4.
2 Gender Sensitive Research
What Is A Gender Sensitive Research?
Gender sensitive research is not research on
women or on gender relationships;
It is research that takes into account gender as
a significant variable in environmental and
development studies.
Men and women have different roles, which impact
differently on the environment and development.
Moreover, the power relations between men and
women can greatly influence the perspective of men
and women on environmental and development
problems.
Thus, gender sensitive research pays attention to
the similarities and the differences between men and
women’s experiences and viewpoints, and gives
equal value to each.
What Is The Problem With Traditional Research?
Remembering that women constitute the other half
of the population is important.
Overlooking women’s experiences and points of
view leads to the wrong conclusions, or at least an
incomplete picture of the problem.
Gender has only recently been considered a
significant variable in research.
However, although it is starting to be
recognized in social sciences, it is seldom
acknowledged and applied in natural sciences
or economics.
The choice of research topic, conceptual framework
and methodology, analysis framework, and language
used in scientific articles tends to reflect male biases
and patriarchal values.
Engendering Research
What are the Benefits of Engendering Research?
A better Understanding of the Problem
Engendering research does not change the scope of
the research;
It provides new perspectives,
It raises new questions, and
Uses new analysis tools to create a more complete
picture of the problem.
As men and women have different roles and different
power, their perspectives on a problem can be quite
different.
By combining their different experiences and viewpoints,
researchers can enhance the comprehension of a
problem.
Therefore, integrating a gender perspective into research
can improve its relevance, coverage, and quality (ADEA
Working Group on Higher Education 2006: 4).
Gender Sensitive Research Methodology
A gender sensitive research methodology is usually
more participatory and can contribute greatly to
empowering people, notably women.
It helps both men and women concerned by a
problem to analyze an issue, understand its causes,
and find solutions.
Top Ten Characteristics of Gendered Research
1. Gender roles and relations: taking gender issues
into account throughout the entire research process.
Gender roles are the socially-constructed roles that
women and men assume as a result of being born
male or female, which imply different norms,
standards, behaviours and opportunities for each.
Gender relations are the power relations that exist
between men and women as a result of these social
roles, which tend to favor men in access to and
control over resources and decision-making at the
household, local, national and international levels.
2. Gender analysis: systematic gathering and
examination of information on gender differences
and social relations in order to identify, understand
and redress inequities based on gender, at each
stage of the research process.
Fundamental to this process is the availability of
sex-disaggregated data.
3. Gender vs. women: getting the definitions
straight.
Not equating “gender” with “women” and
understanding that “women” are not a single
homogeneous group, but are differentiated by
class, ethnicity, age, sexuality, religion etc.
4. Inclusion and diversity: involving all the actors
and composing target groups, survey samples,
etc. as diversely as possible.
Paying special attention to including the voices
of marginalized groups.
5. Changing the research process: doing research
in a way that empowers women including bottom-up
research techniques.
• Doing research with people rather than on them.
6. Critique of standard science and social science
research theories and methods: questioning the
concepts of objectivity and universality, valuing
experiential knowledge, inclusion of emotion,
contextualization, practicality and self-reflexivity.
7.Inter-disciplinarity: topics and methods
drawn from many different academic fields
and an emphasis on the multiple dimensions of
social problems.
8. Analysis of power hierarchies: taking action to
address power inequalities between researcher and
research participants as well as among the participants.
Including the explicit acknowledgement of research
agendas and researcher subjectivity, coauthoring,
participatory research methodologies, polyvocality, etc.
9.“Non-traditional” qualitative research
methods: such as life stories, personal histories,
etc. that include the voices of the research
participants.
10. Research as political action: This last component
goes beyond research for the sake of increasing
knowledge and information and envisions research as
form of political advocacy that should aim to:
Generate a concrete impact on policy and programme
formulation in order to better the lives of women.
Create social change – including within social
institutions, structures, and cultures (all of which
are gendered and create their own forms of
gendered discrimination against women).
Choosing Research Methods
Choosing the appropriate methods for conducting research from a
gender perspective is directly related to the research question
formulation process.
You should design a research plan using methods that are most
applicable to your research questions and objectives.
Failure to use the correct methods for your research objectives
could result in inaccurate or misleading research that may end up
doing more harm than good.
When conducting research, data is primarily
collected from two sources: documents (secondary)
and research participants (primary data sources).
A desk or literature review can be a useful way of
gathering information about what policies, initiative,
projects, best practices, etc. already exist.
