/policies and is unlikely to have mechanisms in place
to ensure fair hiring practices, diversity and gender-appropriate personnel policies.
Gender Sensitive
Page 2
The Gendered Grantmaking Continuum Tool, Draft, Linksbridge 2010
• A gender-sensitive approach recognizes that people's needs are different and
accommodates societal roles without attempting to reduce inequalities.
• This approach uses gender is a means to reach set development goals only, and will address
gender norms, roles and access to resources in so far as needed to reach project goals.
• Example of gender-sensitive approaches in programming include:
• Education programs that ensure equal numbers of boys and girls are supported to
attend school, but does not investigate the different reasons why boys and girls drop out.
• Reproductive health: A project that disseminates HIV prevention information door-todoor in communities where women’s movement outside the home is limited. This
outreach may increase access to information but, in most cases, door-to-door
distribution of information does little to challenge the belief that women who leave the
home without a male relative’s permission are not respectable.ii
• An organization that is ‘gender-sensitive’ may do ‘gender-by-numbers’ and view
effectiveness as simply ‘inclusion of women’ -- i.e., will be satisfied to measure the gendersensitivity of their external programs or internal staffing by the number of women who they
have allowed or included into the program or organization. They will not have a gender
analysis that assesses position or access to power by gender (i.e., whether women have
decision-making roles in the organization or in the program), and will have limited attention
to diversity in hiring or staffing practices internally.
Gender Transformative
• A gender-transformative approach seeks to create more equitable relationships between
genders, and challenges gender and societal norms.
• An example of a gender-transformative approach in programming is a CARE
income-generation training project in Allahabad, India, where women are given
training in hand-pump repair rather than traditionally defined skills such as sewing or
tailoring.
• An organization that is gender-transformative will have a gender-analysis in its
programming that questions traditionally defined gender roles and perceptions. Hiring and
staffing practices will also include a commitment to diversity and ongoing dialogue about
gender internally and will seek an appropriate gender balance in decision-making roles.
Empowering
• A gender empowering approach aims to equalize the balance of power and addresses
structural and societal barriers, which empowers vulnerable people to claim their rights.
• Examples of the empowerment approach in programming include:
• Reproductive rights: is the Sonagachi project in West Bengal, India, where sex
workers organized themselves in order to demand the right to health care.
• Voter’s rights: The Brazilian campaign, ‘I Decide My Vote’, which supported women
from some of the poorest areas of Brazil to become directly involved in asking
Page 3
The Gendered Grantmaking Continuum Tool, Draft, Linksbridge 2010
presidential candidates their perspectives on women’s rights in the country in the run
up to the 2010 elections.iii
• An organization that is gender-empowering will actively seek to support people of all
genders to assess their own priorities and power imbalances. It will also balance both
listening well to priorities of their constituents with their own gender justice values.
Internally, it will back-up a stated commitment to gender empowerment with processes that
ensure ‘reality checks’ and an ongoing internal assessment of how power is actually held and
used.
Gender Justice
• A gender justice approach aims for a full realization of rights for all people of all genders
and gender expressions.
• Gender justice is intersectional -- it recognizes a multitude of masculinities and femininities,
nuanced by history, culture, social class and other factors that shape our varied view of the
world.iv
• Examples of gender justice programming include:
• Sonke Gender Justice Network’s ‘One Man Can Campaign’: ‘The One Man Can
Campaign supports men and boys to take action to end domestic and sexual
violence and to promote healthy, equitable relationships that men and women can
enjoy - passionately, respectfully and fully.The One Man Can Campaign promotes
the idea that each one of us has a role to play, that each one of us can create a
better, more equitable and more just world. At the same time, the campaign
encourages men to work together with other men and with women to take action
- to build a movement, to demand justice, to claim our rights and to change the
world.’v
• Urgent Action Fund-Africa (UAF-Africa) funds many gender justice oriented projects.
One example of their funding: After the Rwanda genocide, reconciliation, or Gacaca,
courts were designed to reconcile the population. However, in 2004 the Rwanda
Women’s Network (RWN) realized that these courts were widely unproductive due to
widespread intimidation of potential witnesses. Thus, RWN sought and received a
grant from UAF-Africa to stage plays across Rwanda that encouraged women
survivors to get involved in the process. The proposed plays were clearly urgent, as the
success of the Gacaca courts required participation by victims; yet, the plays were also
part of a broader social scheme to integrate women survivors back into the
community, and to give them a voice in the justice process. As a result of the plays,
women’s participation increased, and the Gacaca courts began functioning as
originally intended -- with the participation of women.vi
• An organization that has a gender justice approach will work on several levels, seeking to
change structures and systems of oppression (legal systems, community perceptions), will
recognize the wider implications of working on gender justice for staff (i.e., backlash,
individual private vs. ‘public’ identities), will seek to adress staff concerns internally and will
practice intersectionality in its analysis (both internally and programmatically).
Page 4
The Gendered Grantmaking Continuum Tool, Draft, Linksbridge 2010
This has been adapted and elaborated by Linksbridge for the gender and grantmaking workshops, with gender justice and
examples of levels of the continuum for organizations added. The original source of the continuum was developed in the
reproductive health sector (particularly referencing work by Anne Eckman): ‘This framework draws from a range of efforts that
have used a continuum of approaches to understanding gender. Specific to HIV/ AIDS, see Geeta Rao Gupta, “Gender,
Sexuality and HIV/AIDS: The What, The Why and The How” (Plenary Address at the XIII International AIDS Conference),
Durban, South Africa: 2000; Geeta Rao Gupta, Daniel Whelan, and Keera Allendorf, “Integrating Gender into HIV/AIDS
Programs: Review Paper for Expert Consultation, 3–5 June 2002,” Geneva: World Health Organization 2002; and World
Health Organization/International Center for Research on Women, “Guidelines for Integrating Gender into HIV/AIDS
Programmes,” forthcoming.’ http://www.prb.org/pdf04/HowToIntegrGendrHIV.pdf. The continuum was further elaborated
by CARE and the ICRW: CARE and the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) (2006), Walking the Talk: Inner
Spaces Outer Faces – a
Gender and
Sexuality
Initiative,
Atlanta and Washington, DC.
http://www.care.org/careswork/whatwedo/health/downloads/walking_the_talk_isofi.pdf, p.19
ii http://www.policyproject.com/pubs/manuals/HowToIntegrGendrHIV.pdf
iii http://eudecidomeuvoto.wordpress.com/; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11414002
iv Ms. Foundation.
v http://www.genderjustice.org.za/onemancan/
vi http://www.urgentactionfund-africa.or.ke/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11&Itemid=58&limitstart=1
i
Page 5