Women and Gender in Science

In recent years, gender in research and women in science have become major themes in the European agenda. Can gender perspectives lead to new approaches that would help us overcome the current COVID-19 research problems and dilemmas? Should gender and other inequalities be introduced in on-going scientific research? For example, it is clear from the statistical data that gender, race, and class play an important role in infection and death rates from COVID-19.

Such evidence indicates that more gender based intersectional approaches may open up spaces for new and interesting findings. Biology and Medicine constitute scientific fields in which women and gender perspectives have brought innovations, for example by questioning the gender neutrality of biological theories and introducing research and testing disaggregated by sex. In this context, its highly relevant to think about women and gender in scientific practices in the post-coronavirus period. Would more women and girls in science and more women scientists in high ranking positions in scientific institutions make a difference? How likely is it that gender perspectives will have a greater impact on challenging prevailing assumptions about what the crisis is and what the best measures to overcome it may be.