Editorial reference page
This page is an editorial introduction to the international policy field on gender, science and technology. WIGSAT (Women Inspiring Girls in STEM, Advancement & Training) is an editorial directory and is not affiliated with any of the institutions or historical organisations referenced.
Introduction to Gender, Science and Technology Policy
A short editorial introduction to the field of gender, science and technology policy - useful as a starting point for students, journalists, and policy professionals coming into the area.
What the field is
"Gender, science and technology policy" is the policy and research field that asks how science and technology systems include - or exclude - women. It operates at multiple levels: international organisations that set frameworks and produce comparable data, national governments that design programmes and funding instruments, universities and research institutes that implement transformation work, and civil-society organisations that run mentorship programmes, advocacy campaigns and direct-service programmes.
The major institutional players
- International: UNESCO, OECD, UN Women, UNDP, the World Bank, the European Commission
- Specialised research and advocacy: OWSD, GenderInSITE, EIGE, the Gender Summit
- Professional networks: SWE, AnitaB.org, ACM-W, IEEE WIE, AWIS, AWM, and discipline-specific groups
- National agencies: NSF (US), UKRI (UK), DST (India), DSI and NRF (South Africa), Ministry of Science and ICT (Korea), CONICET (Argentina), and others
The major analytical frameworks
- The pipeline metaphor (and its critiques)
- Intersectional analysis (gender plus race, class, geography, disability)
- Institutional-transformation models (Athena SWAN, NSF ADVANCE, SAGE)
- The gender-equality-as-economic-development framing
- Feminist science studies (epistemological frameworks)
- Gendered innovations methodology (sex and gender in research design)