Researchers' sex/gender identity influences how sex/gender question is investigated in neuroscience: an example from an OHBM meeting

AbstractGender inequality and diversity in STEM is a challenging field of research. Although the relation between the sex/gender of the researcher and the scientific research practices has been previously examined, less interest has been demonstrated towards the relation between sex/gender of the researcher and the way sex/gender as a variable is explored. Here, we examine, from a neurofeminist perspective, both questions: whether sex/gender identity is related to the examination of sex/gender as a variable and whether different approaches towards examining sex/gender are being used in different topics of study within neuroscience. Using the database of submitted posters to the Organization of Human Brain Mapping 2022 annual conference, we identified abstracts examining a sex/gender-related research question. Among thesetarget abstracts, we identified fouranalytical categories, varying in their degree of content-related complexity: (1)sex/gender as a covariate, (2)sex/gender as a binary variable for the study of sex/gender differences, (3)sex/gender with additional biological information, and (4)sex/gender with additional social information. Statistical comparisons between sex/gender of researcher and the target abstract showed that the proportion of abstracts fromNon-binary orOther first authors compared to bothWomen andMen was lower for all submitted abstracts than for the target abstracts; that more researchers with sex/gender-identity other than man implemented analytical...
Source: Anatomy and Embryology - Category: Anatomy Source Type: research