Gender in research projects

When is a research project gender-relevant?

When the research or development of products, processes or procedures is geared towards specific or different user groups.
When people or groups of people are the subject of the research.
When people or groups of people are not the subject of research but are impacted by the results of that research in everyday life and at work.

Many researchers are repeatedly faced with the question of how and whether their research touches on gender issues in any way. Asking whether gender is relevant to a particular research topic is, first and foremost, a means of maximizing the scientific validity and quality of the research, as well as its social impact. Gender-sensitive research means paying attention to achieving a gender balance in the research team, as well as being aware of the topic of gender in research and considering the possible effects on research practice.

Prominent examples of the influence of gender on research include, for example, the findings in the emerging field of gender medicine. These have shown that drugs standardized for the male body and the consequent dosage and side effect guidelines are not universally applicable and therefore often produce undesirable effects. In addition, this research has also shown that the symptoms themselves (e.g. a heart attack), as well as how they are perceived, can also be linked to gender, both in terms of biological characteristics and acquired social roles.

Gender also becomes relevant in developing technologies used by different genders in different ways. One prominent example is modelling and vehicle safety: studies have used crash test dummies largely modelled on male proportions and body configurations, with the result that, for women, vehicle accidents are more likely to cause severe injuries and are more frequently fatal.

It is therefore important that researchers take a structured approach to considering gender in their research. Gender plays an important role throughout the entire research cycle and can be systematically addressed with a few guided questions:

What is gender-sensitive research design?

Gender-sensitive research design considers gender aspects, where relevant, throughout the entire course of a research project. This includes, for example, defining the research questions and hypotheses, setting the goals, selecting the methodology as well as dissemination and exploitation:

Research ideas phase

Develop gender-sensitive ideas for research projects and establish gender-sensitive research hypotheses:

If the research involves humans as research objects or develops products and services that will be used by humans: Has the relevance of gender to the research topic been analysed?
If the research does not directly involve humans: Are the possibly differentiated relations of men and women to the research subject sufficiently clear?
Have you reviewed literature and other sources relating to gender differences in the research field?

Proposal phase

Formulate gender-sensitive research questions, put together a mixed team (including members of all genders), create gender-equitable working conditions, select a gender-sensitive methodology:

Does the methodology ensure that (possible) gender differences will be investigated, i.e., that sex/gender differentiated data will be collected and analysed throughout the research cycle and will be part of the final publication?
Does the proposal explicitly and comprehensively explain how gender issues will be handled?
Have possibly differentiated outcomes and impacts of the research on women and men been considered?

Research phase

The important thing in the actual research phase is to value the work of men and women or other groups of persons and to achieve gender equality. Another focus is on implementing gender considerations and parameters in the research process:

Are questionnaires, surveys, focus groups, etc. designed to unravel potentially relevant sex and/or gender differences in your data?
Are the groups involved in the project (e.g. samples, testing groups) gender-balanced?
Is data analysed according to the sex variable? Are other relevant variables analysed with respect to sex (e.g. socio-economic factors, algorithmic bias etc.)?

Dissemination phase

Gender-specific reporting and reflection on the language used:

Do analyses present statistics, tables, figures and descriptions that focus on the relevant gender differences that came up in the course of the project?
Are institutions, departments and journals that focus on gender included among the target groups for dissemination, along with mainstream research magazines?
Have you considered a specific publication or event on gender-related findings?