How to work with science and data from a feminist perspective
The Data Gender Observatory presented the Spanish translation of the book Data Feminism. It aims to highlight the inequality in the way knowledge is produced.
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina. The Argentine Gender Data Observatory, Data Género, led the Spanish translation of the book Data Feminism by American authors Catherine D'Ignazio and Lauren F. Klein. This was a collective and activist effort undertaken from a decolonial feminist perspective. The book is available digitally and free of charge, and has not yet been published in print.
The original was also conceived from that logic: it seeks to challenge the current distribution of power that falls to white, elite, cisgender, heterosexual men in the world of data.
“The book’s motivating premise is that data is a tremendous form of power today. Data science has been used for enormous benefits but also for significant harm,” D’Ignazio said of Data Feminism, published by MIT Press in 2020.
D'Ignazio is an American educator and artist who developed software focused on feminism and data literacy. She also directs the Data + Feminism Lab at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), considered one of the world's leading research centers. Lauren F. Klein, for her part, is the director of the Digital Humanities Lab at Emory University.
The book launch in the Spanish version took place on Tuesday, April 25th at Casa Brandon .
The book, originally published in English in 2020, quickly reached the Data Género team in Argentina. They found it so valuable that they approached the authors via Twitter and proposed translating it into Spanish. After several attempts with the publisher, they finally obtained permission first to translate a portion of the text and then the entire book. This version is currently only available online .
The translation was coordinated and edited by Mailén García, general director of Data Género, with editing by Lucía Peyrano and Florencia Aguilar. Translators included Gina Ballaben, Sofía García, and Ivana Feldfeber. Contributors included Helena Suárez Val, Diana Duarte Salinas, Lucía Peyrano, Florencia Aguilar, Giselle Arena, Ana Amelia Letelier, and Patricia Michelle Garcia Iruegas.
Data feminism, what for?
In the book's introduction, the authors explain what they mean by the concept of "data feminism." Their starting point involves recognizing that power in the world is not distributed equally, something that data science tends to obscure.
“Those who wield power are disproportionately elite, heterosexual, white, healthy, cisgender men from the Global North ,” D’Ignazio and Klein state. At this point, the work of data feminism consists of understanding that “standard data science practices serve to reinforce these existing inequalities .” Furthermore, it uses this tool to “challenge and change the distribution of power.”
“Data science done by whom? Data science for whom? Data science based on whose interests?” the authors ask. And throughout seven chapters, they seek to develop a new way of thinking about data science and ethics from a different perspective: intersectional feminist thought.
Thus, both approaches the data from an intersectional perspective, a concept coined by legal theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe the multiple oppressions that intersect within a person (a Black woman, for example). It also describes “the forces of privilege and oppression that intersect in a given society.”
An exploration of data analysis
The book's chapters are based on seven principles about " how to work with science and data analysis from a feminist perspective ," D'Ignazio explained at the launch event. These principles are: examining power, challenging power, elevating emotion and the body, rethinking binaries and hierarchies, embracing pluralism, considering context, and making work visible.
One of the central issues of this publication is considering the role of emotions in relation to data. The idea that data visualizations are objective, scientific, and neutral has long been prevalent , explain D'Ignazio and Klein. This perception, they argue, ignores the fact that behind the visualizations there is a design and editorial choices that aim for a specific effect.
It also ignores the value of emotions—a realm generally associated with women—and the fact that all visualization appeals to a specific emotion. Faced with this dilemma, the book advocates for “embracing emotion and the body.” “We learn through emotions. It’s a way of producing knowledge that isn’t opposed to objectivity but rather adds other layers,” Klein explained during the presentation of the book in its Argentine translation.
The responsibility of translating
“It is a collective, militant, deeply felt and much desired translation,” García said about the project at the presentation.
During the process, the team observed three “important debates” that arose in the translation: the use of artificial intelligence (AI), the gender of the Spanish language, and the way of conceptualizing racialization.
“The first question is whether it’s possible to translate entire books with AI. I think the answer is no, although it’s a good start,” García reflected. As a test, they decided to translate the entire book * Data Feminism * with AI and encountered issues that couldn’t be resolved “at all”: the text’s argumentative structure, recurring sexism, and the ability to grasp the political intent of the language. For example, when translating “the researcher,” it always used the masculine gender: *el investigación* (the researcher). Furthermore, the “they,” which has recently begun to be used to refer to non-binary people, was translated as “ellos” (they).
On the other hand, regarding gender, the team decided to use gender-neutral or non-gendered forms whenever possible. “When that wasn’t possible, we decided to use words with ‘a,’ like ‘oye,’ to maintain the militant approach,” García explained. However, they also used the masculine gender “on some occasions when we wanted to challenge the established order.”
Finally, regarding the way to conceptualize racialization, the team also did not opt for a literal translation. “The book in English uses 'Black people' because it's a way of highlighting and emphasizing the struggle of these people, or also 'people of color',” explained the project coordinator, noting that this is not a common term in Spanish. Therefore, they used the term “racialized identities .
Thus, the translation was done from “a decolonial feminist perspective situated in Latin America that sought to reflect the spirit of the authors and put it in dialogue with the discussions that are taking place in our region,” as they state in the book's clarifications.
“We want it to be able to circulate and for other identities to be able to enter these discussions,” García concluded.
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