Women, Gendered Expectations, and Philanthropy in Ireland

Dr Gemma Donnelly-Cox, Trinity Business School

Abstract: While research on women’s philanthropic giving is limited, existing studies tend to support gender role expectations that women give less visibly, to causes they care about personally, are more reliable resilient givers, and give more collaboratively, either through giving circles or as the decision maker in family giving. We use interview data from the Republic of Ireland to critically examine these gendered expectations and explore how women make sense of their own giving. We found that women philanthropists engage in discursive practices to navigate three binary and gendered dimensions: visible versus private, individual versus collaborative, and data-driven versus emotive. Moreover, they find value in privacy that allows them to find the right balance within these dimensions, between personal motivations and data-driven strategic giving. This research provides an empirical and conceptual contribution to philanthropy.