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Vita C. Rabinowitz
Ph.D., Northwestern University
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Current Areas of Research:
Current research in gender and health focuses on how women and gender are studied, and overlooked, in biomedical research. One major research project investigates, for various diseases and conditions, the sex composition of samples, the kind of research questions asked of men and women, and how sex comparisons are made and sex differences discussed. This project, which uses quantitative and qualitative content analyses of biomedical research articles, can shed some light on the process of biomedical and scientific research, particularly on how inquiry and communication as embodied in the scientific article reveal and shape ideological biases. My most recent work, with Virginia Valian, seeks to understand why women have not progressed to the top levels of science, academia, and the professions in projected numbers, as well as to help advance women in these areas. A specific aim is to advance work in the construal, measurement, and promotion of gender equity in the workplace.
Gender Issues in Health: Methodological Issues in Study of Gender. We code biomedical journal articles on AIDS and depression for key gender-related elements such as numbers of males and females, whether gender differences are hypothesized, explored, found, and discussed, and whether and how findings based on one sex are generalized to the other.
Gender Equity in the Workplace. We have several projects getting underway. One involves the measurement of gender inequities in academia, particularly the measurement of hidden and subtle biases in the academy that disproportionately negatively affect women. Another involves developing interventions that can improve the evaluations of women’s contributions and women’s careers in the sciences.
