The Gender and Global Health Program (GGH) at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender (IRWG) seeks to advance research that measures gender transformations underway in diverse societies and their dynamic impact on health outcomes. The program will host a 2009-2010 speaker series highlighting scholarship on “Measuring Gender Change” in global health as well as a discussion group open to the campus community.
2009-2010 Speaker Series on Measuring Gender Change:
Featuring the work of feminist demographers, sociologists, and public health scholars, the series will highlight the range of variables and indicators currently being used to characterize and monitor gender attitudes and experience in global health surveys. Acknowledging the importance of gendered vulnerabilities to health outcomes for both males and females, national and multi-national health surveys increasingly include “gender variables” believed to affect health outcomes. These variables are increasingly under scrutiny by both gender and health experts, with little agreement about the conceptual validity of measuring masculinity or femininity, or the health impact of gender change. The series will feature investigators leading multi-national surveys on gender and health for the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), and USAID, as well as smaller, innovative surveys. By featuring methods, and their critics, the series aims to provide UM scholars and students an opportunity to critically examine the prevailing methods used to monitor gender and global health in comparative perspective. Invited speakers to date include Gary Barker (ICRW); Sunita Kishor (DHS); Jill Williams (University of Colorado); Julie Pulerwitz (USAID), and Piroska Ostlin (Karolinska Institute).
2009-2010 Discussion Group
The Gender and Global Health Program will host a discussion group for UM faculty and students during the 2009-2010 academic year. The aim of these gatherings will be to promote critical discussion of the speaker series, and encourage research innovations. The meetings will make an explicit effort to draw together faculty from diverse units relevant to improving measures of gender and health, but who may not typically engage in shared research.
The 2009-2010 focus on Measuring Gender Change will advance a research agenda complementary to that of the new African Social Research Initiative (ASRI) in Ghana, South Africa and the United States. In addition to the series on Measuring Gender Change, the GGH Program will co-sponsor events with the University’s new Center for Global Health, seeking opportunities to amplify scholarship and teaching on gender and health.
The 2009-2010 program is directed by Rachel Snow (SPH). For more information, please contact her at rcsnow@umich.edu).