Actively Look for What’s Missing.

What are we doing with this project? To what extent is gender part of that? Which other dimensions of identity or discrimination might play into it?

Being aware of the gaps in the ideas, data and plans that we have developed ourselves or worked with for quite some time already, is one of the hardest things. In order to find those gaps, and bridge them, it is helpful to engage with experts outside our own domains. Instead of or in addition to this critical feedback, we can try and attune ourselves to what is missing in our own work. It is comparable to finding a bug in a software project.

Sometimes the result of this search may be that instead of using gender as a variable or focus, we should consider a more nuanced view of people or their bodies.