The contribution of data to feminist transformation of women’s rights to health

  1. Borja Sanz Urquijo 1
  2. María López Belloso 1
  1. 1 Universidad de Deusto
    info

    Universidad de Deusto

    Bilbao, España

    ROR https://ror.org/00ne6sr39

Journal:
Feminismo/s
  1. Gutiérrez Almazor, Miren (coord.)

ISSN: 1696-8166,  1989-9998

Year of publication: 2023

Issue Title: Women, data and power. Insights into the platform economy

Issue: 42

Pages: 93-119

Type: Article

DOI: 10.14198/FEM.2023.42.04 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openDialnet editor

More publications in: Feminismo/s

Sustainable development goals

Abstract

Digital technologies and data science have evolved rapidly. But how does the digital evolution affect women’s rights? Bunch argued that, to implement women’s rights, it was first necessary to observe how they are violated (Bunch, 1990). This article examines how femtec’s apps work, delivering reproductive and sexual health services to millions of women. Specifically, it analyzes the data collection permissions of 45 femtech apps to assess what the platform intends to do with the personal data collected and its objectives. To understand how these apps use data, we explored the goals of these apps in data collection and whether data could be collected and used to transform women’s health. Thus, this work is structured in four sections. First, a theoretical review of Bunch’s proposal and its contribution to data feminism is raised. Second, the potential for feminist transformation of human rights using digital technologies is discussed, particularly in women’s health. The third section details the current use of health data captured by health apps. This article ends by drawing the main conclusions of the analysis and providing recommendations for a feminist transformation of data activism from a human rights perspective.

