The Power of Gender Data – Making Everyone Count
We probably all heard the saying "knowledge is power." But if knowledge is power, then data is power too. After all, knowledge is merely the awareness or information that we gain through facts and theories, which are mostly based on data. In our globalized society, data is not only critical to better understanding the nature, extent, severity, and prevalence of various inequities and global challenges, but it is also at the heart of nearly every important decision – from product design to medicine and drug development to fact-based policy development.
However, the data we rely on to design our world is too often biased, inaccurate, or only reflects the reality of a small segment of society. In fact, most of the data on which organizational and policy decisions are based do not appear to include information that truly represents the diverse realities of all gender identities. This phenomenon, also known as the gender data gap, not only leads to misguided policy measures, but it can also have fatal consequences, in particular for women and girls who suffer discrimination at the intersection of gender, class, race, age, sexuality, and geography.
Gender data and the gap
Contrary to popular belief, gender data represents far more than sex-disaggregated data (data collected on men and women). What distinguishes gender data from general data and also from sex-disaggregated data is that it reflects gender-specific issues, including socially constructed roles, relations, and inequalities. Hence, gender data collection encourages methods that address gender biases caused by factors such as stereotypes and social norms. Although gender is a non-binary spectrum, a particular focus of gender data generation is on women and girls.
To date, however, very little gender data is available. Even the United Nations reports that it will take 22 years for countries to provide all the gender data needed to measure progress against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). That would be more than a decade after the SDGs are officially scheduled to be achieved. Another global survey of 126 countries conducted by the UN Statistic Division found that only 15 percent of a total of 126 countries have specific laws requiring the national statistical system to conduct pecific gender-based surveys. Even fewer countries, 13 percent, reported having a dedicated budget for gender statistics. The result of this systematic failure to collect gender data is not only the reason why significant gaps in gender statistics remain, but it is also at the root of a myriad of social, economic, and medical discriminations that women and girls suffer today.
The consequences of the gender data gap in a world designed for men
It is no secret that cis-men have many advantages over women and other gender identities in a patriarchal world where a majority of socio-organizational decisions are based on data collected by men and concerning male realities, male bodies and male preferences. A vicious circle and once again a reflection of our social realities - stereotypes, prejudices, patriarchal and postcolonial structures all inclusive! However, the extent to which the lack of gender and sex-disaggregated data impacts the everyday lives of women and girls specifically is still not sufficiently understood.
In fact, the Gender Data Gap is most creative in its expressions. One example are the shelf heights in supermarkets, which are based on male body measurements, despite the fact that the trip to the supermarket is still far too often considered a "woman's thing." Another inconvenience caused by the Gender Data Gap are most smartphones and piano keys that are simply too big for the average woman's hand. The long lines in front of public restrooms can also be named as a consequence of the lack of gender data. How much more time would women gain if the planning of public toilets took into account that women, for purely biological reasons, need more time to than men and should therefore be provided with more toilet cabins.
Another problematic issue: companies that rely on algorithms and artificial intelligence systems for personnel selection. After all, algorithms and artificial intelligence are also based on data that are riddled with prejudices and too often favor (white) men. Even the room temperature in offices, which is on average two to three degrees too cold for women because the female metabolism is up to 35 percent lower than the male metabolism, can be listed as one of the many subtle discriminations that result of the Gender Data Gap.
However, the lack of gender data can also have life-threatening consequences for women, especially in the medical field, where women are still not sufficiently included in clinical trials. One consequence of the Gender Data Gap in the medical field, for example, is the fact that women are 50 percent more likely to be misdiagnosed after a heart attack. Simply because there is not enough data on heart diseases and their symptoms among women.
As a result, heart attacks are unnecessarily the leading cause of death among women worldwide. Moreover, even today most of medicine are still tested mainly on men – as if women were "little men" whose biological structure is not completely different from that of men.
