We’re delighted to share a report by Sarah Rose, examining Esmée’s portfolio of gender justice grants and the progress made since the launch of the strategy. It explores the changing context for gender justice and its impact – with challenges all too familiar and some newer, emerging threats. The report concludes with recommendations for us and other gender justice funders.
In addition to the broader recommendations published in this report, Sarah also made recommendations specifically related to the four long-term outcomes Esmée’s gender justice strategy is focused on.
In the blog below, Louise Jones, Esmée’s Funding Manager Lead for A Fairer Future, shares her reflections on the findings and the next steps for Esmée’s work.
What’s next for Esmee?
There is a satisfying line in the report which states that the ‘primary recommendation is to keep doing what is being done’ – and in some ways – we will continue doing just that.
We will continue to champion funding, which is equitable, which prioritises long-term support, and builds-in capacity building, wellbeing, safety and care. We will also not be pivoting drastically or changing the long-term outcomes we’re focusing our support on in response to this report.
However, there are also some areas which were thrown into the spotlight, which we will be prioritising over the coming months. We’ve grouped these according to our gender justice long-term outcomes, followed by actions we’ll be taking that cut across our work.
1. Gender-based violence is reduced through the delivery of preventative work
We are exploring proactively expanding our grant-making across Wales, Scotland and particularly Northern Ireland - where 98% of women and girls have experienced some form of violence – and we recognise that we have a relatively smaller funding footprint.
To leverage our experience of funding in both children and young people’s rights and gender justice, we are scoping how we might contribute towards preventative work with children and young people. We’re particularly interested in exploring out-of-school programmes and digital interventions which promote healthy relationships and/or offer an alternative to popular misogynistic narratives.
We are an active member of a family court funders collective, facilitated by Fair Hearing, which helps us to identify promising directions/projects – and ensures that we are coordinated in our funding efforts and policy and practice influencing efforts. We will continue to engage in this.
2. Trans and non-binary people’s rights are recognised and protected.
As trans rights are under threat, it is clear that more needs to be done to support trans and non-binary people-led organisations. We will work closely with our grant holders and the sector to explore what is most needed and how Esmée can best support, whilst also being mindful of the capacity of the sector. We are committed not just to listening, but to taking action. We are also exploring how our voice, alongside our funding, can be leveraged to further protect the trans and non-binary community.
As we await the final EHRC Code of Practice, and in the wake of its re-publication, we will continue to provide funding for legal support to develop guidance for the sector and trans-inclusive services.
3. Policy, practice, and the law better meets the needs of women experiencing multiple challenges and discrimination.
The lack of resource available to support the disabled women’s sector was highlighted in the report, Routes to power and influence for UK women’s organisations, with a specific recommendation to fund work to address the lack of support and infrastructure for these organisations. We are committed to supporting disabled women’s organisations - and crucially, are committed to ensuring that the shape of the support we provide for disabled women, is designed by disabled women. To this end, we are working with a group of funders and organisations working at the intersection of gender and disability to provide a space for dialogue and connection and explore ways to bring funding to this sector.
To help close the gap between policy and practice change, we will encourage funded organisations and applicants targeting policy change to consider the pathway to impact ‘on the ground’. Strategic use of Funding Plus will be explored to make connections, build capacity and address skills gaps with external support.
4. The negative impacts of the criminal justice system on women and their families are reduced.
Esmée is an active member of the Corston Independent Funders Coalition, which supports women’s access to justice through supporting women-centred, holistic and trauma-responsive approaches to diverting women from crime. We will continue to fund trauma-informed programmes and organisations exploring alternatives to imprisonment for women.
Cross-cutting work
We will identify and strengthen areas of intersection across our priority areas. We know that we fund organisations achieving impact towards gender justice across our priorities: racial justice, climate justice, migrant justice, and more – but have much less visibility on this work and less of an understanding of how it all fits together. Our ambition is to both better understand (through analysis) the intersectional work we are already funding and to use this to more effectively fund intersectional work. The hope is that this will help us to overcome siloes and better collaborate, convene and share learning across sectors. One key example is at the intersection of gender and climate justice.
We will explore ‘invisible’ sources of power and influence which sit outside of traditional policy-making and central decision-making. This includes investing in counter power, movement building and allyship. To facilitate this, we intend to examine sources of power within our current portfolio – and to work with organisations, such as Love & Power, that offer alternative routes to change.
We will continue to fund counter narrative and digital accountability work. These issues span Esmée’s priority areas and, in recent years, we have funded organisations leading the charge, including Hope Unlimited and Glitch. We recognise that there are issues where a gender justice-specific angle is needed e.g. tackling digital, AI facilitated, forms of violence against women and girls. In these cases, we recognise the importance of collaborating with organisations and initiatives with this multidisciplinary expertise.
Finally, we will also continue to explore how we can leverage Esmee’s social and impact investing to support gender justice, through investments such as housing and technology. Taking us back to the source, we are exploring how gender equity is embedded in our endowment decision-making and management of the funds we support.
The review has been an illuminating process for us. It acts as a reminder for us to keep doing what we’re doing, whilst also highlighting areas where we could do more. We look forward to keeping you updated on our progress.
If you have any thoughts or feedback about the report which you would like to share, please send an email to louise.jones@esmeefairbairn.org.uk.
Thanks
This report would not have been possible without Sarah Rose’s expert research and analysis, the illuminating conversations that were had with funded organisations and advisors throughout, or Hannah Lim, who oversaw the strategy review process right up until she went on maternity leave. Thank you to all those who contributed!
