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Abstract

INTRODUCTION:

The effect of clinical interventions can differ because of sex/gender. Studies have shown that women are often under-represented in medical research. The aim of this systematic literature review was to characterize women's participation in HIV clinical studies of antiretroviral drugs (ARV), prophylactic vaccines (VAX), and curative strategies (CURE).

METHODS:

Systematic PubMed searches were conducted to identify ARV, VAX, and CURE studies. Data were extracted on the number of women, date of publication, sources of funding, country of study, and trial phase. Correlates of female participation were assessed.

RESULTS:

Women represented a median of 19.2% participants in ARV studies (387), 38.1% in VAX studies (53), and 11.1% in CURE studies (104). Funding source was not correlated with the proportion of female participants in VAX and CURE studies but was for ARV studies (P = 0.03). ARV trials funded by private noncommercial sources had the highest proportion of women, whereas publicly funded trials had the lowest female participation (median 16.7%). The median proportion of women in ARV trials that were fully or partially funded by the National Institutes of Health was significantly lower than the median in trials funded by other sources (19.6% vs. 22.3%, P = 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS:

Although women comprise nearly half of people living with HIV, they continue to be under-represented in clinical studies. Despite federal policies that have been established to address this, our study shows that publicly funded ARV trials recruit even fewer women than other trials. There is an urgent need to ensure that HIV clinical studies consider sex/gender dimensions

It has been said that women hold up half the sky. In the HIV epidemic, women carry half the burden of the epidemic, perhaps even more. The HIV burden on women is dramatically higher in some regions, certain age groups and among marginalized groups, such as female sex workers. Women's vulnerability to HIV is exacerbated by gender inequality and domestic violence. The global effort towards elimination of paediatric HIV and keeping mothers alive deserves applause. However, the needs of women go beyond their child-bearing age or potentials and/or reproductive desires and must be recognized in the global HIV agenda. In particular, more female-controlled prevention tools are urgently required to allow women to protect themselves. It is time to turn the tide through promoting gender equality and genuinely committing to gender-responsive policies and programmes, and encouraging a more gender-aware research agenda that can generate necessary evidence. In recognition of International Women's Day, the Journal of the International AIDS Society is pleased to launch a thematic series to highlight articles that address the different dimensions of HIV as they relate to women.

The following report compares the results of the country reports and tries to identify similarities but also differences within the contextual environments for gender equality in RTDI. As the national reports were following the same structure and used the same data to describe the contextual EFFORTI Comparative Background Report 8 environment in each country, they provided a solid basis for an international comparison. In cases where data or information was not available in some country notes, the authors of these reports were asked to provide thisinformation for the comparative report. If additionalsources were used that were not mentioned in the country reports, these sources were referenced in the footnotes. To enhance the readability of the comparative report, we have not referenced all sources of information which were used in the different country reports. Therefore, the country notes should be consulted to identify sources of information and data. The comparative reportstarts with a comparison of the different innovation systems asthese form the background of all measures to promote gender equality in RTDI. The chapter describes the key structural features, inputs and outputs of the innovation systems in the EFFORTI countries in respect of their potential linkages to and effects on gender equality in RTDI. In the following chapter, the second general context for gender equality in RTDI is discussed: the equal opportunity and anti‐ discrimination legislation but also taxation policies and parental leave regulations are compared. Furthermore, the different gender and welfare regimes prevalent in the EFFORTI countries are assessed based on selected data on the participation of women in the labour market, the usage of parental leave and the gendered division of paid and unpaid work. The third chapter of this report focuses on the core topic of the EFFORTI project: gender equality in RTDI. The first part of this chapter discusses the gender equality policies and strategies in RTDI whereas the second part assesses the status quo of gender equality in RTDI and compares this to data for the whole labour market. The evaluation culture is considered in the fourth chapter which provides an overview of the recent developments and the status quo of policies and practices of evaluation in the EFFORTI countries. The concluding chapter discusses differences and similarities between gender equality in the whole labour market and in the RDTI sector, how the structure of the innovation system affects gender equality in RTDI and what can be learned from the comparison of policies and practices of evaluation in RTDI. Through this exercise, a deeper understanding of the contextual environments and their interrelations and interdependency with gender equality in RTDI should be developed. This will be used to identify those contextual factors which should be considered for developing an evaluation framework for gender equality measures in RTDI within the EFFORTI project.

This study aims to identify key factors and trends in the participation of women in ICT and its dynamics and analyses the practices enabling women's participation in the digital world. 57% of tertiary graduates in the EU are women, but only 24.9% of them graduate in ICT-related fields, and very few enter the sector. Women make up 13% of the graduates in ICT-related fields working in digital jobs compared to 15% in 2011. Globally, figures indicate that women's participation in the ICT and digital sector are not improving significantly. Data trends and qualitative analysis suggest that gender inequality in the digital sphere is essentially a result of the persistence of strong unconscious biases about what is appropriate and what capacities each gender has, as well as about the technologies themselves. Therefore, to address this situation, cultural change and initiatives at micro level can help develop female digital entrepreneurship. If existing biases are not addressed, rapid economic advances achieved by digital transformation will not take into account existing gender gap in the sector which will simply amplify and, possibly perpetuate gender stereotypes.

Iclaves, SL. in cooperation with the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) Prepared by: Carlota Tarín Quirós Esther Guerra Morales Rafael Rivera Pastor Alberto Fraile Carmona Prof. Milagros Sáinz Ibáñez Usúe Madinaveitia Herrera