Inside Philanthropy Who’s Funding What, and Why

A Revolution of the Obvious: Talking Gender Norms and Philanthropy With Riki Wilchins Julia Travers

October 15, 2018

Gender norms are powerful, internationally pervasive, “It’s taken 10 years to really put this on the map, for yet culturally specific concepts that affects people people to realize that intersectionality doesn’t just of all ages. These socially constructed ideas of how mean race and class, it means race, class, and to be a woman or a man have enormous impacts gender,” said Wilchins. on kids—some of them harmful, says Riki Wilchins, executive director of the gender-focused nonprofit The research continues to reveal the role of gender TrueChild, which has worked for about 10 years to norms as youth grow and mature. For example, a improve life outcomes for youth “by helping funders 2017 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health found and nonprofits challenge rigid gender norms.” the narrative that girls are weak and boys are strong still plays out globally, in 15 countries across five Inside Philanthropy spoke with Wilchins recently continents. These and other limiting norms were about the latest in research, policy, and philanthropy linked to numerous negative life consequences, such involving gender norms. An iconic figure and activist as substance abuse, child marriage, violence, and in the realm of rights, Wilchins founded suicide. The findings illuminate why more funders GenderPAC, the first national advocacy organization and service providers are now embracing a gender devoted to gender rights issues. lens in their work.

The national media routinely reports on high-pro- While gender norms differ between cultures, Wilchins file public controversies around gender—especially said that funders generally understand the issues lately, since the rise of the #MeToo movement—but and dangers once they are introduced, because all the analysis around these issues often doesn’t in- humans experience them; she sometimes describes tegrate gender norms. In fact, decades of research bringing gender norms into philanthropy as “a have shown that when gender norms are narrowly revolution of the obvious.” defined, they lead to lower life outcomes in a number of spheres. These include problems in intimate rela- RIKI WILCHINS, TRUECHILD, AND GENDERPAC tionships, sexual and reproductive health, economic Before there was TrueChild, Wilchins founded the empowerment, and educational success. Gender Public Advocacy Coalition (GenderPAC—it was actually a nonprofit, not a political action com- But, philanthropy has been catching on. In addition mittee) in 1995. Wilchins points out this was before to the extensive work of women’s foundations and LGB became LGBT and now, generally, LGBTQ. LGBTQ funders across the U.S., which we report on During the last 20 years, Wilchins has conducted often, gender issues are penetrating more deeply gender trainings at the White House, the Centers into broader conversations about social change with- for Disease Control, and the Office on Women’s in the sector. Health. She helped to found numerous trans- and Inside Philanthropy

gender-related groups and events, and is credited evaluate an organization’s online, printed, internal, with coining the term “genderqueer.” She was and outward-facing materials with a gender lens. recently a keynote speaker at the San Diego Grantmakers Gender Equity Summit and has written TrueChild’s reports cover diverse topics like gen- five books on gender—her newest,Gender Norms der-informed giving, economic security, (for exam- and Intersectionality, comes out in 2019. ple, “Women: the Global South”) and are often illustrated by examples from community-based re- GenderPAC rebranded as TrueChild in 2009 when search. It partners with funders and philanthropy-re- it shifted its focus to youth and gender. This was lated groups to create these documents, including around the time it got a series of grants from the the Association of Black Foundation Executives, the Ford Foundation to work with “issues of young Global Fund for Women, Hispanics in Philanthropy, black men and .” As we’ve reported, the Women’s Funding Network, Frontline Solutions, the Ford Foundation has long supported LGBTQ- and Women Moving Millions. related causes. Wilchins describes the group’s transformation: EVIDENCE-BASED TRAINING TrueChild provides several trainings designed for We said OK, the gay community kind of gets youth-serving organizations, including BLOOM, gender now, but nobody else does. Because or Black girls Living Out Our Meaning, which was gender affects all kids, we need to start doing developed by a researcher at St. John’s University this work. That kind of became the marching named Dr. Scyatta Wallace. Wilchins says it is one of orders for the organization… Once I started with the first evidence-based, trauma-informed curricula the Ford grants, the whole world kind of opened specifically designed to address black girls and gen- up—I thought, ‘Oh my God, this affects young der norms in African-American communities. It was black men, this affects young Latinas;’ you start created with support from the Heinz Endowments, to see that there’s so many different places and and was piloted by the Urban League and the YWCA issues where this resonates, and that trans is just of Pittsburgh. the tip of a much bigger gender iceberg. TrueChild also has a STEM curriculum called FaST Other early supporters and partners of TrueChild ( And STem.) It was developed with included the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota, support from Motorola, Applied Materials, and the the Women’s Fund of Central Ohio, and the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and piloted California Endowment. at SUNY Stony Brook. A coed version is now being implemented in the East San Jose public schools, THINKING CRITICALLY ABOUT GENDER and it’s TrueChild’s first entirely school-based pro- MESSAGES gram. These initiatives feature a range of exercises Wilchins thinks the main challenge of working with designed to help youth think critically about rigid gender norms is giving kids tools to think critically gender norms, such as the “gender box” activity, about the gender messages they receive and to which encourages participants to list, reflect on, and make “choices to choose more constructive discuss concepts relating to how to “act like a man” versions” of masculinity and femininity. or a woman.

