Projects

Gender Epidemiology (GendEpi) 


Traditionally epidemiology distinguishes between two sexes for the analysis of health status. However, there is a growing recognition that this approach is not sufficient to understand and explain health inequalities. 

Gender epidemiology, by contrast, seeks to fully take into account gender as a social construct. Gender is a combination of socially and culturally determined characteristics or “identities”. It is made up of the behaviours, roles, expectations, opportunities and responsibilities that individuals experience throughout their lives in societies. As such, it is also a reflection of relations to others, and of the power (or disadvantages) that falls upon individuals.

The main channels through which gender influences health status, independently and in relation to sex are the following:

​Within GendEpi we aim to draw from sociological gender concepts to develop a framework of analysis for gender-sensitive epidemiology, as well as a methodological toolkit for the advancement of quantitative and mixed-methods analysis in that area. Thematically, we focus on the intersection of gender and migration, on birth, and on abortion.

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Selected GendEpi publications:

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GendEpi is a Junior Research Group funded by Bielefeld University (2018-2024).

Manfokus


Manfokus addresses the question of how the gender sociological concept of masculinity(ies) can contribute to the design and implementation of gender-transformative health care. "Gender-transformative" health services aim to transform unequal power relations between men, women, and gender-diverse people, and their specific social environments in such a way that the most diverse needs are understood and met in the best possible way.

The Manfokus project is therefore not only about men's health: we are interested in what characteristics, values, behaviour and power are attributed to men on the basis of social norms and, in a second step, what impact these have on health care. 

The relational, fluid understanding of gender includes all genders in the analysis and critiques existing gender-based inequalities from a gender-transformative perspective. Within four work packages, we investigate the following questions:

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For more information on Manfokus, head to the project website (in German).

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Manfokus is a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) (2021-2023)


Our Policy Brief has now been published: Zielke J, Batram-Zantvoort S, Khanal Bhattarai S, Böckmann M, Morawe JM, Aktan A, Finne E, Miani C. MANFOKUS: Männlichkeit (en) im Fokus: Auf dem Weg zu einer geschlechtergerechten Versorgung (2021-2023). Policy Brief. 2024. Bielefeld: Bielefeld Universität . It is available here (in German). 


Our first articles on gender-transformative health research and healthcare are available: 

Family study


In order to examine the gender-specific effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, we designed and conducted a mixed-methods study to investigate the ways in which measures to contain Covid-19 (e.g. daycare and school closures, social distancing, short-time work, home office) affect the everyday family life of mothers with younger children.  

The gender-specific analysis examines the consequences of social distancing on the organisation of work and care in the household and the potential changes in well-being, workload and financial situation. In addition, we examine how measures of social distancing affect partner and family relationships.   We take a decidedly gendered perspective by focusing, on the one hand, on persons who are mothers according to their social role, and, on the other hand, by placing our epistemological interest on gender roles, attributes and norms in the context of family organisation (care tasks, household tasks), paid employment (or the lack of paid employment), mothering and partnering.

The study participants have been recruited from the BaBi Birth Cohort Study on the Health of Babies and Children in Bielefeld, which is part of a long-term research project at the School of Public Health, Bielefeld University. We have used (i) guided email interviews to capture mothers' perceptions, opinions and emotional challenges associated with the changes in daily life due to Covid-19 policies, and (ii) a quantitative online survey collected data on physical and mental health, attitudes towards gender equality, as well as changes in work organisation and conditions (e.g. separation of life and work) and personal life (housework, childcare or caring for relatives) in times of social distancing.

Findings will provide insights for the development of needs-based support services and policy measures during the Covid-19 pandemic and in the recovery phase, and will support planning for future similar outbreaks.

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The first findings have been published: 

A presentation of the study (in German):

IMAgiNE EURO


My team is the German partner of the IMAgiNE EURO project, coordinated by the WHO Collaborating center of the IRCCS Burlo Garofolo Trieste. IMAgiNE EURO is a project based on a growing network of more than 15 countries. It includes two online surveys (one for mothers, the other for health workers) to explore the quality of maternal and newborn health care, among countries of the WHO European Region, at different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim is to help understand the views and experiences of women giving birth, as well as those of health workers involved in maternal and newborn care. 

​Data collection is still ongoing. To participate in the German survey for healthworkers or mothers, visit our Instagram page.

Here is a press release (in German) summarising the first results.

​Selected IMAgiNE Euro publications:

The International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics (IJGO) has published a special issue (open access) dedicated to IMAgiNE EURO: "Data for action": 2 editorials and 10 articles on the experiences of giving birth during the COVID-19 pandemic in the WHO European region (press release).