Looking back

We're looking back on a great Aletta Dive! More than a hundred people joined us in the House of Connections to discuss the importance of sex and gender for health (knowledge). 

Keynote speaker Trudy Dehue led us through the history of women in health and stressed that all knowledge that we use for health and health care is based on classifications. What we 'know' is completely dependent on how we define and classify things, and as researchers we should be very aware of this.

The keynote lecture was followed up by a lively pitch carousel, in which speakers from a variety of disciplines gave a pitch about women's health from their expertise, and discussed with their audience. In two rounds of 5 pitches, participants could choose which pitch they wanted to attend and where they could contribute to a fruitful discussion.

The lunch was used for eating, networking, browsing books at the Godert Walter book stand, and of course for translating the input in the feedback loop to statements to use in the panel discussion. For those who weren't there: there were big sticky notes and pens all over the room, and participants were invited to stick their questions, thoughts and remarks on the window, so we could use their input for later in the afternoon. Thank you for contributing and also thanks to the feedback loop team for structuring the post-its so much that they led to statements!

After the break, Bertho Nieboer stated that the inventor of the Satisfyer has done more for women's sexuality than a 100 years of medical research. He spoke about the gender health data gap and how we should work hard for knowledge equality.

In the panel discussion, statements that came out of the feedback loop were discussed with Trudy, Bertho, Deniz Haydar, Anne-Mette Hermans, and Carine Stroet. We talked about funding, why there were so few men in the room, high school education and other topics related to the gender data gap. 

Looking ahead

The last part of the day was all about how we would follow up on the discussions that arose during the day. For now, the first two routes for follow up are funding and education. We asked for input for a position papers about how more funding should be made available to close the gender data gap, both on a EU scale and nationally, and for a position paper on how to get gender back into high school education.

Thanks to all speakers, the organizing team, participants and all other people who contributed to this fruitful discussion. We're looking forward to working with you on this topic.

The pictures of the event.