Gendered research in health

The Health Equity Network India(HENI) and Gender Issues and Prevention of Sexual Harassment Committee (GISH) at the Institute of Public Health organised a webinar on gendered research in health on Feb 25, 2021. The two key speakers were Dr. Sundari Ravindran who has actively engaged in gendered research in public health and is a retired professor at the Sri Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram and Renu Khanna from SAHAJ who has also worked extensively on capacity building of researchers in gender issues. The session started with an introduction on the need for such a session by Dr. Pragati Hebbar who is a PhD scholar, faculty and steers the GISH committee at IPH followed by a presentation by Sundari Ravindran on details of different gender-based inequities, pathways through which gender impacts health, moving beyond the binary definition of gender and equal representation of LGBTQI community in gender issues. She spoke of how gender analysis is more than sex-differentiated analysis and the need for training of researchers in developing the lens of gender while doing research. This was followed by an introduction to a training manual on gendered research in health by Renu Khanna and going through its main components including the history of why such a manual was formed, who were the stakeholders involved in building it, and how it was implemented as training sessions. The webinar engaged close to fifty participants including faculty, PhD students, researchers. Themes that came up during discussions included the gender bias faced by some in their professional career, the lack of using a gender lens in policies, lack of gender-based data, and the need to cultivate a gender perspective among researchers by training and having these conversations. You can watch the full session and feel free to write back to us at heni@iphindia.org to continue this conversation.