Gender Consulting

In recent years, there has been a growing recognition among research institutions that high-quality research must take gender and diversity into account. Many major research funding programs (such as EU Horizon and the DFG) require that gender and diversity be considered during the application and evaluation processes, and list this as a mandatory funding criterion.

Isn’t that cumbersome and expensive?

It would indeed be easier and faster to ignore gender and diversity. But consider that, until the 1940s, scientific studies did not include randomized control groups or placebo trials. Today, we know the costs that arise when we don’t use control groups or test medications only on men. Failing to consider gender and diversity from the outset can have life-threatening consequences or render products completely unusable. Here are a few examples:

• To this day, crash test dummies are not designed to reflect the female body, and women suffer significantly more serious injuries than men in car accidents.
• Efforts costing millions to introduce eco-friendly stoves in India failed because no one consulted Indian women—the core target group—about their real-life circumstances and usage conditions.
• Intelligent facial recognition software, which was developed exclusively for white people, had trouble recognizing Black people, thereby automatically perpetuating inequality.