Irene demonstrated an ongoing research project that will enable the main anatomical model to portray people from a broad spectrum of backgrounds. "Present the female model across the different stages of life as most of the time the female body is not attempting pregnancy."Īcknowledging variety - and avoiding stereotypes.Definitely want the female not only shown as being pregnant or lying down." "I am amazed with all my anatomy training I never noticed this.
#COMPLETE ANATOMY CHANGE GENDER SKIN#
#COMPLETE ANATOMY CHANGE GENDER SERIES#
To come up with solutions, Irene asked participants a series of open-ended questions. This reality, combined with the complexities of the human body and human identity, make it even harder to fulfill the goal of Complete Anatomy: “to give students a clear, concise, foundational understanding of how all the parts of the body fit together - without using categorization into arbitrary and unscientific groups.” Many challenges stem from the concept of “normal.”Ī huge challenge for Product Management here is balancing the desire to emphasize that ‘normal’ is a relative term there are many more than 8 billion versions of the human body if you count those who went before and those who are yet to come. Unlike the male, any snapshot of the female will capture a moment in their reproductive life: Are they ovulating? In their luteal phase? Pregnant? Menopausal? How should this be handled? For example, what if you were given a choice to look at a female model? At what stage of the month should that female be in? As Irene noted: “Normal is a relative term”Īs the workshop progressed, the need to address bias became increasingly apparent, but the solutions less so. And because the reference body for car design is male, women involved in collisions are nearly 50% more likely to be seriously injured. For instance, women in Britain are 50% likelier to be misdiagnosed following a heart attack because heart failure trials generally use male participants. In her Gendered Innovations project at Stanford University, Prof Londa Schiebinger has compiled an extensive body of case studies showing the need to integrate sex and gender analysis into research. In fact, gender bias in research has been linked with a wide variety of unfavorable outcomes for women. And that bias has far-reaching consequences.Īs an example, Irene shared a finding from a new report showing that in the UK, Black women are four times more likely to die in childbirth. Irene pointed out a reality that is perhaps so obvious that many people have given it little thought - that for centuries, human anatomy has been presented from the perspective of the White European male.
“Working in the anatomy education space, there are many biases to evaluate and overcome.” “Bias comes in many shapes and forms and often impacts product decisions unconsciously,” she said.
The 60+ participants had an opportunity to contribute to user research by submitting answers to questions on an online form. Crucially, their work in evolving the platform involves getting input from users and potential users - a practice Irene extended to this workshop.
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