Integrating gender perspectives into research can lead to new insights and yield more precise and valid results. By gender perspectives, we refer to research that explicitly includes the sex and/or gender dimension as part of its design and analysis. There is no single or definitive way to achieve this; rather, there are multiple approaches to addressing sex and gender within research content.
The absence of sex/gender perspectives may result in biased findings, while their uncritical inclusion can inadvertently reinforce gender stereotypes. Gender perspectives are not always relevant to every research topic, and there is no universally “correct” way to apply them. Researchers who engage with gender perspectives draw on a wide range of theoretical and methodological approaches.
Including the gender dimension in a research project does not necessarily mean emphasizing differences between men and women. Instead, it involves exploring how gender relations operate in various contexts and intersect with other factors such as age, income, education, ethnicity, and geographic location.
Incorporating gender perspectives does not automatically imply a focus on power relations. However, it is essential that researchers critically reflect on their own -and others’- often unconscious assumptions about gender, and avoid reproducing gender stereotypes when interpreting data. After all, research itself is a critical endeavor.
Asking critical questions is fundamental to generating new knowledge. The meaning of gender in any given context should be continuously and critically examined throughout the research process, just as any other underlying assumption would be.
