Earth Institute International Women's Day Research Celebration

We held a well-attended International Women's Day Research Celebration on Thursday 6 March at 15:00 in Quinn School of Business, focussing on the gender dimension of research. The event was organised by the Earth Institute’s Research Culture and EDI committee which is chaired by Dr Aura Istrate. 

This year’s theme for International Women's Day which falls on Saturday 8 March is “For ALL women and girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment.” The theme calls for action that can unlock equal rights, power and opportunities for all and a feminist future where no one is left behind. The aim for this event was to build awareness and share learnings around how researchers address gender in research design and implementation.

Associate Professor Paula Carroll from the School of Business introduced UCD President Professor Orla Feely who gave some opening remarks to the event, focusing on the importance of paying attention to sex and gender in research and raising awareness of how this improves both the quality and impact of research.

Attendees then heard from Dr Marion Boland, Head of Research Policy at Research Ireland who spoke about how sex and gender considerations are embedded in the work of Research Ireland and within European research funding. She also spoke about some of the common challenges and opportunities in the area and shared some resources.

Six researchers from across UCD then presented 5-minute case studies on how they have successfully incorporated gender into their projects across a range of areas including energy, bioeconomy, biomedicine, climate adaptation, and archaeology.

1. Gender Dimensions of Energy Policy using Natural Language Processing, Prof Eleni Mangina (School of Computer Science) /Assoc Prof Paula Carroll (School of Business) 
2. Implementing the BioBeo Gender Action Plan through Events and Learning Resources, Prof Tom Curran (School of Biosystems and Food Engineering)
3. It is time to talk about sex in biomedicine, Prof Dimitrios Zevgolis (School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering)
4. WECOADAPT, Integrating Gender Equity in co-design labs for Urban Climate Change Adaptation, Dr Louise Dunne/ Ronja Walter (UCD Environmental Policy Centre)
5. Gender Aspects of Ireland's Clean Energy Transition, Dr Dervla MacManus (School of Philosophy)
6. Woman or Master? Challenging gender stereotypes through the combined strengths of Archaeology, History and Science, Dr Anita Radini (School of Archaeology) 

The event ended with a facilitated discussion where attendees were invited in groups to consider potential ways to uncover and address the gender dimensions of their own research and come up with potential research questions with a strong sex/gender dimension.

One group discussed the potentially different impact on consumption of male vs female meat on both men and women and what potential research design might be used to investigate this question. Another group discussed how role models at particular life stages might influence gender bias throughout the life courses, and how this might be mitigated. The third group discussed how considering gender alone is not enough and the challenges of collecting sensitive personal data.

Slides

Marion Boland slides

Case study slides