Gendered Innovations: Enhancing Excellence in Science & Technology
On Friday the 13th of October, from 10-11.30 pm, Professor Londa Schiebinger from Stanford University will give a public talk on Campus (Room CSS 22.0.19). In her talk, Schiebinger will introduce us to the "Gendered Innovations” project, which seeks to harness the creative power of sex, gender and intersectional analysis for innovation and discovery. The talk is open for students as well as faculty, and we hope to see as many of you as possible.
Excerpt from the Gendered Innovations website:
Why Gendered Innovations?
Doing research wrong costs lives and money. For example, between 1997 and 2000, 10 drugs were withdrawn from the U.S. market because of life-threatening health effects. Eight of these posed "greater health risks for women than for men" (U.S. GAO, 2001). Not only does developing a drug in the current market cost billions—but when drugs failed, they caused human suffering and death.
Gender bias also leads to missed market opportunities. In engineering, for example, considering short people (many women, but also many men) “out-of-position” drivers leads to greater injury in automobile accidents (see Inclusive Crash Test Dummies). In computer vision, facial recognition trained on biased datasets may not recognize women as well as men or darker skinned persons as well as those with lighter skin, meaning that darker skinned women may not be recognized at all (see Facial Recognition). Facial recognition may also not be able to recognize transgender individuals, especially during periods of transition. In basic research, failing to use appropriate samples of male and female cells, tissues, and animals yields faulty results (see Stem Cells). In medicine, not recognizing osteoporosis as a male disease delays diagnosis and treatment in men (see Osteoporosis Research in Men). In city planning, not collecting data on caregiving work leads to inefficient transportation systems (see Smart Mobility). We can't afford to get the research wrong.
Doing research right can save lives and money. It is crucially important to identify bias. But analysis cannot stop there: Gendered Innovations offer state-of-the-art methods of sex, gender, and intersectional gender analysis. Integrating these methods into basic and applied research produces excellence in science, health & medicine, and engineering research, policy, and practice. The methods of sex, gender, and intersectional analysis are one set of methods among many that a researcher will bring to a project."
About the Speaker
Professor Londa Schiebinger is the John L. Hinds Professor of History of Science at Stanford University, and Director of the EU/US Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering, and Environment project. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Schiebinger’s work is devoted to teasing apart three analytically distinct but interlocking pieces of the gender and science puzzle: the history of women’s participation in science; the structure of scientific institutions; and the gendering of human knowledge.
Read more about the Gendered Innovations project here: http://genderedinnovations.stanford.edu/what-is-gendered-innovations.html