Data Hub
The Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts (WFWM) procures quantitative and qualitative research to understand the lived experiences of women, girls, and gender-diverse people within Western Massachusetts communities. The WFWM garners collective action by using findings to engage individual stakeholders, community-based organizations, for-profit companies, funders, government, higher education, and other agencies in advancing gender-equitable policies and practices.
This Data Hub Was Created To:
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Make Data Meaningful
Data storytelling is an art form. The lived experiences of women and girls in Western Massachusetts can be nuanced. Still, we want to work with the community to contextualize and ground data in real stories.
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Make Data Accessible
We make investments into the community, including research. We aim to make the findings of these initiatives accessible and relevant to Western Massachusetts residents. With our digital reports and the addition of this website, we will supplement data needs for grant writers, advocates, or general community members working to advance gender equity.
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Make Data Actionable
While funding is a proponent for action, we know change is prompted by data that proves it is necessary. Share your insights to help improve our research so we may collaboratively make Western Massachusetts an equitable and just place to be.
Download Our Reports
Learn more about the Women's Fund of Western Massachusetts' research initiatives at mywomensfund.org
Notes About Low Numbers
When examining data across communities and disaggregating by race and ethnicity, data were unavailable for some populations because of the smaller population sizes in some parts of Western Massachusetts and the small number of people of color living in some communities. In some cases the counts were low and the data were available; however, the estimates should be interpreted with caution. Please be aware of the following when reading the full report on the Status of Women and Girls in Western Massachusetts, 2019: In order to be able to disaggregate data by age, gender, and race/ethnicity, there are some data that were aggregated across multiple years (e.g., STI data).
- In cases where the data were not aggregated across years and there were small numbers,
- An estimate with a numerator count less than 5 was suppressed and there is a dash ( – ) in its place in tables; and
- An estimate with a numerator count less than 10 should be interpreted with caution and is indicated by an asterisk (*).
Acknowledgments
Gender vs. Sex
The 2019 Research Advisory Council to the report on the Status of Women and Girls in Western Massachusetts, 2019 decided to use the term gender throughout the report while acknowledging that its use may be an oversimplification and misrepresentation (i.e., when the data actually speaks to issues pertaining to or referring to sex assigned at birth) at different points in the report.
There was a desire and intention for this report to be much more gender inclusive, highlighting gender-based intersectionality for women and girls in Western Massachusetts. Unfortunately, gender-inclusive and non-binary data are still very limited. Many of the data sources used for the report are still collecting data on gender using a gender-binary question. And those data sources that are collecting gender non-binary data are not doing so consistently across agencies, organizations, and/or data collection instruments. It is for these reasons that this report is regrettably written in gender-binary terms. However, the term gender was still chosen instead of sex so that it was not assumed that individuals who self-report their gender (even through a gender-binary question) through surveys and other data collection instruments are referring only to their sex assigned at birth.
Latinx
The report on the Status of Women and Girls in Western Massachusetts, 2019 uses Latinx throughout instead of Latina, Hispanic, or Hispanic/Latina. The use of Latinx on this data hub is consistent with the 2019 report and is in effort to be inclusive of the intersectionality of lived experiences. As Tanisha Love Ramirez and Zeba Blay from Huffpost wrote, “In addition to men and women from all racial backgrounds, Latinx also makes room for people who are trans, queer, agender, non-binary, gender non-conforming or gender fluid.” We acknowledge that this term is not universally embraced and those within the Latino/Latina/Latine community may identify differently.
From the National Association of Hispanic Journalists Cultural Competence Handbook (August 2020):
- Pronounced “La-teen-ex,” Latinx is a gender-neutral term sometimes used in lieu of Latino or Latina for people of Latin American heritage. For those who identify with two or more Latin American cultural or racial identities, Latinx is a term that is all-inclusive.
- Latino/Latina/Latinx/Hispanic are often used as “umbrella terms” describing people who are either themselves from a Spanish speaking country or ancestors. While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, in reality “Hispanic” only refers to persons of Spanish-speaking origin or ancestry, while “Latino” is accurate to refer to anyone of Latin American origin or ancestry. Note: Latino applies to men, boys and mixed-gender groups (i.e. Latino community); Latina applies to women and girls.
