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| Vibrance Newsletter | ||
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| "I'm Just a Girl Who Can't Say No" - Women, Consent, and Sex Research |
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| Written by Petra M. Boyton, PhD | ||||||
Page 4 of 4 Ten Tips for Improving Women's Participation in Sex Research1. Researchers should critically evaluate existing studies on female sexual functioning, and ensure all future research is gender-sensitive. 2. Researchers may wish to include women-centred theories and methodologies in the design and planning of studies. 3. Increasing participant involvement in the research process may assist the development of research questions, and encourage more ethical studies. With the new focus on consumer involvement, women's user groups could be further encouraged to help with the design and running of research. 4. If female participants are refusing, it might be worth finding out more about the issues that are putting them off research. Researchers may wish to collect information about what motivates participants to agree or refuse to volunteer (and monitor whether participant's views change during the course of a study). 5. The way in which a study is presented to participants, and how participants are consented should be carefully evaluated. Female participants might be more inclined to participate if the approach is tailored to their social and cultural needs. 6. Training and monitoring of researchers (at all levels) should be encouraged, particularly around sensitive topics and areas of 'difference'. 7. Literature searchers in traditional sources will reveal existing studies - but there may be additional studies reported outside academic sources (eg in magazines, or internal reports), that may be informative and help avoid repetition of studies (or mistakes), and suggest culturally diverse/sensitive approaches. These searches may also reveal topics of relevance or concern to women of different ages. For example, if you are completing research on women's attitudes to breast cancer, look at how the popular media handles the issue. It is from this source your participants will be getting their information, not medical journals. 8. As sex research has been described as having 'novelty value', it may be that presenting or organising research in non-academic settings may devalue an already sensitively-placed area of investigation. However, as many people learn about research from non-academic sources, and given that sex is a 'sexy' issue, it may be more appropriate for researchers to consider making their findings more available to the popular press, and complete research in more 'natural' settings. This is of particular relevance to the women's magazine market, which represents sex in a highly stereotypical way. We have an opportunity to spread research information about women to women, and hopefully increase participation in future research by other women too. 9. Participants and the public need more information about how research is conducted, and why sex research is important. If researchers improve the public face of sex research, levels of consent may increase. Women in particular may feel reassured that the work is both professionally recognised, and can be of benefit to them. 10. Researchers should support each other, swap ideas and discuss successful schemes of participant recruitment. We need to ensure women become as likely to volunteer for sex studies, as for any other research project. Problems of consent are inherent in all social research, but are more noticeable in work on sensitive areas. (Sex) researchers have already begun to interrogate the research process and future studies should continue this, paying particular attention to who consents - and who they are - making women's voluntary participation a pleasant and beneficial experience. To discuss this topic or related topic with others, check our Bulletin Board forums. Click here
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 26 March 2007 ) | ||||||
