This document discusses implementing a gender perspective in research. It begins by defining key terms like sex, gender, and gender dimension. It explains that a gender perspective aims to take into account differences between men and women in all aspects of research. This includes the formulation of research questions and methodologies. The document lists three main reasons to include a gender perspective: to produce higher quality research, limit unconscious bias, and comply with regulatory mandates. It then discusses the concept of "gendered innovations" and provides checklists for analyzing sex and gender in various stages of the research process from problem identification to data dissemination. Finally, it lists some related case studies and readings on the topic.

1. Implementing a gender
perspective in research
Profa. Elisa Chilet Rosell

2. ÍNDICE
01
¿A qué nos referimos con
Perspectiva de género en
investigación?
02 Razones para incluir la perspectiva
de género en Investigación
03 Gendered innovations

3. Gender
perspective
in research
Sex: designates physical, anatomical
and physiological differences,
anatomical and physiological
differences, classifying living beings
into living beings into female, male and
intersex.

4. Gender
perspective
in research
Gender: social and cultural
construction of women and men, of
femininity and masculinity. It has
evolved over timeand there are
differences between cultures and
countries.

5. Gender
perspective
in research
Gender dimension: refers to the
questioning of gender norms and
stereotypes in the content of R&D&I, and
takes into account the needs and roles of
women and men, both of which change
over time. Depending on the research in
question, it may include a gender analysis,
sex, or both.

6. Gender
perspective
in research Gender-sensitive research: takes into account
the differences between men and women in
all aspects of research, from the idea, the
formulation of research questions, objectives
and methodologies, to the results and their
presentation. It also promotes equal
participation of women and of women and
men in research. research. It takes into
account the transgender and transgender and
transsexual people as well.

7. Reasons for
including a
gender
perspective

8. REASON
to contribute to the advancement of
knowledge by building knowledge that
does not perpetuate inequalities, but
rather produces analyses of higher
scientific quality, innovation and social
usefulness
1

9. REASON
to limit the influence of unconscious
bias in our research (Cruz-Castro 2021;
Della Giusta 2020; Rippon 2019) and
rely on evidence from the data, rather
than views based on gender stereotypes
which, as studies show, affect all
people.
2

10. REASON
Because it is a regulatory mandate to
integrate a gender mainstreaming
approach in science; gender in content;
parity in teams and committees (EU
H2020 and ERC; Laws 3/2007 and
14/2011).
3

12. gendered innovations

14. Rethinking Research
Priorities and Outcomes
1. How do gender norms influence priorities? What concerns about
sex and gender have guided the priorities chosen, and how might
they shape or limit the agenda?
2. Who will the research benefit, and who will it leave out?
3. Do established practices and priorities of the funding agency
encourage gendered innovations?
4. Are new data required to make decisions about funding priorities?
Related Case Studies
Genetics of Sex Determination
Heart Disease in Diverse Populations
HIV Microbicides
Human Thorax Model
Inclusive Crash Test Dummies
Making Machines Talk
Nanotechnology-Based Screening for HPV
Prescription Drugs

15. Rethinking Concepts
and Theories
1.What (if any) “background assumptions” about sex and gender are shaping or
embedded in the concepts and theories of the field?
2.What are the implications of concepts and theories about sex and gender for how
research is conducted in the field—that is, the choice of research topics, the
methods used, what counts as evidence, and how it is interpreted? How do these
concepts and theories contribute to Formulating Research Questions? Do
researchers assume that sex and gender are fixed and binary (see Analyzing
Sex and Analyzing Sex in Hermaphroditic Species ? Do researchers assume that
sex and gender are separate or do they consider the ways sex and gender may
interact (see Case Study: Chronic Pain).

16. Rethinking Concepts
and Theories
3. What issues related to sex and gender are not being addressed, or are being
misunderstood or misrepresented, as a result of how concepts and theories are
framed in the field? For example, the concept of the “out-of-position driver” rules out
certain people as part of the population that engineers design for (see Case Study:
Inclusive Crash Test Dummies).
4. Are there conflicts between the assumptions being made about sex and gender
(within existing concepts and theories in the field) and relevant available evidence and
understandings about sex and gender? How do concepts and theories need to be
reformulated to take this new evidence into account?

