We Need a
Gendered Innovation

First published:03/10/2011

Research over the past twenty years has documented how gender inequalities, built into society, have influenced science, medicine, and engineering. Gender bias in research limits the potential benefit of science and technology to society. And gender bias in research can be expensive: Between 1997 and 2000, ten drugs were withdrawn from the U.S. market because of life-threatening health effects—four of these were more dangerous to women. The problem has been traced to preclinical research where testing was done primarily in male animals.

 It is crucially important to identify gender bias and understand how it operates. But analysis cannot stop there: focusing on bias is not a productive strategy. Gender experts are now shifting emphasis away from critique and toward a positive research program that employs gender analysis as a resource to stimulate excellence in science, medicine, and technology.

What is needed now is to develop methods of sex and gender analysis readily useful to scientists and engineers, as recommended in the 2010 European Union genSET Consensus Report and the 2010 United Nations Expert Group Meeting on Gender, Science and Technology.[1] Sex and gender analysis act as yet further controls—one set among many—providing critical rigor in science, medicine, and engineering research, policy, and practice.   

Presented here are three examples of how sex and gender analysis has led to positive change—or “gendered innovations”—in science, medicine, and engineering.  Each example highlights a problem, method of sex or gender analysis important to overcoming the problem, and solution, or gendered innovation.

Example 1. Technology Design: Pregnant Crash Test Dummies

a. The problem: Conventional seatbelts do not fit pregnant women properly, and up to 75% of fetuses may be injured in a 56 km/h frontal crash. Because millions of pregnant women drive every year, the use of seatbelts in pregnancy is a major safety concern. Seatbelts were first installed in automobiles in the 1950s, and commonly used since the late 1980s. However, it was not until 1996 that researchers invented pregnant crash test dummies to test crash safety in pregnant women. Even today, many governments do not use pregnant crash test dummies in automobile safety testing.

b. Methods of analysis: It is important to question assumptions when “envisioning design” (method #1). In much engineering design, men are taken as the norm; women are analyzed as an afterthought and often studied from the perspective of how they deviate from the norm. This means that women may be left out of the “discovery” phase—as a result, many devices are adapted to women retrospectively, if at all. In this case, the three-point seatbelt was designed with no attention to pregnancy. Many years later, a supplementary strap was developed (to hold conventional lap belts in place) in efforts to fix the original design. A better solution might be a completely new design, a 4-point seatbelt, perhaps, that works without a lap belt. From the start, devices should be designed for a broad population.

c. Gendered innovations: Solutions to safety testing are emerging from Sweden. Volvo’s “Linda,” designed in 2002 by mechanical engineer Laura Thackray, is the world’s first computer simulated pregnant crash-test dummy. “Linda” generates data modeling the effects of high-speed impact on the fetus.

d. Further comments: Using methods of sex and gender analysis from the beginning would help engineers better include pregnant women. Sampling (method #6) encourages designers to study user populations —and to include both males and females in design development. These males and females should represent people from different regions, social classes, ages, reproductive status, etc. Analyzing sex (method #3) encourages designers to look at sex-specific characteristics of men and women. Pregnancy should not be overlooked.

Example 2. Osteoporosis: Sex and Gender Analysis Also Benefits Men

a. The problem: It is important to understand that “gender” relates to men as well as women. Osteoporosis is a disease traditionally seen as affecting post-menopausal women, and men have historically been excluded from osteoporosis research. Current diagnostic criteria for osteoporosis are based on the relationship between bone mineral density and fracture risk in postmenopausal white women, resulting in underdiagnosis of osteoporosis in men. Yet men suffer from a third of all osteoporotic-hip fractures, and have higher average mortality than women with similar injuries.

b. Methods of analysis: Examining sex in diagnostic reference models (method #7) has broken the gender paradigm and turned attention to understanding osteoporosis in men.

c. Gendered innovations: As a result, diagnostic criteria are beginning to include men.

d. Further comments: Gender experts generally have not studied how science and technology fail men. Baby strollers and shopping carts are two artifacts that have been designed for women rather than men. In these cases, gender relations (the fact that women tend to care for young children and do household shopping in developed countries) have been designed into everyday objects. These objects tend to reinforce inequalities in gender relations.

Example 3. Civil Engineering to Secure Water Supplies

a. The problem: Millions of people worldwide lack reliable, efficient access to water.

b. Methods of analysis: Analyzing social divisions of labor (method # 8) helps researchers understand who in a community holds the knowledge required for a particular project. Women, as traditional water fetchers, often have specialized knowledge concerning water sources. Participatory research (method # 9) calls for women to be engaged in development projects from the start.

c. Gendered innovations: Social divisions of labor in the much of sub-Saharan Africa make water procurement women’s work. Consequently, women have detailed knowledge of soils and their water yield. Civil engineering teams deciding on well placement found that tapping into women’s knowledge provides the best water yields. A study of water projects in 88 communities showed that including women in democratic decision-making more than doubled the chance that a project would be ranked among the top 15% of successful projects.

Recommendations

Policy can be a powerful tool to implement change. As such, we recommend:

1. 1.     Training current researchers and evaluators in gender methodology.
2. 2.     Holding senior management accountablefor developing evaluation standards that take into account proper implementation of gender analysis in research. There are several practical ways to encourage researchers to develop proficiency in sex and gender analysis: 
   1. a.     Granting agencies—private, national, and international—can provide extra funding to applicants who include gender methodology in research design. Sex should be analyzed whenever sexed organisms—single cells, laboratory animal models, or humans—are involved. Sex and gender should be considered when humans are involved.
   2. b.     Hiring and promotion committees can evaluate researchers and educators on their success in implementing gender analysis. Knowledge and use of methods of gender methodology can be one factor taken into consideration in hiring and promotion decisions.  
      1. c.     Editors of peer-reviewed journals can encourage sophisticated use of sex and gender methodology when selecting papers for publication. A number of journals do this:  the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and Circulation, the American Heart Association journal.  Nature is considering adopting this policy.
      2. Training the next generation in methods of sex and gender analysis. Sex and gender analysis should be taught throughout the curriculum at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.

Innovation has been placed at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy. Gendered innovations in science, medicine, and engineering employ sex and gender analysis as a resource to stimulate creativity. Can we afford to ignore such opportunities?