Tara Patricia Cookson
Biographic Data
| ID | 843685 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tara Patricia Cookson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Tara Patricia |
| FAMILY NAME | Cookson |
| SIGNATURE | COOKSON T P |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of British Columbia |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1269-169X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 62 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Gender, norms, and data-driven development
Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in gender norms within development practice, alongside a rise of individually focused, highly technical, and quantifiable approaches. This viewpoint explores why such approaches have gained prominence and resources from major donors – an issue with material implications for feminist and women’s rights actors seeking to fund the work they know is most effective. Drawing on my experience working with …
Gender data for good? Partnerships between tech companies and humanitarian and development organizations
In 2013, the United Nations called for a “Data Revolution” to advance sustainable development. “Data for Good” initiatives that have followed bring together development and humanitarian actors with technology companies. Few studies have examined the composition of Data for Good partnerships or assessed the uptake and use of the data they generate. We help fill this gap with a case study of Meta's (then Facebook) Survey on Gender Equality at Home,…
Addressing gender-based violence through social protection
Development practitioners are searching for novel ways to address gender-based violence (GBV) in the wake of what the UN Secretary General termed a "shadow pandemic" of violence against women (VAW).Social protection systems, which are oriented towards preventing poverty and improving quality of life, contain a wide range of policy tools with potential for addressing GBV, yet their application has been largely underexplored.This paper brings the f…
Gender-transformative social protection
The concept of gender transformative change brings yet another policy objective and aspiration into the field of public policy—one that reflects a growing desire for more ambitious public policy. This aspiration, while proliferating in social policy and the specific sub-field of social protection in recent years, has been embraced with little consensus and critical reflection on the intended object and processes of change. Various conceptualizati…
Gender Data, Intersectionality, and a Feminist Politics of “Negotiated Refusal
Gender and intersectional data are recognized as vital to addressing gender-based violence. We engage this thesis through a case study of a gender data project at the Colombia-Venezuela border. Coming from an underexplored vantage point in the literature, we trouble the assumption that more data are always better for advancing feminist objectives around GBV. We advance the concept of “negotiated refusal” to make sense of the decision of the proje…
Social protection systems and gender
The negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have motivated an unprecedented level of global advocacy for gender-responsive and gender-transformative social protection systems that buffer individuals from shocks and vulnerabilities. This turn to a systems approach reflects growing recognition that the presence of one or two social protection programmes targeting women does not guarantee that they are protected throughout the course of their live…
Gender-transformative action, social norms and economic empowerment
Feminist advocacy for ‘gender transformative’ approaches to development, public policy and humanitarian action that account for social norms has surged in recent years. This article intervenes in the debate around norms and implications for transformative approaches. We draw on a unique set of quantitative, global ‘gender data’ collected in 2020 and 2021 and examine how social norms inform women’s experiences of economic empowerment, as well as h…
Do governments account for gender when designing their social protection systems? Findings from an analysis of national social protection strategies
The negative impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on women's employment, care responsibilities, and access to services have motivated an unprecedented level of advocacy around strengthening national social protection systems from a gender perspective. Yet very little empirical evidence exists about what a gender‐responsive social protection system entails in practice. This paper addresses this gap through a comparative analysis of 52 national social …
Gender, social protection systems and street‐level bureaucrats
Street‐level bureaucrats are the “human face” of social protection delivery systems around the world. To date, most social protection literature approaches questions of gender with respect to policy and programme design and expected and unexpected outcomes. Mounting interest in gender‐responsive and rights‐based social protection systems, however, additionally begs a focus on the gendered individuals who mediate the relationship between citizens …
Fit for purpose? Assessing the accessibility, theory of action, and accountability of digital technology interventions for sexual and gender-based violence prevention and response
This paper presents the results of a scoping review of Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) interventions designed to address sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Our analysis considers the extent to which these ICT4D interventions align with established strategies for preventing and responding to SGBV from gender equality and global health practitioner communities. Using a feminist lens, we propose three parame…
Covid-19 and gender-based violence
Disclosure statementJulia Margaret Zulver, Tara Patricia Cookson, and Lorena Fuentes work for Ladysmith, a feminist research consultancy. With USAID and Global Affairs Canada funding, Ladysmith designed and implemented the Cosas de Mujeres intervention, whose data is reviewed in this paper. The research presented here did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.Additional informati…
Programmatic norms change to eliminate violence against children
Interest in gender norms is rising within the field of global health and among its funders. With more resources available for norms change work, international institutions seek to develop thoughtful strategic and programmatic responses to a variety of issues, including violence against children. Yet changing deeply rooted gender norms requires sensitivity to local context. This can present a challenge for mid- to large sized organisations, as wel…
Counting gender (in)equality? a feminist geographical critique of the ‘gender data revolution’
