Previous studies have shown that ignoring sex and gender in health research leads to inaccurate results, unequal care and unequal health outcomes. For example, the various symptoms of heart failure in women have only recently been discovered – because the prototypical patient our medicine is based on still tends to be a middle-aged white male. This means that research quality and social justice are inextricably linked.
Map
The Genderful Research World platform is designed for both health researchers who do not yet have much experience with the integration of sex and gender in their research and for more experienced researchers. For each step in the research process, the platform provides a map with useful, easy-to-find resources. The sources are grouped by research area: biomedical, medical and health research.
Making sources easier to find
Lena Sialino explains: ‘From the start, it was clear to us that there are many great sources of information out there, but that they were hard to find. We wanted to make it easier for health researchers to find appropriate sources, in an interactive way. The results of our feasibility study for the platform show that we’ve managed to achieve that. Researchers indicated that they found the platform interesting, pleasant and useful. And they’re returning to the platform, for example to support their teaching or research, or when they’re writing a grant application. We’ve also used the results of the feasibility study to modify and improve the website.’
The platform is available at http://genderfulresearchworld.com.