Abstract:

Gender-based analysis in public health is a systematic examination of the differences and similarities in the lives of women and men, as shaped by systems of gender relations, and the causes and consequences of these differences and similarities with respect to population health, policies and laws, programs and services, research priorities, and public discourse. As the Harvard School of Public Health Interdisciplinary Concentration on Women, Gender, and Health (WGH) states: 

"Addressing issues of women, gender, and health requires the study of the health of women and girls—and men and boys—throughout the lifecourse, with gender, gender inequality, and biology understood as important and interacting determinants of well-being and disease. 

"Also included are the study of gender and gender inequality in relation to individuals’ treatment by and participation in health and medical care systems, the physical, economic, and social conditions in which they live, and their ability to promote the health of their families, their communities, and themselves.

"Inherent in this definition is recognition of diversity and inequality among women—and men—in relation to race/ethnicity, nationality, class, sexuality, gender identity and age, and that protection of human rights is fundamental to health."

The WGH 207 teaching example assignment provides students with the opportunity to create brief teaching examples to expose students in non-WGH courses to gender-based analysis. Students work in pairs to create teaching examples based on the substantive material presented by guest speakers throughout the term (e.g., reproductive technologies). Teaching examples focus on cultivating a key technical skill within public health (e.g., Directed Acylic Graphs) through the exploration of a central issue in gender-based analysis (e.g., challenging simplistic conflations of gender and sex). Beyond building the pedagogical skills of WGH 207 students, the assignment has yielded—and continues to yield—teaching examples that can introduce the concept of gender-based analysis into core courses across all departments at HSPH. 

This assignment was originally developed by course instructors Jerel P. Calzo, PhD, and Sabra L. Katz-Wise, PhD.

Notes:

To cite an individual teaching example, please reference the author(s) and year of publication on the first page of the document. 

Teaching examples available for download:

Measuring and Analyzing Gender:

• Sex and Gender Analysis within a Demonstration of Effect Measure Modification versus Confounding and supplemental materials
• Gender-Based Analysis and Directed Acyclic Graphs
• Unbiased Sampling Methods for Sexual and Gender Minorities and supplemental materials
• Gender-Based Analysis for Variable Selection in Logistic Model Building and supplemental materials
• Gender-Based Analysis in Sample Size and Power for Binomial Proportions
• Gender Analysis, Effect Modification, & Environmental/Occupational Exposures
• Exploring Model Specification Options for Adolescent Gender Expression and supplemental materials

Intimate Partner Violence:

• Sex and Gender Analysis of Intimate Partner Violence
• Intimate Partner Violence Mock Trial
• Gender Analysis of Intimate Partner Violence in “High Risk” Behavior Epidemiology

Gender, Policy, and the Law:

• Gender-Based Analysis and Op-Ed Writing: The Example of Sexual Minority Reproductive Health, supplemental materials, and supplemental slides
• Using Gender-Based Analysis in a Policy Brief on Paid Family and Medical Leave
• Public Health Law Teaching Example: Forced Sterilization Law & Policy

COVID-19:

• Gender Analysis of COVID-19 Response
• Sex/Gender, COVID-19, and DAGs: A 60-Minute Teaching Module for Introductory Epidemiology Lab

Other Topics:

• Gender Analysis and Social Support
• Gender Analysis for Winter Session Travel Course
• Incorporating Gender and an Intersectional Lens: Implications for Research on Racial/Ethnic Inequities in Hypertension and supplemental materials
• Constrained Choice Theory and Factors Impacting the Education of Adolescent Girls in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Gender Analysis in Health Communication and supplemental materials
• Disentangling the Effects of Sex vs. Gender across Neurodegenerative Disease
• Gender-Based Analysis of Alcohol Use
• Incorporating Gender-Based Analysis to Reproductive Health: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome