Extremely passionate about “How Equity in Research Will Shape Global Health: The Role of Women,” Allyn Auslander, Operation Smile associate vice president of research, broke down her talk into three different pieces: gender data gap, Operation Smile’s role, and the actions to address challenges.
Live via video conferencing app, Auslander, who presented before the 60 all-women participants from 13 different countries at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino, said that all the original research done on heart disease was done on men. In addition, the dosage for most of the older pharmaceuticals are based on men.
The bias of using predominantly male subjects extends to animal studies. Even the ideal office temperature is set around the man in a suit — whatever will make him most comfortable based on his resting heart rate.
Women are also more likely to be injured in a car crash as all car dummies are male. Virtual assistants are more likely to understand men’s voices “because men design them, and the entire algorithm was trained on a male voice.”
Despite ingrained biases about males and females, the Philippines is considered far ahead when it comes to gender equity, Auslander stated.
Auslander however cited that at just 49 percent, the Philippines’ female labor force participation in 2019 was one of the lowest in the East Asia Pacific region. In contrast, she said that 76 percent of Filipino men were in the labor force, creating a massive gender gap.
Assessing if gender equality exists in the Philippines, “it is doing really well, but the gender equality existing anywhere is probably a stretch,” she said.
However, women and working Filipino mothers still experience workplace discrimination, she added, citing the report from HR in Asia.
Lack of data affects people, so it is imperative that women are represented in research.
While Auslander did studies in brand-new populations, “it turned out we barely had a reference population because they (women) were so underrepresented in the research.”
Women in some countries, including the Philippines, are not leading the research to ask the right questions. “It needs to be a lived experience.”
Fortunately, Auslander said they published studies based on the ‘Women in Medicine’ program, “putting into the academic universe the experience of women; the power of all women being together.”
“It is crucial for that perspective and understanding to be out in the open, for people to read about, for people to recognize and maybe just put into words that this is so important and powerful and can shape healthcare systems,” she explained.
For Auslander, women have so much they can do in their home environments. “Anything we do no matter how big or small it is, is a big step in the right direction.”
Research can be a bit intimidating, an ivory tower, “but all the hypotheses, research, and study are a good question that can be measured on some level,” she pointed out. “And the answer is valuable.”
