Greetings! I am Sonal Zaveri, a gender and equity evaluator based in South Asia and on the Board of IEAc. Over the past three decades, I have worked on evaluations related to women’s empowerment, masculinities, gender-based violence, and social norms across Asia and Africa. More recently, collaborating with feminist evaluators from Latin America, South Asia, and Africa reminded me that some of my biggest professional lessons have come from questioning my own assumptions.
Lesson Learned: Gender indicators are essential but they don’t tell the whole story.
Three experiences, some from my own work and others shared by colleagues, revealed blind spots that fundamentally changed how I think about gender evaluation.
Blind Spot #1: Assuming I knew where power resided
A colleague’s evaluation using social network analysis to understand sanitation-related social norms in rural India challenged my assumptions about who held influence. I expected men to emerge as the primary gatekeepers of restrictive gender norms. Instead, the analysis showed that older women, particularly mothers-in-law, often reinforced expectations around younger women’s mobility, behaviour, and decision-making.
What changed for me: I no longer assume where power lies. Before deciding whom to interview or whose perspectives matter most, I ask how influence actually flows within families and communities.
Blind Spot #2: Assuming evaluators define success
Another example came from colleagues at CREA, where sex workers, transgender activists, women with disabilities, and other structurally excluded groups helped design the monitoring, evaluation, and learning system itself. Rather than simply responding to evaluation questions, they defined what meaningful change looked like in their own lives.
What changed for me: Participation should begin long before data collection. When communities help shape the questions, they often redefine what counts as evidence and what success really means.
Blind Spot #3: Assuming participants tell the whole story
One lesson came from my own evaluation of a programme working with adolescent boys to promote gender-equitable attitudes. We interviewed the boys but we also spoke with their mothers and sisters. Their observations revealed changes in respect, communication, and shared responsibilities that the boys themselves barely mentioned. They also pointed out where change had not yet occurred.
What changed for me: Sometimes the richest evidence comes from people who experience change rather than those expected to report it.
Hot Tip
Before launching your next gender evaluation, ask yourself four simple questions:
- Whose power am I assuming?
- Who helped define success?
- Whose voices are missing from my evidence?
- What relationships, not just results, should I be exploring?
These questions have become just as important to me as selecting methods or developing indicators.
If you’re interested in practical resources, I recommend Srilatha Batliwala’s All About Power, the Achieving Transformative Feminist Leadership, and the Resource Pack on Gender Transformative Evaluations all of which have influenced my thinking about power, participation, and feminist evaluation.
Thirty years into my evaluation career, I still value gender indicators. But I have learned that the most meaningful findings often emerge when we question our assumptions, listen to unexpected voices, and follow power wherever it leads.
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