Guest Professor

Duration of stay: 10/2008-2/2009

Maria-Goeppert-Mayer Programme for International Gender Research. A programme of the Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, Germany

Maastricht University
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences 
Department of Health, Ethics and Society
School for Public Health and Primary Care
6200 MD Maastricht, the Netherlands

CV

Ineke Klinge is a biologist by training and specialized in immunology. She received a KWF fellowship to conduct research at the Dutch Cancer Institute. Her second specialization is in Gender Studies in Science. As lecturer at University Utrecht (1988-1997) she developed and coordinated an interdisciplinary research programme Health and Gender: the medicalization of the female body with a focus on ageing. She taught many (inter)national courses on gender and science and organized a number of national and international workshops on the climacteric, sex/gender in science and predictive medicine. Her PhD thesis Gender and Bones: the Production of Osteoporosis 1941-1996 was published in 1998. She is currently appointed at Maastricht University as assistant professor in Gender Studies in Health Sciences.
In 2004 she also joined the Centre for Gender & Diversity. She has a long-standing experience with research for the European Commission. Already in 1992 she conducted an EU project Women’s views of the Human Genome Project and participated in the first EC workshop Women in Science and Technology Research in 1993. In 2001 she conducted one of the seven commissioned Gender Impact Assessment Studies of the Fifth Framework Programme. Her study addressed the integration of the gender dimension in the Research Programme for the Life Sciences Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources. In the School for Public Health and Primary Care (Caphri) she leads the programme Gender and diversity in Health and Health Care Research. Under this umbrella a number of national and international research projects are carried out ranging from integration of a diversity perspective in quality assurance in health care institutions to integration of the gender dimension in FP6 Integrated Projects and Networks of Excellence in the field of Food Quality and Safety. The FP6 GenderBasic project that she coordinated (2005-2007) has been elected a FP6 Success Story. The project developed tools for the integration of sex and gender in biomedical and health related research. She is board director of the European Institute of Women’ Health (EIWH) and board member of the Dutch Foundation for Women and Health Research (DFWHR). She also serves on the Ethical Review Panel in FP7.
  

Main Research topics 

My programme focuses on integration of a gender and diversity perspective in biomedical and health care research. Important dimensions of difference between people are sex, gender, ethnic origin, age, SES, sexual orientation, (dis)ability. Central to the programme is the question how differences between people should be viewed and addressed in order to overcome health inequalities and instead ensure gender equity. The empirical work contributes to theories of difference and intersectionality. Since its inception projects concentrated on

• integration of sex and gender issues in biomedical and health related research from basic to societal level (GenderBasic) 
• gender mainstreaming of EU 6th Framework projects on Food Quality and Safety (NuGO, Safefoods, Europrevall) 
• mainstreaming diversity of quality assurance systems in health care institutes (ZonMw, M/V 3-1) 
• mainstreaming diversity and patients’ perspective in health care research policies (ZonMw, GDKZvv) 

The research programme is strongly oriented towards European research and collaboration. Since the Gender Impact Assessment of the 5th Framework Research Programme for the Life Sciences (2000-2001), research from a gender and diversity perspective has gained an important footing in subsequent Framework Programmes (FP 6 and 7). The programme has been successful in participating in large FP6 projects and in the execution of the GenderBasic project. The latter project selected by the European Commission as excellent example of the positive impacts EU research can achieve, has identified many new research priorities that will be explored in collaboration with basic and clinical research groups. 
  

Current Projects

• Meta analysis of Gender and Science. Scientific Steering Committee. Coordinated by CIREM, Barcelona, Spain 
• ENGENDER. Inventory of good practices in Europe for promoting gender equity in health. Scientific Steering Committee, associated partner. Coordinated by Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

Selected Publications 

Klinge, I (2008): Gender perspectives in European research. Pharmacological research 58(3): 183-189. 

Klinge, I (2008): Meine Leidenschaft für Gender Studies und Biomedizin. Wie alles begann. Georgia 9: 19-21. 

Klinge, I (2007) (Guest editor): GenderBasic: Promoting Integration of Sex and Gender Aspects in Biomedical and Health-Related Research. Gender Medicine 4(B). 

Klinge, I (2007): Bringing Gender Expertise to Biomedical and Health-Related Research. Gender Medicine 4(2): 59-63. 

Klinge, I and M Bosch (2005): Transforming Research Methodologies in EU Life Sciences and Biomedicine. Gender-Sensitive ways of Doing Research. State of the Art. EJWS 12(3): 377-395. 

Klinge, I and P Maguire (2004): The policy implications of gender mainstreaming for healthcare research in the EU. PharmacoEconomics 22(2): 87-93. 

Klinge, I and M Bosch (2001): Gender in Research. Gender Impact Assessment of the specific programmes of the Fifth Framework Programme. Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources (EUR 20017). Brussels: European Commission. 

Berkel, D v and I Klinge (1997): Gene technology: also a gender issue. Views of Dutch informed women on genetic screening and gene therapy. Patient Education and Counseling 31(1): 49-55. 

Klinge, I (1997): Menopause and osteoporosis: theoretical aspects. Effects of pluriform practices for present day health care and for women. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynaecology 18(2): 105-112. 

Klinge, I. (1996). Female bodies and brittle bones. An analysis of intervention practices for osteoporosis. The European Journal of Women's Studies 3(3): 269-283. 

Wingerden, I v (=I Klinge) (1993): "Once you have seen how scientific knowledge is made, you give up the idea that what you are ‘discovering’ may actually be ‘nature’". Women's Studies International Forum 16(4): 379-380.