Research, Gender, and Ethics: A Necessary Triad for Change

Abstract

Presented in this article is a reflexive analysis of how gender perspectives are included in social research. The research practices of the social sciences have been based on clearly androcentric and sexist reference patterns. This has a negative effect on female researchers engaged in the production and dissemination of knowledge in different fields of the social sciences: Dominant patterns and practices continue to keep women from the planning, production, and publishing of research. These gender biases are an ethical problem and, thus, play a key role in social research. Ethics, intrinsic to all inquiry behaviours, is connected to the decisions which, in turn, are marked by gender.  In this sense ethics plays a key role in the processes aimed at promoting gender-sensitive research projects directed towards the elimination of gender discrimination and inequalities between women and men.

URN: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs1402104