With this in mind, TrueChild offers five main services Wilchins describes most of TrueChild’s work as taking to funders and nonprofits, which sometimes over- a “classic three-legged stool” approach to teaming lap: gender trainings, gender audits, the creation up with a funder, such as the Simmons Foundation, of white papers and reports, community-based and its grantees. Simmons is a Texas funder that research, and curriculum development. Gender train- partners with organizations that strengthen women, ings can range from introductory to in-depth and youth, and families; it reached out to TrueChild for can include gender concepts, research findings, and a gender audit of its materials as well as a gender hands-on exercises exploring norms. Gender audits norms training for its staff, board, and the CEOs of its grantees. Inside Philanthropy

“I have been struck by how [Riki’s] work on gen- The interrelation of LGBTQ youth, straight youth, der norms has been applicable to and welcomed and gender norms can also be observed in the way by every area of our portfolio. We have also had “queer kids form the boundaries for what non-queer a huge response from the community in terms of kids can be or do,” according to Wilchins. At the embracing the trainings and coaching for individual borders of many feminine and masculine norms, we organizations,” said Simmons Foundation president find behavior traditionally labeled as “gay”—often and CEO Amanda Cloud. Simmons currently has seen as too feminine for straight males or too over 14 grantee agencies engaged in a deep dive masculine for straight females. with Wilchins, including Montgomery County Youth Services, Bridge Over Troubled Waters, the Houston Wilchins says these gender boundaries can be read- Immigration Legal Services Collaborative, and the ily found in the philanthrosphere, citing how tradi- Thurgood Marshall School of Law’s Earl Carl Institute tional arts funding often becomes gendered with a for Legal and Social Policy. preference toward girls once youth leave childhood. For example, she says there is little to no funding Cloud also says the gender audit made she and for 13-year-old boys who want to go into theater or her team “more conscious of the language we were ballet because these activities are seen as “gay.” using to describe our work and the communities the foundation supports,” and that they are using “All the funding goes to girls, and no one even it to guide their decision-making and make sure talks about this. This is what gender’s like; it’s like a their materials are “communicating in an revolution of the obvious,” she says. inclusive manner.” While performing arts are arguably becoming Wilchins said TrueChild is planning a series of joint more diverse in some ways—such as the Nation- presentations with the foundation and developing al YoungArts Foundation’s backing of young male a white paper that documents their collaboration. dancers and the Victor Alexander Young Men’s Dance Scholarship—it’s true that women continue UNDERSTANDING GENDER NORMS HELPS to dominate key parts of the dance world. Little EVERYONE, EVEN STRAIGHT KIDS grantmaking is designated specifically to counter this imbalance and usher teen boys into these expressive Philanthropy focused on gender norms may bring fields, so this is an area where an arts funder could to mind funding for women and girls or LGBTQ- step in and provide gender-informed giving. centered causes. But, one of the main things Wilchins wants funders, nonprofits, and everyone Interestingly—though perhaps not surprisingly, given else to understand about gender norms is that male dominance in leadership roles of nearly every they are relevant to everyone. professional field, including athletics—most chore- ographers are men, and a new initiative of the Wilchins says LGBTQ kids are the “canary in the American Ballet Theatre hopes to balance that out. gender mine shaft” that can help us recognize more widespread gender issues. For example, she thinks if Another example for girls that is more widely LGBTQ kids are not comfortable or safe in a certain recognized and discussed is that STEM fields are nonprofit program, “chances are that organization traditionally saturated with men. While many funders has a pretty harsh gender culture under the hood,” such as the Exelon and Vodafone Americas where 90 percent of straight kids are probably also Foundations work to engage girls in these areas, feeling stressed and vulnerable. the gender gap persists. TrueChild has its own STEM curriculum, as mentioned above. So, Wilchins explains, if a youth-serving organization can create a safe space where a queer boy who has Meanwhile, Wilchins sees her 12-year-old daughter been bullied can be feminine or cry, “you make it bombarded with messages pushing for what she OK for straight kids who’ve been traumatized to cry, calls “the three D’s of traditional femininity: being as well. These things are mutually reinforcing; you’re helping everybody.” Inside Philanthropy

