Gender as a Biomedical Variable

principal investigator: HEATHER SHATTUCK-HEIDORN

This project forges concepts and methods for studying gender as an intersectional variable in the biomedical and allied sciences. Aims include identifying areas where gender has not been studied but presents plausible hypotheses, testing composite measures of gender to characterize unrecognized instantiations of its influence in existing big health data sets, examining correlations of gender equity measures with sex/gender differences in health outcomes over space and time, and theorizing how to incorporate gender into preclinical research design, in accordance with new sex/gender reporting policies by leading health science funders and journals.

Replicability, Bias, and Hype in Sex/Gender Difference Research

principal investigator: Sarah Richardson

This project examines effect sizes, research design, publication bias, and reproducibility in sex/gender difference claims. Contributing to current interest in addressing concerns about bias and replicability in the biomedical sciences, we argue for the application and innovation of meta-analysis and other methods of data reanalysis to examine research design and effect sizes in sex/gender difference research across the disciplines. We work to develop methods and protocols for analyzing and representing similarity and variability as well as differences in sex/gender research. Alongside these efforts, we also work to increase science literacy and counter media hype related to scientific claims about sex differences. This includes offering timely, authoritative responses to new scientific claims about sex/gender differences that receive widespread attention and utilizing our blog to provide accessible “explainers” of new research reporting sex/gender differences.

Financial firms’ impact on the health of women and gender minorities

Principal Investigator: Joseph Bruch

The Health Care Finance stream works to track the implications of, and decodes the dynamics of, financial firms on the health of women and gender minorities. Our research spans a diverse array of financial actors including private equity and venture capital. Our team considers what financialized and commodified health products mean for health systems and gendered and sexed bodies. Current projects of ours include: evaluating the magnitude of private equity in women’s health, assessing service use and quality of private equity-affiliated fertility practices, and conducting the first landscape analysis of the femtech industry.

Context and Variation in the Evolutionary Ecology of Sex and Gender

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: MEREDITH REICHES

This project evaluates the empirical evidence for and conceptual foundations of claims about the evolved, adapted basis of sex differences in human biology and behavior. We use cross-contextual comparisons to examine variation in the distribution of sex, gender, and reproduction-related traits, and seek novel forms of data to analyze the longitudinal and life course dimensions of these traits in human populations. Of particular interest is how demographic transitions in fertility rates and epidemiological shifts in exogenous hormone use and adiposity over the past century create distinct ecological contexts for sex- and gender-related traits

Biology and Sexual Diversity in Law and Public Policy

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: MAaYAN SUDAI

This project documents the ways in which biological claims about sex, gender, and sexuality matter for people’s lives. Using methods from law, media studies, and the social studies, history, and philosophy of science, alongside a deep understanding of the science itself, this project tracks and examines how scientific claims about sex and gender are cited and mobilized in law, public policy, and media discourse. The GenderSci Lab seeks collaborations with advocates for gender and sexual minorities working to engage and assess these claims, and with scientists seeking to develop meaningful and ethical ways to communicate the implications of their research.