Anita Thaler presented – in a session with Andrea Wolffram from Aachen University (see photo) - three IFZ research projects to discuss integrating gender respectively intersectionality as a research dimension: the EU-funded biodiversity project PLANET4B, a study about the potential of including gender in the AI-research of an Austrian technology organization, and the gender-sensitive prosthesis design project PROTEA (funded by FFG).

For decades, the European Commission promoted gender mainstreaming and gender-inclusive research projects. In 2021 the member states of the European Union (EU) endorsed the „Ljubljana Declaration on Gender Equality in Research and Innovation”, which emphasizes the importance of gender equality in science and technology organisations (“gender equality plans”), and also in research itself (“gender-responsive innovation”). In recent years funding calls of the EU also asked to include “intersectionality approaches”.

Reflecting on experiences and challenges from all three studies, using interview data, quantitative and qualitative content analysis from reports and documents, team reflections and participatory observations from knowledge co-creation activities, Thaler concluded that intersectionality is often mixed up with diversity or seen as a mere cross-categorial approach, leaving out the underlying feminist and political dimension of structural discrimination.

In her recommendations to include intersectionality in the context of responsible research, including ethical AI and food justice, she argues for a consistent transdisciplinary knowledge co-creation approach.

If you are working on projects, which integrate intersectionality into research, you might consider contributing to a special issue of the Nature journal “Humanities and Social Sciences Communications” on “Breaking the bias: standardized methods, teaching, and governance for sex, gender, and intersectional analysis” (Call for papers, open until April 27, 2025) by working group leaders of the COST action VOICES.