Chapitre 8. The ethical evaluation of research projects from a gender perspective

Resumen

The aim of this paper is to attempt to show certain possibilities that the incorporation of the gender perspective, based on affirmative actions, may offer for the ethical evaluation of research projects. Several reflections are proposed for discussing whether it would be advisable to assign a special ethical evaluation to a project which explicitly acknowledges gender inequality in a specific sphere of human relations and which tries to document a process that, in the long run, may benefit humans and contribute to a more equal exercise of daily life. Also, I am interested in discussing whether the ethical aspects of a project should be considered in a special way if the project documents the gender conditions in terms of decision-making and the acts of consenting or dissenting in a research process compared with another project that simply fulfills the ethical requirements agreed upon to date in the different codes and criteria that have been institutionalized for evaluating research projects.
The text provides a general description of the concept of affirmative actions, together with a brief explanation of the contribution of the gender perspective as the basis for a discussion on whether it is possible to incorporate affirmative actions – and what the latter would consist of – when evaluating research projects from a gender perspective. A minimum approach to the gender perspective in research involves ensuring that research does not reproduce male and female stereotypes or discriminate against people because of their biological sex or the social value of the latter. At best, what this form of non-discrimination can do is to maintain the situation as is and simply not make it worse or legitimize it. A maximum approach to the gender perspective involves attempting to determine how to reduce the gender inequalities that have been reproduced by socially constructed models. In other words, it is not enough to avoid discriminating against people; one must also explore specific actions for reducing inequalities.
It would be worth discussing whether a research project approved on the basis of traditional ethical standards might be “more appropriate” than another one with the same ethical rating, if the former also seeks to create knowledge to understand gender inequalities and potentially affect them, while the latter takes inequalities for granted and researches any topic whatsoever on the basis of the criteria for ethical evaluation.