Bibliographic References

  • American Stroke Association (n.d). Women and Stroke. https://www.stroke.org/en/about-stroke/stroke-risk-factors/women-have-a-higher-risk-of-stroke
  • Baker, S. (2018). We want that for ourselves': how girls and young women are using ICTs to counter violence and demand their rights. Gender & Development, 26(2), 283-297. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2018.1473229
  • Bjørn, P., & Menéndez-Blanco, M. (2019). FemTech: Broadening participation to digital technology development. In Proceedings of the 27th ACM International Conference on Multimedia (pp. 510-511). Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3343031.3355512
  • Blum, K. (2022, July 7). Period-tracking apps, online search histories could be scrutinized in post-Roe world. Association of Health Care Journalists. Center for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. https://healthjournalism.org/blog/2022/07/period-tracking-apps-online-search-histories-could-be-scrutinized-in-post-roe-world/
  • Braña, F. J. (2019). A Fourth Industrial Revolution? Digital Transformation, Labor and Work Organization: A View From Spain. Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, 46(3), 415-430. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40812-019-00122-0
  • Brown, E. A. (2021). The Femtech Paradox: How Workplace Monitoring Threatens Women's Equity. Jurimetrics, 61(3), 289-329.
  • Bunch, C. (1990). Women's Rights as Human Rights: Toward a Re-vision of Human Rights. Human Rights Quarterly, 12(4), 486-498. https://doi.org/10.2307/762496
  • Caroli, E., & Weber-Baghdiguian, L. (2016). Self-reported Health and Gender: The Role of Social Norms. Social Science & Medicine, 153, 220-229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.02.023
  • Castaño-López, E. E. (2006). Publicaciones sobre mujeres, salud y género en España (1990-2005). Revista española de salud pública, 80(6), 705-716. https://doi.org/10.1590/S1135-57272006000600010
  • Crenshaw, K. (1991). Mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review, 43, 1241-1299. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229039
  • De Vido, S. (2020). Gender inequalities and violence against women's health during the COVID-19 pandemic: an international law perspective. BioLaw Journal-Rivista di BioDiritto, 3, 77-105. https://doi.org/10.7765/9781526124982
  • D'Ignazio, C., & Klein, L. F. (2020). Data Feminism. The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11805.001.0001
  • European Society of Cardiology. (n.d.). Cardiovascular Disease in Women: Reducing the gender gap in prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease. https://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/Advocacy/women-and-cardiovascular-disease
  • Ford, A., De Togni, G., & Miller, L. (2021). Hormonal Health: Period Tracking Apps, Wellness, and Self-Management in the Era of Surveillance Capitalism. Engaging Science, Technology, and Society, 7(1), 48-66. https://doi.org/10.17351/ests2021.655
  • Gemmati, D., Varani, K., Bramanti, B., Piva, R., Bonaccorsi, G., Trentini, A., Manfrinato, M. C., Tisato, V., Carè, A., & Bellini, T. (2020). Bridging the Gap: Everything that Could Have Been Avoided If We Had Applied Gender Medicine, Pharmacogenetics and Personalized Medicine in the Gender-omics and Sex-omics Era. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21(296), 1-36. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms21010296
  • Genzorova, T., Corejova, T., & Stalmasekova, N. (2019). How Digital Transformation Can Influence Business Model, Case Study for Transport Industry. Transportation Research Procedia, 40, 1053-1058. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2019.07.147
  • Gil‐Lacruz, M., & Gil‐Lacruz, A. I. (2010). Health Perception and Health Care Access: Sex differences in behaviors and attitudes. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 62(9), 783-801. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2010.00723.x
  • Gilman, M. E. (2021). Periods for profit and the rise of menstrual surveillance. Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, 41, 100-113. https://doi.org/10.52214/cjgl.v41i1.8824
  • Gulati, M. (2017a). Improving the cardiovascular health of women in the nation: moving beyond the bikini boundaries. Circulation, 135(6), 495-498. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.116.025303
  • Gulati, M. (2017b, 17). Women and CV Disease: Beyond the Bikini. Cardiology Magazine. Obtenido de: https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/articles/2017/05/15/15/women-and-cv-disease-beyond-the-bikini
  • Harnois, C. (2008). Representing feminisms: Past, present, and future. NWSA Journal, 20(1), 120-145.
  • Hendl, T., & Jansky, B. (2022). Tales of self-empowerment through digital health technologies: a closer look at «Femtech». Review of Social Economy, 80(1), 29-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/00346764.2021.2018027
  • Holdcroft, A. (2007). Gender bias in research: How does it affect evidence-based medicine? Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 100, 2-3. https://doi.org/10.1258/jrsm.100.1.2
  • Imtiaz, S., & Kim, D. (2019). Digital transformation: Development of new business models in the tourism industry. Culinary Science & Hospitality Research, 25(4), 91-101. https://doi.org/10.20878/cshr.2019.25.4.010
  • Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). (2020). The Global Burden of Disease (GBD). The Lancet, 396(10258), 1129-1306. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32131-0
  • Jackson, G. (2019). Pain and Prejudice: a Call to Arms for Women and Their Bodies.Hachette.
  • Johnson, M. E. (2021). Asking the Menstruation Question to Achieve Menstrual Justice. Columbia Journal of Gender and Law, 41 (1) 158-168. https://doi.org/10.52214/cjgl.v41i1.8830
  • Logan, J., Kennedy, P., & Catchpoole, D. (2021). The untapped social impact of artificial intelligence for breast cancer screening in developing countries: a critical commentary of deepmind. Innovations in Digital Health, Diagnostics, and Biomarkers, 1(2), 29-32. https://doi.org/10.36401/IDDB-20-07
  • López Belloso, M. (2021). Nuevas tecnologías para la promoción y defensa de los derechos humanos. Revista Española de Derecho Internacional, 73(1), 137-164. https://doi.org/10.17103/redi.73.1.2021.1.05
  • McKinney, S. M., Sieniek, M., Godbole, V., Godwin, J., Antropova, N., Ashrafian, H., Back, T., Chesus, M., Corrado, G.S., Darzi, A., Etemadi, M., García-Vicente, F., Gilbert, F.J., Halling-Brown, M., Hassabis, D., Jansen, S., Karthikesalingam, A., Kelly, C.J., King, D., … Shetty, S. (2020). International evaluation of an AI system for breast cancer screening. Nature, 577, 89-94. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-019-1799-6
  • McMillan, C. (2021). Monitoring female fertility through 'Femtech': The need for a whole-system approach to regulation. Medical Law Revire, 30(3), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1093/medlaw/fwac006
  • Mehran, R., Vogel, B., Ortega, R., Cooney, R., & Horton, R. (2019). The Lancet Commission on women and cardiovascular disease: time for a shift in women's health. The Lancet, 393(10175), 967-968. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30315-0
  • Merone, L., Tsey, K., Russell, D., & Nagle, C. (2022). Sex Inequalities in Medical Research: A Systematic Scoping Review of the Literature. Women's Health Reports, 3(1), 49-59. https://doi.org/10.1089/whr.2021.0083.
  • National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. (2022, mayo). Women and Stroke. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/women.htm
  • OECD. (2017). Panorama de la Salud 2015: Indicadores de la OCDE. Paris/Cámara Nacional de la Industria Farmacéutica. OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264270626-es
  • Rosa, C. (2019). The future is femtech: Privacy and data security issues surrounding femtech applications. Hastings Bus. LJ, 15, 319-341.
  • Services, U. D. (2001, Mayo). Women's Health Issues: an Overview. National Women Health Information Centre. https://commed.vcu.edu/IntroPH/MCH/Office_on_Women's_Health.pdf
  • Shai, A., Koffler, S., & Hashiloni-Dolev, Y. (2021). Feminism, gender medicine and beyond: a feminist analysis of «gender medicine». International Journal for Equity in Health, 20(177), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-021-01511-5
  • Sood, R., Jenkins, S. M., Sood, A., & Clark, M. M. (2019). Gender Differences in Self-perception of Health at a Wellness Center. American Journal of Health Behavior, 43(6), 1129-1135. https://doi.org/10.5993/AJHB.43.6.10
  • Thaler, A. (2022). Saving lives with gender studies? Putting technofeminism into practice. International Conference on Gender Research, 5(1), 215-221. https://doi.org/10.34190/icgr.5.1.210
  • United Nations (1995). Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. https://www. unwomen.org/es/digital-library/publications/2015/01/beijing-declaration
  • Vaamonde, M. (2019). Feminismo y democracia. La Torre del Virrey. Revista de estudios culturales, 25(1), 191-202.
  • Wiederhold, B. K. (2021). Femtech: Digital Help for Women's Health Care Across the Life Span. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(11), 697- 698. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2021.29230.editorial
  • Wynants, L., Van Calster, B., Collins, G.S., Riley, R.D., Heinze, G., Schuit, E., Albu, E., Bellou, V., Bonten, M., Dahly, D.L., Damen, J.A., Debray, T.P.A., de John, V., De Vos, M., Dhiman, P., Ensor, J., Gao, S., Haller, M.C., Harhay, M., van Smeden, M. (2020). Prediction models for diagnosis and prognosis of COVID-19: systematic review and critical appraisal. BMJ 2020, 369. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m1328
  • Zurayk, H., Myntti, C., Salem, M. T., Kaddour, A., el-Kak, F., & Jabbour, S. (2007). Beyond Reproductive Health: Listening to Women About Their Health in Disadvantaged Beirut Neighborhoods. Health Care for Women International, 28(7), 614-637. https://doi.org/10.1080/07399330701462017
Data source: Dialnet