Powerful international development institutions have called for a ‘gender data revolution.’ They posit that progress on gender equality depends upon our collective ability to close ‘the gender data gap,’ by which they mean that we know less about women’s lives than men’s in statistical terms. Some feminists within and outside the academy treat the gender data revolution with suspicion, likening it to a ‘measurement obsession’ (Liebowitz and Zwing…
Unjust Conditions
Unjust Conditions follows the lives and labors of poor mothers in rural Peru, richly documenting the ordeals they face to participate in mainstream poverty alleviation programs. Championed by behavioral economists and the World Bank, conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs are praised as efficient mechanisms for changing poor people's behavior. While rooted in good intentions and dripping with the rhetoric of social inclusion, CCT programs' succ…
Digital technology for health sector governance in low and middle income countries
BACKGROUND: Poor governance impedes the provision of equitable and cost-effective health care in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Although systemic problems such as corruption and inefficiency have been characterized as intractable, "good governance" interventions that promote transparency, accountability and public participation have yielded encouraging results. Mobile phones and other Information and Communication Technologies (IC…
Working for Inclusion? Conditional Cash Transfers, Rural Women, and the Reproduction of Inequality
Throughout the global South, conditional cash transfer programmes (CCTs) are used to promote socially inclusive development. CCTs are widely evaluated for their capacity to build children's human capital. In contrast, this paper aims to hold “social inclusion” to account by elucidating the impacts of Peru's CCT “Juntos” on the poor, rural mothers who are expected to meet programme conditions. Grounded in extensive ethnographic research in househo…
Unjust Conditions
Unjust Conditions follows the lives and labors of poor mothers in rural Peru, richly documenting the ordeals they face to participate in mainstream poverty alleviation programs. Championed by behavioral economists and the World Bank, conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs are praised as efficient mechanisms for changing poor people's behavior. While rooted in good intentions and dripping with the rhetoric of social inclusion, CCT programs' succ…
Counting gender (in)equality? a feminist geographical critique of the ‘gender data revolution’
Powerful international development institutions have called for a ‘gender data revolution.’ They posit that progress on gender equality depends upon our collective ability to close ‘the gender data gap,’ by which they mean that we know less about women’s lives than men’s in statistical terms. Some feminists within and outside the academy treat the gender data revolution with suspicion, likening it to a ‘measurement obsession’ (Liebowitz and Zwing…
Working for Inclusion? Conditional Cash Transfers, Rural Women, and the Reproduction of Inequality
Throughout the global South, conditional cash transfer programmes (CCTs) are used to promote socially inclusive development. CCTs are widely evaluated for their capacity to build children's human capital. In contrast, this paper aims to hold “social inclusion” to account by elucidating the impacts of Peru's CCT “Juntos” on the poor, rural mothers who are expected to meet programme conditions. Grounded in extensive ethnographic research in househo…
Covid-19 and gender-based violence
Disclosure statementJulia Margaret Zulver, Tara Patricia Cookson, and Lorena Fuentes work for Ladysmith, a feminist research consultancy. With USAID and Global Affairs Canada funding, Ladysmith designed and implemented the Cosas de Mujeres intervention, whose data is reviewed in this paper. The research presented here did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.Additional informati…
Gender Data, Intersectionality, and a Feminist Politics of “Negotiated Refusal
Gender and intersectional data are recognized as vital to addressing gender-based violence. We engage this thesis through a case study of a gender data project at the Colombia-Venezuela border. Coming from an underexplored vantage point in the literature, we trouble the assumption that more data are always better for advancing feminist objectives around GBV. We advance the concept of “negotiated refusal” to make sense of the decision of the proje…
Gender-transformative action, social norms and economic empowerment
Feminist advocacy for ‘gender transformative’ approaches to development, public policy and humanitarian action that account for social norms has surged in recent years. This article intervenes in the debate around norms and implications for transformative approaches. We draw on a unique set of quantitative, global ‘gender data’ collected in 2020 and 2021 and examine how social norms inform women’s experiences of economic empowerment, as well as h…
Fit for purpose? Assessing the accessibility, theory of action, and accountability of digital technology interventions for sexual and gender-based violence prevention and response
This paper presents the results of a scoping review of Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) interventions designed to address sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Our analysis considers the extent to which these ICT4D interventions align with established strategies for preventing and responding to SGBV from gender equality and global health practitioner communities. Using a feminist lens, we propose three parame…
Digital technology for health sector governance in low and middle income countries
BACKGROUND: Poor governance impedes the provision of equitable and cost-effective health care in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Although systemic problems such as corruption and inefficiency have been characterized as intractable, "good governance" interventions that promote transparency, accountability and public participation have yielded encouraging results. Mobile phones and other Information and Communication Technologies (IC…
Working for Inclusion? Conditional Cash Transfers, Rural Women, and the Reproduction of Inequality
Throughout the global South, conditional cash transfer programmes (CCTs) are used to promote socially inclusive development. CCTs are widely evaluated for their capacity to build children's human capital. In contrast, this paper aims to hold “social inclusion” to account by elucidating the impacts of Peru's CCT “Juntos” on the poor, rural mothers who are expected to meet programme conditions. Grounded in extensive ethnographic research in househo…
Unjust Conditions
Unjust Conditions follows the lives and labors of poor mothers in rural Peru, richly documenting the ordeals they face to participate in mainstream poverty alleviation programs. Championed by behavioral economists and the World Bank, conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs are praised as efficient mechanisms for changing poor people's behavior. While rooted in good intentions and dripping with the rhetoric of social inclusion, CCT programs' succ…
Counting gender (in)equality? a feminist geographical critique of the ‘gender data revolution’
