A global call for action to include gender in research impact assessment
File(s)
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Global investment in biomedical research has grown significantly over the last decades, reaching approximately a quarter of a trillion US dollars in 2010. However, not all of this investment is distributed evenly by gender. It follows, arguably, that scarce research resources may not be optimally invested (by either not supporting the best science or by failing to investigate topics that benefit women and men equitably). Women across the world tend to be significantly underrepresented in research both as researchers and research participants, receive less research funding, and appear less frequently than men as authors on research publications. There is also some evidence that women are relatively disadvantaged as the beneficiaries of research, in terms of its health, societal and economic impacts. Historical gender biases may have created a path dependency that means that the research system and the impacts of research are biased towards male researchers and male beneficiaries, making it inherently difficult (though not impossible) to eliminate gender bias. In this commentary, we - a group of scholars and practitioners from Africa, America, Asia and Europe - argue that gender-sensitive research impact assessment could become a force for good in moving science policy and practice towards gender equity. Research impact assessment is the multidisciplinary field of scientific inquiry that examines the research process to maximise scientific, societal and economic returns on investment in research. It encompasses many theoretical and methodological approaches that can be used to investigate gender bias and recommend actions for change to maximise research impact. We offer a set of recommendations to research funders, research institutions and research evaluators who conduct impact assessment on how to include and strengthen analysis of gender equity in research impact assessment and issue a global call for action.
Date Issued
2016-07-19
Date Acceptance
2016-06-24
Citation
Health Research Policy and Systems, 2016, 14 (1)
ISSN
1478-4505
Publisher
BioMed Central
Journal / Book Title
Health Research Policy and Systems
Volume
14
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2016 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, andreproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link tothe Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27432056
PII: 10.1186/s12961-016-0126-z
Subjects
Athena SWAN
Call for action
Gender
Health research
Path dependency
Research impact assessment
Science policy
Africa
Americas
Asia
Biomedical Research
Europe
Female
Gender Identity
Health Policy
Humans
Male
Policy
Science
Sex Factors
Sexism
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Article Number
ARTN 50