The failure to include women adequately in studies is common not only in the medical field, but in other areas as well. For example, according to a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), women are roughly 18 percent more likely to be killed in a car crash, due to the use of "male standard" measurements for dummies in most car accident testing. It was not until 2022 that "Eva" was developed – a dummy with the average dimensions of a woman. However, whether Eva will actually be used in crash tests remains to be seen, as there are no regulations for this yet. Further, even when it comes to protective clothing and equipment, whether for medical or police personnel, women too often have to settle for "one-size-fits" garments manufactured on the basis of a predominantly male database, which ultimately endangers their lives.
And last, the gap in gender data also impedes the monitoring of women's and girls’ progress in development, which in turn hinders adequate prevention and response to inequalities. This concerns a wide range of areas, including the following: Discrimination and violence against women and girls in the public and private spheres; child and forced marriage; female genital mutilation; unpaid care and domestic work; full and effective participation of women at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life; access to sexual and reproductive health; and rights to economic resources. For instance, in 2011, only 41 percent of a total of 126 countries regularly collected data on violence against women. The lack of data in this area ultimately leads to the absence of adequate structures, such as facilities for survivors of violence, specialized care services provided by social workers or psychotherapists, or police facilities for women. Finally, the gender data gap deepens other gender gaps, which is why it is a matter of urgency to close it.
A gender data revolution on the way ?
While little to no attention has been paid to this issue for far too long, gender data programs such as Making Every Woman and Girl Count by UN women, the Strengthening Gender Statistics (SGS) project by the World Bank, and the fact that the World Health Organization statistics on health were disaggregated by sex for the first time in 2019 suggest that this might finally be changing. There is a growing recognition that representation in policies requires representation in data, and that data that truly represents the population and incorporates the various factors that shape the realities of marginalized people's lives has the power to transform lives, economies, and countries. Finally, both sex-disaggregated and gender data are critical to uncovering the various facets of gender inequality, holding governments accountable, allocating resources efficiently, and implementing more equitable and gender-sensitive policies, programs, and services. But if we cannot track the progress, we can also not achieve gender equality, and the current state of affairs is that there is still a great deal of gender data missing.
That being said, the question is how do we close the gender data gap and create a world where everyone is equally visible in data regardless of their gender, class or ethnicity? The first approach is to strengthen the capacity of national statistical authorities to ensure that gender data generation is incorporated into national statistical strategies. The focus should lie on data quality, coverage, and regularity. In the process of generating data, biases in methods, concepts, definitions, and classifications, as well as intersecting factors of inequality such as gender, class, race, age, sexuality, and geography, must be taken into account. Only through an intersectional approach can we ensure that the different realities and inequalities that marginalized groups suffer are adequately represented.
However, national statistics conducted by governments should not be seen as the sole solution to progress. Building alliances with local women’s movements, nongovernmental organizations and other entities that produce data should be encouraged. As the Ladysmith Collective points out, a focus should be placed on partnerships between gender equality advocates and technology companies. The data sets generated by social media platforms and applications, for example, could provide important information about gender inequalities. Gender data generation should also not be regarded as a one-way street; after all, women's and girls’ needs can already be met during the process of data generation, for example, by providing key information in return. Last but not least, the analyzed gender data must also be disseminated and shared with stakeholders to ensure that the data has an impact on policy. Only when gender data reaches those at the decision-making tables can meaningful and inclusive policies be created.
The dark side of (gender) data
Although it is certainly true that we need more inclusive and better gender data to identify and address the various facets of gender discrimination, there is also a downside to the growth of gender data or data in general. After all, data is powerful, and depending on who is collecting and analyzing the data, it can also become a weapon that reinforces power structures. Every day we enter our data somewhere, search Google for advice on private issues, use health apps that record every step we take. We leave digital footprints almost constantly. But how often do we know what our data is actually being used for, who may even be buying and selling our data? A glance at business models indicates that the commercial use of personal data has become a lucrative business and forms the foundation for some of the world’s largest companies, or as The Economist wrote: “The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.”
