Giving Compass' Take:

• The gender data gap is pervasive across industries like health, science, and policymaking, which can be exclusive of women and neglectful of their needs. 

• How can donors help encourage more gender-inclusive approaches to data in social change work?

• Learn why gender data is essential to drive SDG advocacy for women and girls. 

More men than women are killed in car crashes each year, partly because men drive more and engage in riskier driving behavior. On the other hand, women are 17% more likely to be killed and 47% more likely to be injured in crashes than men are. Women are at increased risk simply because they are women: cars are primarily designed, built, and tested by male engineers using male data, so they are built with men in mind.

The gender data gap appears in health and medicine, too. Heart disease kills more people in the United States than anything else, accounting for approximately 20% of female deaths and 25% of male deaths. But survival rates for women are substantially worse than they are for men, and the gender data gap is partly to blame.

The endangerment of American citizens is concerning enough, but the gender data gap also creates a vicious cycle of underrepresentation in leadership across the nation. When leaders are primarily male, they are less likely to consider women as they develop and implement policy. And the policies they enact further neglect women, so the cycle continues.

For this nation to succeed and prosper in the future, the gender data gap must be recognized and it must be narrowed.  There are three main steps to accomplish this.

  1. First, research must explore the gender data gap. Instead of considering the average male the norm, gender diversity in research must be actively sought.
  2. Second, research must explore how diverse teams and leaders impact organizations, particularly in government.
  3. Finally, leaders must actively seek diversity. While the gender data gap is narrowed through research, including the perspectives of those who live in the gap can fill in the blanks.

Read the full article about addressing the gender data gap by Jeanette Gaudry Haynie at Brookings.