Research through a gender lens: Tools for gender-conscious research across various fields & organisations

Research through a gender lens These recommendations hold tools to promote inclusive research, with the aim to empower researchers to work towards gender equality both on their own and in their teams and organisations. No team, individual, or even organisation can fix a broken system on their own – but together we are strong! Teams with a mix of gender produce more novel and higher-impact scientific ideas¹ and gender diversity leads to better science². But the systems in place tend to favour male researchers. We work to educate our colleagues on how to look at research projects and outputs through a gender lens. This means considering how gender roles, expectations, and stereotypes might affect people’s experiences, opportunities, and outcomes. It involves understanding the ways in which gender influences individuals, societies and research. The recommendations in this brief covers the following aspects of research with gender in mind: • Brainstorming • Research proposals • Research and research terms • Dissemination • How to be a gender-aware researcher mindthegeps.eu Tools for gender-conscious research across various fields & organisations This brief is for researchers, PhD candidates, scientific project incubators, and research teams. By following our checklist, you can contribute to the promotion of gender-conscious research and research practice. Cite as: Żadkowska, Magdalena., KosakowskaBerezecka, Natasza., Dziedzic, Marta., Raszczyk, Izabela., Drecun, Aleksandra., Jovanovic, Kosta., Trumic, Maja., & Solera, Cristina. (2024) Research through a gender lens: Tools for gender-conscious research across various fields & organisations. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13884172 Brainstorming with gender/sex in mind • Consider the significant impact that stereotypes about binary sex and gender, including femininity and masculinity, might have on the research questions you choose to pursue, the questions you ask and the methods you choose. • Find out how sex/gender is important to understand the subject you will investigate. Does it matter if there is a female or male laboratory assistant performing the experiment? Does the issue affect mostly women or men? Are there other dimensions to consider, such as age, ethnicity, educational level, income, occupation, geographical location, or technical competence? • Review literature and other sources relating to sex/gender in the research field. • Does the project’s research topic and methods take the sex/gender dimension into account? Does the proposal explain how the sex/gender dimension will be handled? • Are researchers trained in gender studies included in the research group? Should there be? • Have you considered whether the results of the research can have different effects on women and men, boys or girls? Can the research contribute to the advancement of gender equality? • Identify and be explicit about if scientific knowledge with a gender perspective exists for the issue under investigation, including analysis on how ‘gender’ is researched in the field. • Assess the scale of the issue for/in both women and men specifically. • Develop multidisciplinary bibliographic strategies for information retrieval on the research topic/question and the methodologies used to study it. • Acknowledge contributions of both women and men to scientific knowledge on the research topic. • Be mindful of gender-sensitive hypotheses and objectives. • Take the specific social and historical context where the issue has been and will be studied into consideration. • Avoid hypotheses that generalise to only one sex; indicate and justify for any gender-specific hypotheses. • Consider the influence of cultural, social and economic factors. • Formulate research questions that challenge gender biases. Crafting gender-sensitive research proposals Questions to pose: Fostering gender/sex-aware research and research teams Sample selection and stratification • Ensure stratification by sex and age group, • Consider vulnerable groups and socioeconomic characteristics. • Mitigate gender biases in inclusion and exclusion criteria. Use gender and intersectional sensitivity when conducting your study. For example, be mindful that people have different gender identities and experiences. Some might find your surveys or methods hard to understand or complete, especially if your research only recognises two gender categories (male and female). Try to be sensitive to these differences to make your research more inclusive. Identification & selection of variables • Highlight the relationship between the topics/issues at hand and gender factors: For example, instead of just comparing men and women, also consider other factors like age, sexual orientation, ethnicity, family roles, and socio-economic status. Recognize that gender is a spectrum, not just male and female. • Create new hypotheses and consider out-of-the-box correlations inspired by the gender dimension to increase the novelty of the research. • Integrate variables that reflect diversity between women and men as groups, and view gender is a continuum. For example, think about new ideas or connections inspired by gender differences that could make your research more innovative. Questionnaire design & implementation • Use an intersectional approach and consider cultural and ethnic background, sexual orientation, health, aging, career chances, vertical and horizontal discrimination, the amount of unpaid