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark decision on abortion rights, also known as Roe v. Wade, in June 2022, privacy experts have expressed concern that data collected by period-tracking and pregnancy apps, or by companies such as Google, could be used by law enforcement to prosecute and punish people seeking abortions in the United States. After all, Google search histories, location data, and the personal health data collected and stored by period-tracking and health apps are some of the most intimate information that exists about individuals. This data can be used to determine whether a person has searched Google for abortion facilities, when their menstruation begins and stops, and whether they have spent time at a facility that provides abortion services.
A review of the methods used by law enforcement shows that police regularly turn to app providers, social media, and other companies that hold people's personal data, such as Google, to help solve cases using location data, keyword searches, or unencrypted messages. In April 2022, for example, Jessica Burgess was charged with assisting her then 17-year-old daughter in carrying out an abortion. The police obtained the material needed to press charges, a conversation between Burgess and her daughter on Facebook Messenger, from Meta Platforms, a U.S. technology company that owns the social networks Facebook and Instagram and the instant messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger, among others. Given the tense situation regarding abortion rights and the fact that conservatism is on the rise worldwide, it seems logical that police will continue to use private data to prosecute women who obtain abortions in countries where it is considered a violation of the law.
All things considered, gender data advocacy should not only promote the generation of more and better gender data, but also good data governance. This includes promoting digital privacy and education on the topic, for example, by sharing information on how to access reproductive health services safely online, as has been done by the Digital Defense Fund, which published a guide on how to protect digital footprints when searching for abortion information. Finally, it is also in our hands to call on both governments and companies like Google and Facebook to be more transparent in their data collecting and to provide better protection for our private data.
References:
Data2X. “What is Gender Data?” Data2X, 2021, https://data2x.org/what-is-gender-data/.
Data2X Commitment Maker Platform. “Commitments to Advance Gender Data.” Commit.Data2X.org, https://commit.data2x.org/.
UN Women. “It Will Take 22 Years to Close SDG Gender Data Gaps.” UN Women, 2022, https://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/feature-story/2022/09/it-will-take-22-years-to-close-sdg-gender-data-gaps.
United Nations Statistics Division. “Gender Statistics: Why and What?” United Nations, 2013, https://unstats.un.org/unsd/statcom/doc13/2013-10-genderstats-e.pdf.
ScienceDaily. “First Female Crash Test Dummy Has Arrived.” ScienceDaily, 2019, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/08/190821082244.htm.
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CREST. “When the Uniform Doesn’t Fit: Gender Identity, Expression, and Policing.” CREST, 2019, https://crestresearch.ac.uk/comment/when-the-uniform-doesnt-fit/.
UN Women. “Making Every Woman and Girl Count.” UN Women, https://www.unwomen.org/en/how-we-work/flagship-programmes/making-every-woman-and-girl-count.
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Ladysmith Collective. “Report: Building Alliances for Gender Equality.” Ladysmith Collective, 2020, https://ladysmithcollective.com/report-building-alliances-for-gender-equality/.
The Economist. “The World’s Most Valuable Resource Is No Longer Oil, But Data.” The Economist, 2017, https://www.economist.com/leaders/2017/05/06/the-worlds-most-valuable-resource-is-no-longer-oil-but-data.
NPR. “Roe V. Wade: Supreme Court, Abortion, Period Apps.” NPR, 2022, https://www.npr.org/2022/05/10/1097482967/roe-v-wade-supreme-court-abortion-period-apps.
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Digital Defense Fund. “Abortion Privacy Guide.” Digital Defense Fund, https://digitaldefensefund.org/ddf-guides/abortion-privacy.
Malean, Aarti. “Mind the Gap.” Medium, 2021, https://aartiamalean.medium.com/mind-the-gap-
About the author:
Alina Kiel holds a Bachelor's Degree in European Studies and an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master's Degree in Latin American Studies. Her primary research focus is on gender issues, women’s rights, violence against women, intersectional feminism, and food sovereignty in Latin America. She has worked in international organizations, academic institutions, and political foundations. Alina is currently conducting a research project on the different feminisms that are currently emerging in rural Brazil and how Brazilian rural women are addressing the issues of food sovereignty and violence against women.
