‘Gender-InSIGHT’ is an international network for the Investigation of biopsychoSocial Influences on Gender during (diverse) Hormonal Transitions. The network brings together a range of disciplines including psychology, history, ethics, endocrinology, neuroscience and public health and consists of 15 doctoral projects (1 at UvA Social/Cultural Psychology), all of which are now open for applications (you can find a list of all projects at www.genderinsight.eu). Although you should submit a primary application for only ONE project, you can also indicate interest in up to four additional projects (in order of preference, in your motivation letter). 

This PhD project (“Cross-cultural gender beliefs and support for gender-affirming care” – DC 14): Most research on gender roles to date has focused on Western concepts of gender. However, countries differ in their socio-cultural beliefs about the nature of gender. The project will begin with a scoping review of lay theories of gender and views on gender-affirming care across countries, drawing on psychological, sociological, and anthropological research. Based on this review, we will develop and validate a novel measure of cultural lay theories about gender. We will conduct a large cross-cultural study in 25 countries to document nuanced differences in how people understand gender. We will further examine how such cultural differences in lay theories, along with structural factors such as a country’s religion and political system, shape support for different forms of gender-affirming care. As part of a secondment/internship with TGEU (Transgender Europe), the PhD candidate will prepare a report on cross-cultural differences in beliefs about—and support for—gender-affirming care, tailored to the needs of professionals involved in policymaking or activism related to gender-affirming care.

We will aim to:

1. Conceptualize and document how people in different countries think about the nature of gender (i.e., differing lay theories of gender that may be based on uniformity, innateness, immutability, sacredness, etc.).
2. Examine how these cultural lay theories of gender, alongside other cultural factors, shape the general public’s support for TGD individuals and different forms of gender-affirming care (e.g., hormones vs. surgery; government funding for gender-affirming care; etc.).