Gender Analytics for Innovation

Gender Analytics is a way to analyze your products, services, processes and policies with a gender lens to uncover hidden opportunities for innovation and effectiveness. We'll answer questions such as: Why are women 47% more likely than men to be injured when they get in a car accident? Why do financial products fail to meet women’s needs across their life cycles? Why will automation and AI be more likely to impact women than men? Why are gender-neutral policies are not necessarily gender-equal? This is the introductory course in the 5-course Gender Analytics Specialization offered by the Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE) at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management. In this course, you will build the foundations for conducting Gender Analytics. You will get comfortable with the concepts and terms associated with Gender Analytics, including sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and intersectionality. You will examine how policies, products, services and processes may have unintentionally gendered outcomes that miss out on opportunities or create needless risks. You will learn to uncover assumptions underlying these policies, products, services and processes, and to break social, cultural, and or organizational norms that perpetuate exclusion and inequality. You will see how Gender Analytics can lead to transformational innovations. You will also evaluate your own competencies and start your Self Development Plan and begin your journey to build a workplan for your own Gender Analytics project.

• Using Gender Analytics to create opportunities and mitigate risks
• What is Gender Analytics? Why is it worth doing? In this week’s lessons, you will see examples of how Gender Analytics can create opportunities for growth and increased impact. You will also learn how this kind of analysis can help avoid downside risks. By the end of the week, you will be able to recognize how areas often considered “gender neutral” actually have gendered outcomes and explain why gender considerations are not an “add on” to the day-to-day activities but rather essential to organizational success.
• Gender Analytics competencies
• This module introduces you to the Gender Analysis Competency Framework. This Framework outlines what skills would be required for you to become competent in Gender Analytics. You will hear from the experts about the process of developing this Competency Framework and why these competencies are important. By filling out a self-assessment, you will see clearly where your strengths and improvement areas lie.
• Why gender and its intersections matter
• To be effective in Gender Analytics, you first need to have a solid understanding of key concepts and terminology. In this module, you will learn what gender means, understand the difference between gender and sex, and become familiar with terms such as gender identity, transgender and cisgender. We will discuss the concept of “intersectionality” and why it is important in Gender Analytics.
• Gender Analytics for inclusive innovation
• In this week, you will learn more about how Gender Analytics can lead to inclusive innovation through discussions with special guest, Professor Anita McGahan who will offer a series of compelling examples of successes when gender considerations shaped product and service development and failures when gender was not considered. At the end of the week, you will be guided to start planning your own Gender Analytics project in the Application Spotlight.