Well, there is a whole body of feminist literature out there about sexism
in science. And about how science is intrinsically sexist. And I am sort
of surprised that no one has brought that up yet in this discussion.
If you study the philosophy and history of science, you will see how the
philosophical beliefs that fund science are sexist. In fact you can trace
this back to Aristotle, even. (A good book on this is Genevieve Lloyd's
_The Man of Reason: Male and Female in Western Philosophy, U Minnesota P,
1984). F. Bacon's famous line about strapping nature to the rack to probe
her for her essential truths is one example.
But beyond the sexist attitudes of famous philosophers of science, which
undoubtedly influence the way science has developed, there are other
sexist dimensions to science as well.
One is the epistemological structure of objectivity. (As radical feminist
Dale Spender points out, Objectivity is just another word for male
subjectivity.) Objectivity is a sexist practice. There are several hundred
publications that make this argument. Probably one of the most well known
authors on this subject is Sandra Harding, but also Donna Haraway, Nancy
Hartsock, Evelyn Fox Keller, Sue Rosser, Ruth Bleier, and many others.
Sandra Harding is very accessible on this subject.
Then there are the institutional structures of science, things like how
many women are actually scientists, how many women get funded for
research, how many women are encouraged to practice science, yada yada. As
a result, science is sexist not only in philosophy but in practice as
well. What happens as a result is that the "culture" of science is a male
culture, exhibiting male values, and generalizing from masculine
worldviews to the rest of the world. Brian Easlea, who I believe is a
nuclear physicist, talks about the male culture of the science lab. He is
very readable.
Now, I know that this discussion is starting to get off the topic, which
is feminist science fiction. But if we take Donna Haraway's starting
point, which is that all science is really only science fiction, maybe we
are not so far afield after all.
Happy reading,
Laura Sells
University of South Florida
Department of Women's Studies
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