deferential, dependent, and desirable.” She and her All the funders we talk to get gender—everyone partner make a conscious effort to counteract this went to middle school, so they all kind of get it in programming by telling their daughter that girls can their bones… but they haven’t thought about it in also be smart and courageous. terms of their funding or what their grantees are doing, so it’s really just a matter of getting them ADDRESSING GENDER IN FOSTER CARE to recognize what they already know, and then AND JUVENILE PROBATION the intention of putting it into practice. So it’s One of TrueChild’s most recent undertakings has been an exciting and sometimes challenging 10 been working in partnership with the Houston years, but things have definitely shifted. Endowment, which asked it to do a gender audit of the Harris County child welfare system, looking at Major international donor institutions such as both foster care and juvenile probation. CARE, PEPFAR, UNAIDS, UNFPA, USAID, and WHO have embraced gender-norm awareness. “I leapt at the chance because I don’t think anyone’s TrueChild recently started working with its first ever done that kind of initiative before,” Wilchins statewide group, the Council of Michigan Founda- tells us. In the last six months, she’s conducted about tions, and completed its first paper with a state-level a dozen trainings and personally met with about agency, the California Office of Health Equity. 30 people involved. When we talked, she had just returned from Houston. “Interest and awareness certainly seem to be turning a corner,” said Wilchins. Many of the youth in juvenile probation are consid- ered “dual status” because they have also been in On the other hand, Wilchins knows a lot of social foster care. A lot of them have experienced trauma justice funders experience compassion fatigue and and receive therapeutic services along with the are still wrestling “with having a deeper understand- educational programs provided, and all of these ing of race, let alone gender.” She also recognizes systems contain gender norms, Wilchins says. that gender is a complex and overloaded term in the English language. These are areas TrueChild’s “It’s been really fascinating,” says Wilchins. “When services can help funders navigate. you think about it, just like education and like health, probation systems are highly gendered and gender- Many funders and nonprofits are now going through ing; systems that anticipate, reward, and even a challenging, vulnerable, and awkward stage of punish specific kinds of masculinity in boys and growth as they figure out what gender norms mean femininity in girls.” to their organizations and the populations they serve, and how to apply a gender lens to their work. In reflecting further on this project, Wilchins describes adolescence as a key time, “a pressure “I think we’re all struggling to figure out some really cooker” where gender norms are enforced, “not only difficult stuff together,” Wilchins says. “It will take us from the system itself but from other kids... kids a while, but that’s OK, that’s what growth and best police each other fiercely in adolescence, and yet practice look like. It looks like struggling and falling there is very little in the way of curricular tools or down, and then you get back up.” anything to help either the staff or kids.”

Adolescence is intensely gendered for most people, which is one reason Wilchins thinks gender norms are an accessible concept for funders. She says: