Gender permeates all aspects of our lives. It stratifies society, defines opportunities and shapes our identity. And yet there is a global tendency to reduce the dynamic, varied and complex nature of gender to a singular image of woman-as-other. In contemporary consciousness, gender’s face is invariably female. 

This is gender is our challenge to this rigid and reductive way of seeing gender.

GENDER, DATA AND REPRESENTATION

Global Health 50/50’s This is Gender emerged in 2019 in response to the lack of representational diversity and critically reflective images of gender in global health.

The COVID-19 pandemic and global protest movements have catalysed a social moment that declares – representation matters. From engagement with mass media to questioning public monuments, globally, societies are becoming more critically reflective and interrogative of representational practices and the parameters of care, respect and dignity they set. This is Gender is our contribution to this moment of change.

In a world driven by visual media, images shape our perceptions of ourselves, our environments, and our relationships with others. The way we represent gender, envision roles and depict limitations has real-world implications. Gender is not a fixed or singular experience; it is a contested space where identity, power, and society converge. Failing to capture the full diversity of gender across cultures and power structures obscures our vision for true gender equality.Inspired by Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe’s ethos of a “balance of stories,” This is Gender respects the plurality of experiences and perspectives. We move beyond simplistic narratives and offer instead a diverse, intersectional, and inclusive collection that constellates on gender, justice, and health. Mobilised into dialogue with our data-driven research, This is Gender expands how we understand these critical intersections.

CHANGING THE FRAME: DECOLONISING GLOBAL HEALTH IMAGERY

‘We cannot easily recognize life outside the frame in which it is given,

and those frames not only structure how we come to know and identify life

but constitute sustaining conditions for those very lives’ 

Judith Butler, Frames of War

Global health has an image problem. Often produced by Western photographers and depicting abjection and vulnerability, the standard images used to promote and express the work of the sector risk reinforcing a colonial and othering gaze. 

The visual economy of global health is saturated with problematic framing devices and familiar visual tropes. Recently, in response to critiques of “poverty porn” and white saviourism, there has been a shift towards “empowerment” imagery—which risks becoming yet another dehumanizing trope—and more commercially styled images. 

In our response to these ‘frames’ This is gender questions: 

• How do the images used in global health reinforce prevailing norms of power, privilege and priorities? 
• What are the representational politics and visual ethics at play in global images of gender and how do these shape health priorities and who benefits from the global health system? 

While there remains an imbalance of whose stories are told and who tells the stories, This is gender is committed to shifting the frames and decolonising global health and development imagery.

We hope that This is Gender will fuel a collective demand for a more critical and reflective approach to the production, distribution and consumption of images in global health and beyond.

Will you be part of the change?

Have questions? For inquiries about our collection, thematic stories, or to express interest in working together, contact us.

Do you want to support our work? We welcome donations to help us continue this work and to expand our projects.

Delve deeper into the data in our Global Health 50/50 reports for a fuller picture of the state of gender equality in global health and beyond.