Towards the inclusion of gender and sex in health research and funding: An institutional perspective
Abstract
In this commentary, we reflect on the challenges of incorporating gender and sex into health research and funding and discuss some of the strategies we have employed in our efforts to overcome them. We write from our vantage point within Institute of Gender and Health, one of the 13 institutes that comprise the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Canada's national health research funding agency.
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Researchers who use relational approaches underline heterogeneity within the group rather than the differences between men and women.
“Researchers who use relational approaches consider gender as dynamic and situational, like an agency process by which meanings and expressions of gender are negotiated, shaped, and reproduced by the social structure (Butler, 2015), and they underline heterogeneity within the group rather than the differences between men and women (Sharman & Johnson, 2012; Springer et al., 20”
From Health From a Gender Perspective (2017) · cites this paper as Sharman & Johnson, 2012
Sex and gender are socially constructed and closely intertwined in time and in space.
“As mentioned by Sharman and Johnson (2012), gender should not be a 'polite' way to say sex; both terms conceal considerable diversity within and between the categories, and although there is a tendency to think of sex as immutable, sex and gender are socially constructed and closely intertwined in time and in space (Fausto-Sterling, 2000).”
From Health From a Gender Perspective (2017) · cites this paper as Sharman & Johnson, 2012
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- Authors
- Sharman, Z., & Johnson, J.
- Affiliations
- Institute of Gender and Health (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Sharman, Zena
- ORCID
- Johnson, Joy
- Venue
- Social Science & Medicine
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-06
- Volume
- 74
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1812-1816
- ISSN
- 0277-9536 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2060300478
- Cited by
- 50
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 3.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Social Science & Medicine (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
- National Institutes of Health
- Health Canada
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research
- National Medical Research Council
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Sex and Gender in Healthcare
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Diversity and Career in Medicine
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Health and Medical Research Impacts
- Keywords
- sex differences in health, health research funding, research funding agencies, institutional strategy, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, gender equity in research
- MeSH terms
- Canada, Female, Financial Support, Health, Humans, Male, Research, Sex Factors, United States
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