Powerful international development institutions have called for a ‘gender data revolution.’ They posit that progress on gender equality depends upon our collective ability to close ‘the gender data gap,’ by which they mean that we know less about women’s lives than men’s in statistical terms. Some feminists within and outside the academy treat the gender data revolution with suspicion, likening it to a ‘measurement obsession’ (Liebowitz and Zwing…
Programmatic norms change to eliminate violence against children
Interest in gender norms is rising within the field of global health and among its funders. With more resources available for norms change work, international institutions seek to develop thoughtful strategic and programmatic responses to a variety of issues, including violence against children. Yet changing deeply rooted gender norms requires sensitivity to local context. This can present a challenge for mid- to large sized organisations, as wel…
Covid-19 and gender-based violence
Disclosure statementJulia Margaret Zulver, Tara Patricia Cookson, and Lorena Fuentes work for Ladysmith, a feminist research consultancy. With USAID and Global Affairs Canada funding, Ladysmith designed and implemented the Cosas de Mujeres intervention, whose data is reviewed in this paper. The research presented here did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.Additional informati…
Fit for purpose? Assessing the accessibility, theory of action, and accountability of digital technology interventions for sexual and gender-based violence prevention and response
This paper presents the results of a scoping review of Information and Communications Technologies for Development (ICT4D) interventions designed to address sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Our analysis considers the extent to which these ICT4D interventions align with established strategies for preventing and responding to SGBV from gender equality and global health practitioner communities. Using a feminist lens, we propose three parame…
Social protection systems and gender
The negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have motivated an unprecedented level of global advocacy for gender-responsive and gender-transformative social protection systems that buffer individuals from shocks and vulnerabilities. This turn to a systems approach reflects growing recognition that the presence of one or two social protection programmes targeting women does not guarantee that they are protected throughout the course of their live…
Gender-transformative action, social norms and economic empowerment
Feminist advocacy for ‘gender transformative’ approaches to development, public policy and humanitarian action that account for social norms has surged in recent years. This article intervenes in the debate around norms and implications for transformative approaches. We draw on a unique set of quantitative, global ‘gender data’ collected in 2020 and 2021 and examine how social norms inform women’s experiences of economic empowerment, as well as h…
Do governments account for gender when designing their social protection systems? Findings from an analysis of national social protection strategies
The negative impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on women's employment, care responsibilities, and access to services have motivated an unprecedented level of advocacy around strengthening national social protection systems from a gender perspective. Yet very little empirical evidence exists about what a gender‐responsive social protection system entails in practice. This paper addresses this gap through a comparative analysis of 52 national social …
Gender, social protection systems and street‐level bureaucrats
Street‐level bureaucrats are the “human face” of social protection delivery systems around the world. To date, most social protection literature approaches questions of gender with respect to policy and programme design and expected and unexpected outcomes. Mounting interest in gender‐responsive and rights‐based social protection systems, however, additionally begs a focus on the gendered individuals who mediate the relationship between citizens …
Gender data for good? Partnerships between tech companies and humanitarian and development organizations
In 2013, the United Nations called for a “Data Revolution” to advance sustainable development. “Data for Good” initiatives that have followed bring together development and humanitarian actors with technology companies. Few studies have examined the composition of Data for Good partnerships or assessed the uptake and use of the data they generate. We help fill this gap with a case study of Meta's (then Facebook) Survey on Gender Equality at Home,…
Addressing gender-based violence through social protection
Development practitioners are searching for novel ways to address gender-based violence (GBV) in the wake of what the UN Secretary General termed a "shadow pandemic" of violence against women (VAW).Social protection systems, which are oriented towards preventing poverty and improving quality of life, contain a wide range of policy tools with potential for addressing GBV, yet their application has been largely underexplored.This paper brings the f…
Gender-transformative social protection
The concept of gender transformative change brings yet another policy objective and aspiration into the field of public policy—one that reflects a growing desire for more ambitious public policy. This aspiration, while proliferating in social policy and the specific sub-field of social protection in recent years, has been embraced with little consensus and critical reflection on the intended object and processes of change. Various conceptualizati…
Gender Data, Intersectionality, and a Feminist Politics of “Negotiated Refusal
Gender and intersectional data are recognized as vital to addressing gender-based violence. We engage this thesis through a case study of a gender data project at the Colombia-Venezuela border. Coming from an underexplored vantage point in the literature, we trouble the assumption that more data are always better for advancing feminist objectives around GBV. We advance the concept of “negotiated refusal” to make sense of the decision of the proje…
Gender, norms, and data-driven development
Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in gender norms within development practice, alongside a rise of individually focused, highly technical, and quantifiable approaches. This viewpoint explores why such approaches have gained prominence and resources from major donors – an issue with material implications for feminist and women’s rights actors seeking to fund the work they know is most effective. Drawing on my experience working with …
Political science (12 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare (6 works) · Gender Politics and Representation (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Gender Studies (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Sex work and related issues (5 works) · Law (4 works)