'Closing the gender data gap' through smartphone-based peer research with young women in Bangladesh: A feminist data justice perspective

“为女孩创造有意义的变化，我们需要缩小全球性别数据差距”（《女孩效应》，2019年）“缩小性别数据差距”最近已成为主流发展“趋势”。自2016年盖茨基金会承诺为这一特定事业提供8000万美元以来，这句话已成为整个发展领域的常用说法。有人认为，“性别差距”，即男女之间的不平等，如果不填补性别数据方面的差距，就无法消除。然而，尽管这一论述突然流行起来，并产生了大量资金，但性别数据差距和克服这一差距的努力却很少得到学术界的关注。许多问题仍未得到解答；性别数据差距是如何定义的？“关闭”意味着什么？关于性别问题的新数据是如何在实践中导致性别权力关系的转变的？本文通过对一个致力于“缩小”性别数据差距的发展项目的详细案例研究，为这些问题提供了新的视角——“女孩效应”在孟加拉国的技术促进女孩大使（TEGA）项目。大数据分析等技术创新正被联合国等机构重新利用，以帮助“解决”性别数据差距“问题”。然而，“女孩效应”以不同的方式利用数字技术，培训低收入环境中的女孩群体（tega）如何使用基于智能手机的研究应用程序，以便她们能够在社区中收集性别数据。“女孩效应”认为，这种“突破性的女孩主导的研究解决方案”通过“更安全、更快、更可扩展和更真实的研究”带来了“有意义的改变”。通过参与性观察、半结构化访谈和参与性研讨会的结合，本文通过获得孟加拉国的TEGAs和工作人员以及伦敦“女孩效应”领导团队的观点，对“性别数据差距”话语如何在实地发挥作用进行了丰富的实证观察。从女权主义数据公正的角度来看，该研究批判性地评估了技术支持的同行研究的潜力和局限性：a)“缩小”性别数据差距；b)产生“有意义的变化”，目的是确保未来的性别数据项目最好地服务于正在收集信息的基层年轻女性的利益。

"To create meaningful change for girls we need to close the global gender data gap" (Girl Effect, 2019)"Closing the gender data gap" has recently become a mainstream development 'trend'. Since 2016, when the Gates Foundation pledged $80 million to this specific cause, this phrase has become common parlance across the development sphere. It is argued that 'gender gaps', i.e. inequalities between men and women, cannot be closed without also filling in gaps in gender data. Yet despite the sudden popularity of this discourse, and the significant funding it has generated, the gender data gap and efforts to surmount it have received scant scholarly attention. Many questions remain unanswered; how is the gender data gap defined? what does 'closing' it entail? And how does generating new data on gender issues actually lead to the transformation of gendered power relations in practice?This thesis sheds new light on these questions through a detailed case-study of a development project dedicated to 'closing' gender data gaps - Girl Effect's Technology Enabled Girl Ambassador (TEGA) programme in Bangladesh. Technological innovations, such as big data analytics, are being repurposed by bodies like the UN to help 'solve' the gender data gap 'problem'. However, Girl Effect leverages digital technologies in a different way, by training cohorts of girls (TEGAs) in low-income settings in how to use a smartphone-based research application so that they can collect gender data in their communities. Girl Effect argues that this "ground-breaking girl-led research solution" brings "meaningful change" through the "safer, faster, more scalable and authentic research" it enables. Through a combination of participant observation, semi-structured interviews and participatory workshops this thesis generates rich empirical observations of how the "gender data gap" discourse plays put on the ground, by gaining the perspective of the TEGAs and staff in Bangladesh alongside those of the Girl Effect leadership team in London. Taking a feminist data justice perspective the research critically assesses the potential, and limitations, of technologically enabled peer research to a) 'close' the gender data gap and b) generate "meaningful change", with the aim of ensuring that going forward gender data projects best serve the interests of the young women at the grassroots that they are collecting information 'on' or 'with'.