On Tuesday, April 16, 2024, and on Friday, April 19, 2024, workshops were held under the title ‘Inclusion of a gender perspective in the teaching of STEM subjects’. The lecturer was Assistant Professor Dr. Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc from the Research Center of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of the Republic of Slovenia.
The workshops offered answers to the questions: why do we need a gender dimension in research and teaching, and how to include a gender perspective in research.
Here, it is possible to offer two types of answers: pragmatic and epistemological.
The epistemological answer is that gender-sensitive research:
– makes research results more relevant for the whole society,
– is increasingly becoming an indispensable component of interdisciplinary studies,
– generally leads researchers to use a more sensitive research methodology and
– improves the quality and validity of the research project, opposing the gender biases embedded in the history of science, medicine and technology.
Examples of how research results become more relevant for all members of society can be:
– acquiring knowledge that the same drugs can have different effects on the male and female body,
– recognizing that there were different infection and mortality rates between men and women during the Covid-19 pandemic,
– observing that seat belts are made according to the measurements of the average male body or
– understanding that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies can reproduce existing social stereotypes.
It is possible to include the aspect of gender in the research in one of the following ways:
– new study program,
– introduction of a new (elective) subject,
– additional contents in subjects,
– guest lecturers with expertise in gender studies,
– promotion of seminar and diploma theses that include the aspect of gender and/or sex,
– methodological seminars for doctoral students,
– annual awards for student work or teaching work,
– thematic excursions and/or extracurricular activities.
Below are links to materials recommended during the above mentioned workshops. We hope they will be useful to persons interested in the topic of STEM and gender.
– Policy review: Gendered innovation 2: How inclusive analysis contributes to research and innovation (Expert Group for European Commission, July 2020), https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/knowledge-publications-tools- and-data/publications/all-publications/gendered-innovation-2-how-inclusive- analysis-contributes-research-and-innovation_en.
– Understanding gender dimension for MSCA projectshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq4eWo30RfY
– For information on checking the relevance of sex-specific and gender-related issues to a project, see https://www.fwf.ac.at/en/about-the-fwf/gender-issues/fix-the-know ledge/fix-the-know ledge-detail/).
– Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering, and Environment, https://genderedinnovations.stanford.edu/
– Catherine D’Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein, Data Feminism(The MIT Press, 2020), https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262547185/data-feminism/
– Caroline Criado Perez, Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men(New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2019), https://carolinecriadoperez.com/book/invisible-women/
– Angela Saini, Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong-and the New Research That’s Rewriting the Story(Boston: Beacon Press, 2017), https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/553867/inferior-by-angela-saini/
– Jovana Mihajlović Trbovc and Ana Hofman, Toolkit for Integrating Gender-Sensitive Approach into Research and Teaching (GARCIA Working Paper No. 6) (Trento: University of Trento, 2015), http://garciaproject.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/GARCIA_report_wp6 D.pdf
– Stereotipi i predrasude u razredu”, Batković, Anđelina, Master’s thesis / Diplomski rad 2017 Degree Grantor / Ustanova koja je dodijelila akademski / stručni stupanj: University of Zagreb, Faculty of Teacher Education / Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Učiteljski fakultetPermanent link / Trajna poveznica: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:147:949815
– Great Women of Mathematics, https://exhibits.lib.berkeley.edu/spotlight/women-who-figure/feature/great-women- of-mathematics
– Women in Mathematics from around the world. A galley of portraits,https://womeninmath.net/
– Sebastián Benítez Larghi, Gender Dimension of Digital Technologies, project GenderInSITE, Feb. 2021 https://genderinsite.net/sites/default/files/GenderDimensionOfDigitalTechnologies.pdf
– Recommendation on the Ethics of AI (the first and only global normative framework in this field). In February 2024, eight global tech companies including Microsoft also endorsed the Recommendation. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000381137
– Elinor Cleghorn, “The Long History of Gender Bias in Medicine,” Time, June 17, 2021, https://time.com/6074224/gender-medicine-history/
