KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

Abstract

Challenges in the Gender Equality Policy for the Future Society (Ⅰ):

Gendered Innovation in Science Technology & New Industry Technology Development

Seon-Mee Shin

Minho Lee

Heeyoung Jang

Sujin Kim

 

 

This study was conducted to propose a policy for gendered innovation in science and technology and in new industry technology development. Gendered innovation refers to considering gender in science and technology research & development activities to prevent the production of gender-stereotyped knowledge while generating new knowledge from gender perspectives. The ultimate goal of gendered innovation is to help both men and women benefit from science and technologies. In this study, ‘gender’ includes not only the biological sex assigned at birth but also the socially and culturally constructed gender. Main research content consists of 1) Meaning of Gendered Innovation and Policy Trends, 2) Awareness and Participation of Scientists and Engineers in Gendered Innovation, 3) Overseas Policy Examples, 5) Policy Implications & Proposals for Policy Tasks. For the aforementioned research, we performed analysis of literature reference, questionnaire survey(604 scientists and engineer), interview survey(34 scientists and engineers), forum on gendered innovation policy, and expert advisory meeting.

 

Our review on the ‘Meaning of Gendered Innovation and Policy Trends’ lead to three conclusions. Firstly, the terminology ‘gendered innovation’ needs to be replaced by the one that could be understood more intuitively such as ‘research and innovation that consider gender characteristics’, because scientists and engineers find it difficult to understand the term ‘gendered innovation.’ Secondly, our study on the context of gendered innovation shows that research support is needed to take a multidisciplinary approach to identify problems in the research/innovation activities from a gender equality perspective and to help scientists and engineers resolve such problems. Thirdly, follow-up measures are needed to ensure that the recently improved legislations and institutions related to gendered innovation are actually applied to the field of research and innovation.

 

In order to identify the awareness and participation of scientists and engineers in gendered innovation, we conducted questionnaire surveys and interview surveys. Results of these surveys are summarized as follows. Firstly, this study targets scientists and engineers in four areas(bioscience, health care, information/communication, electric/ electronic engineering). In our survey, 90.4% of the scientists and engineers from health care, 70.7% of those from bioscience, 32.4% of those from information/communication, and 17.2% of those from electric/electronic engineering answered that they need to consider gender characteristics in their field of science and engineering. Secondly, there was a significant lack of efforts to practice gendered innovation, compared to their awareness on its necessity. For example, 90% of the scientists and engineers from health care sector and 70% of those from bioscience sector agreed on the necessity of gendered innnovation, only 68.7% of those from health care and 53.7% of those from bioscience said that the data they handle includes gender(code). Even in the case of the scientists and engineers who have gender(code) in the data they deal with, a mere 57.8% of those from health care and 44.7% of those from bioscience said that they are always or generally utilizing such data. Thirdly, when asked about the reason for considering gender characteristics in the R&D activities (multiple responses), 57.6% of the scientists and engineered chose ‘In my field of research or product development, gender characteristics are always taken into account’ and 42.1% of them chose ‘To enhance the convenience and reliability of research or product development.’ Fourthly, we asked scientists and engineers who have used human data or animal data for the recent three years about the obstacles to considering gender characteristics in their research or product development, and the majority of them said “I don’t feel the necessity to reflect gender characteristics in the research or product development.” Fifthly, when asked about the most necessary policy measure, the largest proportion(78.5%) of the scientists and engineers chose “Introduction and guidelines on the case examples of research or product development that consider gender characteristics”, and 68.9% of them chose “Opportunities to receive education on the know-how of researching and developing products by considering gender characteristics.” Lastly, more women scientists and engineers(46.3%) than male scientists and engineers(33.2%) agreed on the necessity for gendered innovation. In our survey, more women(65.0%) than men(52.9%) said that they need to take more interest in gendered innovation. Although women are not the only ones who can consider gender characteristics in their research & development activities, women showed more interest in and felt more necessity for gendered innovation in our survey. In this regard, the more diverse a research team is with regard to gender, the more likely the team is to consider gender characteristics in the research or product development activities.

 

As for the overseas policy examples, we reviewed the policies of the European Commission, France, the US, the UK, and Canada. Key takeaways from the overseas policy examples are as follows. Firstly, the European Commission is implementing gendered innovation policies and monitoring such policy implementation through a long period of time. The European Commission began to consider gender aspects in their research and innovation content with the implementation of the 5th Framework Program(1998-2002). We reviewed EU’s gendered innovation policies including the latest Horizon Europe Program, and found that the EU was continuously reflecting the policy monitoring results in the next stage of their program. Secondly, the European Commission’s gender equality policy deals with three issues(gender diversity among researchers, gender parity in the decision-making process, consideration of gender characteristics in the research content) in the area of research and innovation. They also had a unified policy delivery mechanism. The same is true for France. The French National Centre for Scientific Research(CNRS) and the French National Research Agency(ANR) had an organization or an action plan to deal with the three issues described above. Thirdly, the European Commission, France, the US, the UK, and Canada are leading gendered innovation through legislations and guidelines, part of which stipulate gendered innovation as a mandatory obligation. Fourthly, research institutions and specialized research management institutions are actively participating in gendered innovation. We reviewed the examples of the national Institutes of Health(NIH) of the US, the French National Centre for Scientific Research(CNRS), the French National Research Agency(ANR), the Newton Fund and Global Challenges Research Fund of the UK, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research(CIHR). Lastly, these countries have operated projects to identify case examples and know-how of gendered innovation, centered around the European Commission. For example, over 70 experts from the EU, the US, and from Canada participated in the Gendered Innovation Project(2011-2013) to discover case examples of gendered innovation and to develop sex/gender analysis method. As a sub project, the Gender Net Project(2013-2016) integrated gender aspects into the research content and facilitated the sharing and adoption of best practices.

 

Based on the research outcome described above, we propose the following policies.

 

○Revise the term ‘gendered innovation’ in an intuitive and easy-to-understand way to emphasize its policy goals. Clarify the difference between ‘gendered innovation’ policy and ‘gender diversity improvement’ policy in the area of science and technology.

○Provide case examples of gendered innovation in research and (product) development as an educational material for high school science curriculum.

○Reinforce gender-sensitive R&D capabilities of potential scientists and engineers.

○Reinforce gender-sensitive R&D capabilities of the incumbent scientists and engineers.

○Communicate to the scientists, engineers and citizens the meaning, necessity and achievements of research and (product) development activities that take gender into account.

○Implement research projects on the current status and the necessity of inclusion of gender characteristics in the national R&D programs.

○Discover and establish a database of R&D case exmples that achieved gendered innovation.

○Implement R&D pilot projects that consider sex/gender perspectives.

○Encourage government-funded research institutions, public research institutes, and specialized research management institutions under government departments to recognize the necessity to consider sex/gender characteristics in their R&D projects and set a relevant plan, which should be reflected in their annual project plans.

○Provide consulting to the government-funded research institutions, public research institutes, and the specialized research management institutions under government departments on how to set a plan to consider sex/gender characteristics in their R&D projects. Collect and promote case examples of R&D projects with excellent achievements in gendered innovation.

○Establish a legal plan to specify how to implement the ‘policy to consider sex/gender aspects in R&D activities’ in the mid-to-long term perspective.

○Complement the ‘National R&D Innovation Act’ regarding the provisions about consideration of gender characteristics.

○Reinforce the policy delivery system to reflect sex/gender characteristics in the national R&D projects.

 

Research areas: Women studies, Science and technology studies

Keywords: Science & technology, Gendered innovation, Female scientists & engineers, Sex analysis, Gender analysis