Has Feminism Changed Science?

Abstract

Do women do science differently? This is a history of women in science and a frank assessment of the role of gender in shaping scientific knowledge. Science is both a profession and a body of knowledge, and Londa Schiebinger looks at how women have fared and performed in both instances. Shoe first considers the lives of women scientists, past and present. Schiebinger debunks the myth that women scientists - because they are women - are somehow more holistic and integrative and create more cooperative scientific communities. However, have feminist perspectives brought any positive change to scientific knowledge? Schiebinger provides a nuanced gender analysis of the physical sciences, medicine, archaeology, evolutionary biology, primatology, and developmental biology. She also shows that feminist scientists have developed new theories, asked new questions, and opened new fields in many of these areas.