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Session Title: The Gender Context of Program Evaluation: A Rural Appalachian and International Perspective
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Panel Session 598 to be held in Suwannee 13 on Friday, Nov 13, 3:35 PM to 4:20 PM
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Sponsored by the Feminist Issues in Evaluation TIG
and the International and Cross-cultural Evaluation TIG
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| Chair(s): |
| Denise Seigart, Mansfield University, dseigart@mansfield.edu
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| Discussant(s):
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| Divya Bheda, University of Oregon, dbheda@uoregon.edu
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| Abstract:
One of the weakest areas of program evaluation practice is the lack of adequate evaluation methodologies for understanding how gender affects the context within which programs are designed and operated. The lack of attention to gender often means that women have only a limited role in program planning and implementation, and unequal access to program benefits. The purpose of this panel is to provide 2 evaluators with the opportunity to present different perspectives on how gender affects the context of the programs they are evaluating (from rural Tennessee and an international setting, the methods they have used for assessing gender and some of the challenges in convincing clients, program staff and funding agencies that gender issues matter.
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Evaluating the Methamphetamine Evidence-based Treatment and Healing Program Among Rural Women in a Community Mental Health Center Context: Is Evidence-Based Practice Gender Sensitive?
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| Kathryn Bowen, Centerstone Research Institute, kathryn.bowen@centerstone.org
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While both rural and urban women experience drug abuse problems, the consequences and experiences are not the same due to the limited ability of rural areas to offer effective substance abuse treatment that is accessible and sensitive to gender. In addition to briefly discussing evaluation findings the presenter will discuss rural contextual barriers that are disproportionally faced by rural women particularly in terms of accessing treatment that is sensitive to issues of gender, past trauma, generational patterns of behavior that are oppressive in the family and rural cultural norms that can negatively impact a woman's ability to access treatment, complete treatment and successfully maintain a drug free life-style afterward. Context is an important consideration regardless of the evaluation setting. Evaluators routinely think about contextual factors at program, organizational and social levels; however, evaluations conducted in rural settings present additional contextual factors that may not be as familiar and may not receive the attention that is required in order to identify implementation barriers that unfairly impede access to treatment and services for rural women who are addicted and/or have a mental health disorder.This paper will describe the evaluation of a program that used an evidence-based model for treating adults 18 years and older who abuse methamphetamine and/or other emerging drugs in six rural Middle Tennessee counties. This paper is intended to expand evaluators' awareness of contextual factors that are less commonly discussed including rural culture that can be oppressive because of high rates of poverty and low levels of education, generational prejudice that help keep women powerless and poor, generalized social stigma of women who have a substance abuse and/or a mental health disorder and program environments that use evidence based practices that are not gender sensitive.
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The Gender Context of Program Evaluation: An International Perspective
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| Michael Bamberger, Independent Consultant, jmichaelbamberger@gmail.com
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This paper explores challenges gender analysis into the evaluation of international development programs. Clients often argue that "hard" economic sectors are "gender neutral" and that both sexes benefit equally from well designed housing, transport or export promotion projects. It is also claimed in many middle-income countries that gender issues are only important in less developed regions. There is often only limited recognition, or even denial, of the importance of gender among many evaluation clients; while on the supply side many evaluators do not have the orientation or research tools to adequately address gender issues.
The lack of attention to gender often means that women have only a limited role in program planning and implementation, and unequal access to program benefits. An even more challenging issue is to recognize that rapid economic and political change can also disadvantage men and boys - an area in which even less gender research is available.
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