Legal, policy, evaluation reports, and media sources
are commonly used documents as secondary
sources in research projects.
When analyzing these documents from a gender
perspective, you can ask the following questions:
How do these policies and/or laws affect men and
women differently?
Do women and men receive different levels of
benefits from the policies being reviewed?
Is the language used gender-neutral or does it
reinforce gender roles and stereotypes?
Have women been involved in drafting these
documents?
Do I have access to a full range of
documents on this issue?
For instance, reports produced by women’s
organizations?
Documents specifically focusing on women
and gender aspects?
For the collection of primary research data from
research participants, research conducted from a
gender perspective typically makes use of a
variety of methods to look at the same issue, a
process referred to as triangulation.
Quantitative Methods
Originally used in the natural sciences, quantitative
methods are now frequently employed in the social
sciences as well.
Examples of quantitative methods highly used in
social science is surveys.
I. Surveys
Quantitative data is most commonly collected by
using standardized questionnaires or surveys.
The following are ways that gender perspectives
can be incorporated into questionnaire or survey
design:
Define target groups/survey sample to take
into account the diverse experiences of
women, men, girls and boys.
An insufficient or non- representative
sampling can have negative consequences
for research outcomes.
When developing the questionnaire/survey
questions, be sure to take into careful
consideration the gender aspects of the research
topic that were identified during preliminary
research and informational interviews with
community members and other stakeholders.
Questions should be formulated with sensitivity to
both gender and cultural considerations
B. Qualitative Methods
Qualitative methods include interviews, analysis of
documents and participant observation data in order
to understand and explain social phenomena.
Qualitative research can be done within most fields
and a variety of approaches and methods are
employed.
However, qualitative approaches are well-suited to
research from a gender perspective in that they
allow for a more nuanced approach to the issue,
which is essential when conducting gender-specific
research, especially in the case of sensitive topics
such as violence against women.
i. Open-ended interviews
Open-ended interviews can be an excellent
supplement to the traditional quantitative survey, as
the information gathered can be more complex,
detailed and personal.
The following are ways that the interview process
can include gender perspectives:
Select interview group sample to take into account the
diverse experiences of men and women.
When structuring interview questions, make sure that
they are tailored to take gender differences into account.
Frame the interview around structured, gender-specific
questions, but be sure to allow for the full participation of
the interviewee (without verging too far off-topic).
ii. Oral histories/ life histories
Oral histories or life histories involve the detailed
documentation, through a personal account, of an
individual’s experience with an issue (or several
related issues).
The following are ways that the oral histories can be
taken from a gender perspective:
The interviewer/researcher should ensure that
the interviewee is both given the liberty to
discuss the issues that they feel are most
pertinent, while also drawing out items important
to the research project, including gender-related
issues.
III. Focus Group Discussions
Commonly used when conducting research from
a gender perspective, focus group discussions
involve the gathering together of pre-configured
groups of participants.
Focus group discussions should be structured,
and it is the responsibility of the moderator to
ensure that participants are both given the liberty
to discuss the issues that they feel are most
pertinent, while also drawing out items important
to the research project, including gender issues.
The following are ways that focus group discussions can be
conducted from a gender perspective:
Select group sample to take into account the diverse experiences of
men and women.
Depending on cultural circumstances, same-sex focus group
discussions may be more valuable.
If hierarchal gender structures are present, women will feel more
comfortable speaking about certain topics without the presence of
men.
Ensure that the moderator of the focus group has
received sufficient training in gender sensitivity,
and uses a guide designed by the research team
which outlines the focus group process, paying
particular attention to gender dynamics.
Have a female moderator for a woman-only focus
group and vice versa.
iv. Participant Observation
One of the most commonly-used methods for
conducting participatory research, the participant
observer method derives from the understanding
that insight into a community's values, dynamics,
internal relationships, structures and conflicts is best
obtained from their observed actions, rather than
from surveys or interviews.
The participant observer attempts immersion, to the extent
permitted, in local life in order to understand and document
how societies work.
However, the participant observer method relies most
heavily on the intellectual honesty of the researcher, whose
experiences cannot be replicated. It is also the most time-
consuming, so if you are working within a strict time frame,
this method is not ideal.
The following are ways that the participant observer
process can be gendered:
Pay close attention to the gender roles and gender
relationships in the community.
How are these structured? How do they affect
women’s and men’s different relationships to the
issue at hand?
THANKS SO MUCH!!
