1. BEYOND NUMERICAL REPRESENTATION:
GENDER STATISTICS
Dr Anne Laure Humbert
SUPERA Meeting
Madrid, 16 November 2018

2. GENDER AND LANGUAGE
Sex vs gender?
Four layers of ‘gender’?
▪ Biological sex Sex
▪ Socially constructed gender Gender (identity)
▪ Performativity Gender (expression)
▪ Heteronormativity Sexual orientation

3. WHAT’S IN A WORD?
Saussure’s process of
signification:
Signified: concept
represented
Signifier: form adopted

4. WHAT’S IN A WORD?
Signification as sense
giving that is subject to
variation:
Denotation: e.g. pictograms
Connotation: e.g. different
understandings of gender

5. WHAT’S IN A WORD?

6. WHAT’S IN A WORD?

7. WHAT’S IN A WORD?

8. WHAT’S IN A WORD?
To understand the process of signification, Jakobson’s
(1960) model states that it needs to be put in relation to the
context, the code and the channel.
▪Context: is gender treated differently in gender-related or
gender-sensitive environments?
▪Code: do gender understandings rely on familiarity with
gender theory?
▪Channel: does gender language matter?

9. WORDS AND NUMBERS

10. Sex disaggregated data?
vs
Gender statistics?

11. Sex disaggregated data?
(denotation)
vs
Gender statistics?
(connotation)

12. GENDER DIVERSITY

13. COUNTING HEADS
50%50%

14. COUNTING HEADS
25% 75%
63% 37%

15. INDICATORS
GENDER DIVERSITY INDEX
Demographic
Gender Diversity
Age
Education
Marital Status
Care
Responsibilities
% Wo/men
below/above average
team age
% Wo/men with/out
doctorate
% Wo/men with/out
cohabitating
significant other
% Wo/men with/out
current care
responsibilities
Functional
Gender Diversity
Contract
Team tenure
Team role
% Wo/men with/out
permanent position
% Wo/men
below/above
average team
tenure
% Wo/men with/out
senior role

16. GENDER STATISTICS FOR REAL
EQUALITY AT UNIVERSITIES
▪Build better understandings of what we mean by gender
▪Engage gender experts with gender statistics
▪Expand our gender perspective(s) to include other
categories of power relations

17. BEYOND NUMERICAL REPRESENTATION:
GENDER STATISTICS
Dr Anne Laure Humbert
SUPERA Meeting
Madrid, 16 November 2018