17. Rethinking Concepts
and Theories
5. How do new concepts or theories bring to light new evidence?
6. Do these concepts and theories open up spaces for gendered innovations?
Related Case Studies
Dietary Assessment Method
Genetics of Sex Determination
Heart Disease in Diverse Populations
Inclusive Crash Test Dummies
Osteoporosis Research in Men
Textbooks
Chronic Pain

18. Formulating Research
Questions
1. What is the current state of knowledge of sex and gender (norms, identities,
or relations) in a given area of research or development?
2. What do we not know as a result of not analyzing sex and gender?
3. How have sex and gender functioned to limit the research questions posed in this
field? For example, coronary angiography is a powerful diagnostic tool for assessing
coronary artery disease, but it can cause bleeding complications, especially in
women. Researchers asked how angiography could be made safer and designed and
patented new catheters and procedures to allow angiography from the radial artery
rather than the groin. This shift reduces bleeding in everyone (see Case Study: Heart

19. Formulating Research
Questions
4. Have assumptions been made about sex and gender? Are these justified in light of available
evidence? Are assumptions underpinning these research questions invalid when subjected to
critical analysis? For example, cultural assumptions about gender difference can lead companies
to market “gender-specific” products—in one case a sex-specific knee prosthesis—that may not be
the best choice for consumers (see Case Study: De-Gendering the Knee). Have researchers
assumed a sex or gender binary? For example, recent research suggests that some transgender
people may be at higher risk for heart disease, but transgender patients are not typically a focus
for heart disease research (see Case Study: Heart Disease in Diverse Populations).

20. Formulating Research
Questions
5. Have any potentially relevant groups of research subjects been left out (e.g., female
animals in drug research, women and gender-diverse people in systems biology,
pregnant women and large people in automotive engineering)? (See Case
Studies: Prescription Drugs, Systems Biology, and Inclusive Crash Test Dummies.)
6. What research questions would lead to more robust research designs and
methods? For example, in studies of sexual differentiation, geneticists have revealed
the shortcomings of scientific models that portrayed the female developmental
pathway as “passive.” By challenging assumptions of passivity, researchers
formulated new questions about the ovarian developmental pathway. New findings
now suggest that both female and male development are active, gene-mediated
processes (see Case Study: Genetics of Sex Determination).

21. Sex
Disseminate
Identify
problem
Design
research
Collect
data
Analyze
• Sex may play a role in all studies involving human or non-human animals
• Perform a literature review to identify how sex may be of relevance to your study (Moerman et al., 2009).
• Consider whether sex is a covariate, confounder, or explanatory variable
• Consider what sex-related characteristics are of relevance to your study (e.g. genetic, physiological,
hormonal, anthropometric, biomechanical, injury thresholds, levels of pain tolerance, etc.) (Tannenbaum et
al., 2019)
• Consider how sex-related factors interact with gender, ethnicity, age, socioeconomic status, lifestyle, etc.
• Consider what opportunities have been missed in the past as a result of failing to analyze sex
• Sex may serve as a direct explanatory factor or act as a potential
modulator for associations between other factors; drawing a
causal diagram helps make underlying assumptions explicit (see
e.g. Buckley et al. 2017)
• In experimental studies, consider factorial designs to reduce the
sample size required for sex-based comparisons (Buch et al.
2017; Miller et al. 2019)
• Consider how sex should be conceptualised in data collection;
does your research concern physiological, hormonal,
anthropometric, or biomechanical aspects? (Tannenbaum et al.,
2019)
• In longitudinal research, consider how reproductive history may
influence the cohort under investigation; will, e.g., data
acquisition be impacted if females get pregnant during the study?
• Consider how to collect information on intersex subjects and
hermaphrodite animals
• Include adequate numbers of females and males and, where
relevant, intersex or hermaphrodites of different configurations
in research samples
• Record information on factors that intersect with sex (e.g. age,
life-style, socioeconomic status)
• In experiments, consider how the sex of the researcher may
impact research outcomes (Chapman et al. 2018)
• In survey research, questions about gender should not be used as
a proxy for birth sex
• In product and systems design, data collection should pay careful
attention to anthropometric, biomechanical, and physiological
factors that vary by sex (Tannenbaum et al., 2019; Jingwen et al.
2012)
• Examine overlaps between and variations within groups of different sexes (see, e.g., Maney et al., 2016)
• Consider the source of any sex difference observed, including the role of environmental, genetic, hormonal, or
anthropometric factors
• When examining sex differences, adjust for possible intersecting and confounding factors (e.g. age).
Overlooking confounding factors may result in overemphasising sex differences
• In longitudinal studies, examine how observed sex variations evolve over time
• Analyze how observed sex differences may vary by factors such as age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status
• Report the sex of your subjects, even in single-sex studies
• Report the sex distribution of the cells, animals, or human
subjects
• Report how information on sex was obtained
• Disaggregate reported results by sex
• Ensure that sex variations are properly visualized in the
tables, figures, and conclusions
• Avoid overemphasising sex differences. Are observed sex
differences of practical significance? (Maney et al., 2016;
Ribbon et al., 2014)
• Report all results: positive, negative, and inconclusive
• Consider following the SAGER publication guidelines
(Heidari et al., 2016).
ANALYZING SEX
enhances all phases of research

