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Pushing for change….. data collection and analysis. Dr Judy McGregor EEO Commissioner Human Rights Commission. Data and the change process. Why collect data in the first place? Let alone analyse it?
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Pushing for change….. data collection and analysis Dr Judy McGregor EEO Commissioner Human Rights Commission
Data and the change process • Why collect data in the first place? Let alone analyse it? • Pace and quantity of information and access to it by technology has blurred the lines between fact, opinion, and rumour • Rise and rise of “talkback” information full of dangerous myths (women have made it in New Zealand, for example).
Value of quality data • Allows for informed debate • Community, group or individual exchange and empowerment through information • Provides comparisons-gender, ethnicity, age, Māori, Pacific, refugee and migrant communities, disabled people etc • Allows for measurement of progress over time • Pushes back against prejudice and stereotypes
What about NGOs and women’s groups? Data is useful internally and externally for: • Reporting, CEDAW and other submissions • to support funding applications • to know who your clients are • to work out what members want • to examine trends and patterns (eg age of members).
Ten top tips 1. Anyone can do it- small is beautiful and small and focussed is ideal. (You do not need to be a graduate in statistical regression) 2. Look around for help-partners, academic researchers, report writers. (Judy and David, example) 3. Do background research- someone has usually done something before you-All power to Google.
Ten top tips 4. What is the question you want to answer? Need to work on what is called “problem definition” • It may be a “how many?”, a “why?”, a “when?”, a “who?”, a “what?” or all of them • Need the problem definition ideally BEFORE you gather the data.
The Census example One over-arching research question: • “How many women on the boards of directors of the top 100 companies in NZ?” • Problem definition is women’s status in corporate governance
Have data, will use it? • Many organisations, groups and individuals collect/ hoard information for no purpose • A year’s worth of household power bills- what can they tell you? What do you want to know? • Five minute power bill exercise.
Power bill exercise You have a year’s worth of power bills at home. • What questions could you usefully ask in relation to the bills? • The bills are the data. How can you use them to answer an important question? • What is an important question?
Ten top tips 5. Always brainstorm what questions to ask • What’s new/ what’s the current status of/ what are others asking us/ what are the gaps in our knowledge/ what would help us? • Four “Ws” and an “H”- who, when, what, why, how???????
Ten top tips 6. Don’t ever assume that no-one else has asked the question before you • To safeguard against research redundancy make sure that it hasn’t been done before • Ask around, ring experts, check internet and libraries.
Ten top tips 7. Work out the best method(s) to answer the question. For example, how many women on the board involves counting why there are so few women on the board - could involve interviews and surveys • Consider using more than one method because too much of one approach will not give us an entire picture.
Ten top tips 8. Ensure you are systematic. For example a year’s power bills means 12 months not 10,11 etc • Need to adopt the rule that if another person was collecting they would collect the same material-apples and pears problem • Use of categories to collect data (grid sheets, forms, electronic template or spreadsheets)
Ten top tips 9. Need a system to analyse the data so you get results. What does the data show? What do you look for and how? • 10 interviews of migrant women seeking work- standard questions. • Analysis is a way of making sense to see if there are common trends, patterns, themes. From chaos, jumble and ambiguity to clarity.
Ten top tips • A common template that allows entry of demographic data such as age, country of origin, how they came to NZ, educational level, family status etc • Details such as how long they looked for work, whether they retrained, did they suffer prejudice, which could be standard across the 10 interviews.
Ten top tips • Add qualitative data-what the individual women said in the interview about their specific circumstances • Value of interview is the rich, women’s voice it can provide of their own experience • Resonates with other women who agree, disagree (consonance factor or Woman’s Weekly)
Ten top tips 10. Need to stay “true” to the data so that is persuasive, you can defend it, and you have kept faith with research participants • For example, don’t claim more than what is revealed. If it is 10 migrant women only you cannot generalise to all migrant women
What do we mean by “true to the data” • Common research problems • Causation is very difficult to establish so do you mean correlation • For example, is A caused by B or does the data really only show that A is linked to B • Worsening child poverty caused by work incentive benefits or is linked to it?
Ten top tips • Keeping faith might mean showing back what you have gathered to the women you have gathered it from (Robin, Robyn, Robynne and Roban) • Consent forms for publication • Anonymity and confidentiality protocols • Verification
Plus one more tip • Need to plan how to release your research • Audiences, media, risk analysis • How will you speak, who will defend, how to arrange a “chorus of support” • If you go public prepare for aggressive, “rottweiler” questions and dismissive interviewers.
Who makes the news? … exercise • Front page analysis- what is the question we want to answer? • What do we have to collect to answer it? • How do we analyse data collected?