work, socio-economic status of your study participants, and other factors that contribute to inequality and affect gender experiences. • Disaggregate data by sex and other stratification axes and incorporate a detailed list of gender inequalities. • Include questions that address specific issues for men and women. • Make sure your questions are clear and relevant to everyone, including those who do not identify strictly as male or female. Different methodologies call for different approaches to equality proofing your research. For quantitative studies, samples, variables and questionnaires need to be sex and gender sensitive. For qualitative studies, interview and observational methods also need adaptations to avoid bias and encourage the embedding of gender equality in research. Qualitative methods For qualitative studies, it is important to incorporate profiles of individuals representing diverse situations and experiences related to the research topic/question. Before selecting your method, make sure to conduct preliminary Quantitative methods analysis to identify potential gender biases in data collection methods, evaluate whether your selected methods integrate information on both sex and gender differences, and analyse the contextual appropriateness and validation of your method for in relation to those differences. Semi-structured or in-depth interviews • Ask questions that are relevant regardless of sex and gender for comparative data analysis. • Collect data on gender-specific questions to interpret and understand perceptions. • Include questions targeting specific health situations of both women and men, as well as those common to all genders. Group interviews • Make sure groups are mixed to explore distinct sex and gender perspectives. Observational methods • Observe and analyse gender roles, stereotypes, and potential sex and gender differences. • Aggregate data by sex. • Reflect social heterogeneity by disaggregating data according to age groups, social stratification, and other relevant factors. • Present sex and gender differences by including situations and experiences that represent the gender diversity among your research participants. • Include data that reflects the interaction with other relevant variables to avoid obscuring others such as age, ethnic origin, and social class. Gender-awareness in your results & discussion • Does the project’s research topic and methods take the sex/gender dimension into account? Does the proposal explain how the sex/gender dimension will be handled? • Are researchers trained in gender studies included in the research group? Should there be? • Have you considered whether the results of the research ca have different effects on women and men, boys or girls? Can the research contribute to the advancement of gender equality? Questions to pose: Considering gender when distributing the results of your work helps ensure that your findings are presented in a nuanced and inclusive manner, addressing diverse perspectives and, directly or indirectly, contributing to the advancement of gender equality in academia and beyond. Disseminating research with gender sensitivity • Is the sex/gender dimension included in the presentation of findings? • If the sex/gender dimension is included, is it presented in a manner that does not reproduce stereotypical notions about gender and also examines variation within gender categories? • Have you explored how your research findings can be disseminated in networks, institutions, journals, and conferences that address gender issues? Questions to pose: To avoid errors in sample selection, result analysis, and in formulating conclusions, it is crucial to consider biases. Make sure your team is diverse with regard to gender, age, culture and other factors. To support the process of integrating gender considerations into all aspects of policies, programs, and projects, language use is also important. • Avoid male centric and sexist language. • Refrain from using masculine forms as a universal generic. Specifically mention women where appropriate. • Steer clear of essentialist terms like disability, cardiopathic, obese, etc. Instead, use phrases such as “a person living with disability or functional diversity,” “a person living with heart disease,” “a person living with obesity,” etc. • Differentiate between “sex” and “gender,” recognising that sex refers to biological characteristics while gender refers to socio-cultural processes, and the fact that they do not necessarily match. How to be a gender-aware researcher mindthegeps.eu MINDtheGEPs (Modifying Institutions by Developing Gender Equality Plans) has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no 101006543. The views and opinions expressed in this policy brief the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. This policy brief builds on Żadkowska, Magdalena., Kosakowska-Berezecka, Natasza., Dziedzic, Marta., Raszczyk, Izabela., Drecun, Aleksandra., Jovanovic, Kosta., Trumic, Maja., & Solera, Cristina. (2024). D6.1 – Guidelines on planned actions to gendering research & teaching. Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10591738 Additional references ¹ Yang, Y., Tian, TY., Woodruff, TK. & Uzzi, B. Gender-diverse teams produce more novel and higher-impact scientific ideas. PNAS. 24 July 2022. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2200841119 ² Wullum Nielse, M., Alegria, S., Börjeson, L. & Scheibinger, L. Gender diversity leads to better science. PNAS. 21 February 2017. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1700616114