22. Analizing sex
Animal Research
Chronic Pain
Colorectal Cancer
De-Gendering the Knee
Dietary Assessment
Environmental Chemicals
Exploring Markets for Assistive Technology for the
Elderly
Genetics of Sex Determination
Heart Disease in Diverse Populations
HIV Microbicides
Human Thorax Model
Inclusive Crash Test Dummies
Making Machines Talk
Marine Science
Nutrigenomics
Osteoporosis Research in Men
Prescription Drugs
Stem Cells
Systems Biology

23. Gender
Disseminate
Identify
problem
Design
research
Collect
data
Analyze
• Gender may play a role in all studies involving humans (Tannenbaum et al., 2019).
• Perform literature searches with adequate terms for "gender” and “sex” (Oertelt-Prigione et al., 2010).
• Consider the project’s relevance in relation to different gender identities, norms, and relations.
• Consider relevant factors intersecting with gender (age, socio-economic status, ethnicity, etc.).
• Reflect upon your own gender assumptions in relation to the project.
• Consider what opportunities may be missed by failing to analyse gender and intersecting factors
.
• Consider how to involve diverse groups of research subjects/end-
users in the project life-cycle to ensure inclusive solutions.
• Consider which methods (qualitative and quantitative) are suited
for examining the gender dimensions of relevance to your project.
• Use appropriate sample sizes for gender comparison (Sell, 2017).
• When measuring gender in survey research, ensure that your
instrument has been psychometrically validated in the target
population (Steenkamp & Baumgartner, 1998).
• Inspect your analytical concepts, categories, and theoretical
models for misguided or stereotypical assumptions.
• Consider the risk of stereotyping or excluding relevant groups.
• Collect data across gender characteristics (e.g. gender norms,
gender identities, and gender relations) and intersecting factors.
• In survey research, use the two-step approach to collect data on
gender identity and birth sex (Deutsch et al 2013). Ensure that all
participants feel safe disclosing their gender identity.
• Ensure equal access for women, men and gender-diverse
individuals. Is oversampling needed to ensure a sufficient number
of gender-diverse participants? (Vaughan, 2017).
• Consider how gender relations between researchers and
participants may impact data collection (Chapman et al. 2018).
• Conduct analyses of relevant factors related to gender norms, gender identity, and gender relations (Nielsen et al., 2021).
• When using existing data, consider the cultural or institutional contexts in which the data were generated for potential gender biases.
• Examine similarities between groups (i.e. men, women, and gender-diverse individuals) and variations within groups (Hyde, 2005).
• Examine how observed differences between women, men and gender-diverse individuals relate to gender norms and relations.
• Examine how observed gender differences vary by factors such as age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status.
• In longitudinal studies, examine how observed gender variations evolve over time.
• Consider how gender norms, identities and relations intersect to shape people’s experiences, opportunities and practices.
• Report sample characteristics by gender, sex, and relevant
intersecting variables.
• Report how information on gender identity was obtained.
• Disaggregate reported results by sex and gender.
• Report all results: positive, negative, and inconclusive.
• Ensure that gender variations are properly reported in tables,
figures, and conclusions.
• Avoid overemphasizing gender differences. Are the observed
variations of practical significance? (Nelson, 2017).
• Consider following the SAGER publication guidelines
(Heidari et al., 2016).
ANALYZING GENDER
enhances all phases of research

24. Analizing gender
Related Case Studies
Agriculture
Chronic Pain
Climate Change
Colorectal Cancer
De-Gendering the Knee
Dietary Assessment Method
Exploring Markets for Assistive technology
for the Elderly
Extended Virtual Reality
Facial Recognition
Gendering Social Robots
Gender-Related Variables for Health
Research
Haptic Technology
Heart Disease in Diverse Populations
HIV Microbicides
Housing and Neighborhood Design
Machine Learning
Machine Translation
Making Machines Talk
Osteoporosis Research in Men
Prescription Drugs
Quality Urban Spaces
Smart Energy Solutions
Smart Mobility
Systems Biology
Textbooks
Virtual Assistants and Chatbots
Waste Management
Video Games

25. Sex and Gender
interacts
Related Case Studies
Chronic Pain
Colorectal Cancer
Dietary Assessment Method
Exploring Markets for Assistive Technologies for the Elderly
Gender-Related Variables for Health Research
Nutrigenomics
Osteoporosis Research in Men
Systems Biology

26. Sex and Gender
interacts

27. Checklist género en investigación

28. Readings
• Nota informativa sobre evaluación de la integración de la Perspectiva de Género en la
Investigación, en las convocatorias de la Agencia Estatal de Investigación
• Gender in EU funded research.
• Gendered innovations: https://genderedinnovations.stanford.edu/