Feminist Critiques Of Science Research Articles

Masculinized discourses of STEM interest, performance, and competence that shape university STEM students' recognition of a “STEM person”

AbstractHow individuals come to perceive themselves in STEM is predicated on their understanding of what it means to be a member of the STEM community. This association is consequential when considering the perpetuation of white male ownership of STEM knowledge and power that forces learners identifying with groups systemically marginalized by racial and gender discrimination to adopt particular norms, values, and behaviors to gain recognition. In effect, these expectations help to maintain masculinized Discourses as STEM professionals are encultured to apply the same recognition criteria to which they were judged themselves. We examine how these Discourses are maintained even as learners who identify with groups that carry histories of systemic marginalization by racist, sexist, and elitist practices gain access to STEM communities. Specifically, we explore how university STEM students attending a Hispanic Serving Institution in the United States articulate gendered expectations of STEM membership through their characterization of themselves and others as (not) STEM people. Drawing from theories in Discourse, social identity, and feminist critiques of science, we describe how students implicitly recognize STEM identity in gendered ways. We discuss how our findings illuminate the mechanisms by which STEM recognition is afforded by pointing to its dependence on masculinized displays of STEM performances, competence, and interests, leading to a cycle of marginalization as learners are encultured to perpetuate existing STEM Discourses in their recognition of others. We discuss research implications for measurements of STEM identity that do not account for gendered Discourses and offer practical implications for the design of learning experiences that co‐opt existing Discourses to inoculate gendered perceptions of a STEM person prototype. Lastly, we present a case for elevating the role of maternal caregivers and family immigration histories in STEM identity construction.

Replication Crisis: Framing Science for Untold Crimes

Here the author presents a sequentially yet nonlinearly organized collage of previously published writing, curated under the title “Replication Crisis: Framing Science for Untold Crimes.” The collage is composed entirely of quotations. Here, a thesis-driven expository regime is replaced with open-ended discursive potential. The excerpts include assessments of the replication crisis in science; discussions of p values and their centrality in the crisis; reviews and analysis of recent scientific hoaxes, “sting” operations, and/or fraudulent studies (some attempting to delegitimize poststructuralist, postmodernist, and feminist critiques of science); discussions of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and Wittgensteinian language games; and quotations from contemporary social theory and literature. The collage, as an experiment, offers readers an opportunity for re-contextualization through their own associative sense-making. Readers determine what is important information, what might be fruitfully compared and contrasted, and how discourses come to “mean.”

Nature, Nation, Science and Gender

The article explores the equation among nature, nation and gender in the nationalist context. Developing the argument that both nature and nation were feminised and deified as mother and mother goddess in the nationalist context, the article deploys feminist perspectives to critically examine this on a fourth-axis science. By looking at the relationship of the scientist, J. C. Bose, to these categories, the article hopes to unravel the complex relationship of the Indian scientist to nation, nature, gender and science. It is argued that due to being a ‘Sakta’, Bose had a symbiotic relationship to nature, and consequently to science, thereby presenting an ‘alternative’ to Western modes of relating to science and nature. The article submits that this alternative was cast in patriarchal constructions of both science and nature and views the associations of mother with nation and nature within larger feminist critiques of science. The article submits that while these sleeping metaphors set an alternative paradigm to the Western modes of relating to nature through science, they reproduced patriarchal constructions of the same. The article is an effort at grafting feminist perspectives on (a) science and (b) nationalism with postcolonial perspectives on science and modernity.

Science Education in India and Feminist Critiques of Science

The ‘liberal’ feminist perspective on science problematises the presence of fewer women than men in science and believes that increasing their number would qualify as social change. On the other hand, ‘radical’ critics of modern science argue that science has been deeply involved in the creation, strengthening and subversion of gender inequalities. The liberal strand is much more amenable to direct interventions and aligns well with current educational reforms. But the fundamental questions about science and science education that are raised by the radical strand not just evade agreement, but they also do not lead easily to direct educational implications. In this article, I show that an engagement with these perspectives offers us a chance to reflect on our society, on the place of science in it, and on the role of science education in mediating between science and society. This reflection further encourages us to rethink and reorganise science and science education so that they are more mindful of the gender and other kinds of power dynamics in our society.

Embodying a caring science: An ethnographic analysis of the communicative practices of a Colombian trans-woman scientist in the media

This paper analyzes the communicative practices of a Colombian trans-woman scientist, biologist Brigitte Baptiste, when she speaks publicly about environmental issues on different media platforms. In the analysis, I explore the implications of Baptiste’s public presence for the imaginaries of readers and journalists regarding science, scientists and trans-people in Colombia. Leaning on certain feminist critiques of science, I analyze communicative practices as matters of care. Throughout the analysis, I find that care in Baptiste’s public presence is performed through the ways in which she connects biodiversity and sexual diversity, thinking with trans-women’s experiences to transgress the borders of science and connect it to activism and public service. I conclude that Baptiste’s public presence in Colombia is an exceptional example of gender diversity acceptance in the present, though it does represent a speculative commitment towards embracing diversity in general in the future.

A Critical Evaluation of Recent Gendered Publishing Trends in American Archaeology

This paper explores the relationship between gender identity and patterns of authorship in peer-reviewed journals as a lens for examining gendered knowledge production and the current status and visibility of men and women in American archaeology. Drawing on feminist theory and the feminist critique of science, I examine how gender imbalance and a lack of diversity continue to affect the work that archaeologists produce. The evaluation of publishing trends serves as a means to investigate knowledge valuation/validation in archaeology and lends insight into the control over archaeological narratives. Analysis of publicacion rates from 1990–2013 in a number of prestigious archaeology research journals (including American Antiquity) as well as smaller-scale regional journals reveals that strong gender differences persist in one of the major ways that data are disseminated to the American archaeological community. I suggest that these patterns are likely a result of authorial behavior, rather than editorial or reviewer bias, and conclude with a discussion of future directions for practitioners to pursue research on gender equity in the discipline.

Pertenencia, pertinencia y diferencia: discurrir por las fronteras del género

En este trabajo, me aproximo a algunos marcos teóricos y epistemológicos utilizados en la investigación en distintos ámbitos, desde una perspectiva de género, considerando las implicaciones que tienen en la transformación de la realidad social y en la construcción del conocimiento diversas formas de mirar las diferencias, desigualdades y relaciones entre sexos, y mostrando la relevancia que ha tenido en todo ello la crítica feminista a la ciencia, a través de distintos planteamientos.

Three Approaches to Gender Equity in Science Education

In this article I use feminist critique of science as a point of departure to discuss different understandingsof how sex/gender impacts on pupils’ approaches to science education. I construct a theoreticalframework that shows three different approaches to increase gender equity in science education. Eachapproach is grounded in a distinct understanding of how sex/gender impacts pupils’ engagementin science education. The analytical frame that is developed thereby represents descriptions of threealternative ways to address gender inequity in science education. The framework shows how differentunderstandings of how sex/gender impact on pupils’ engagement in science education require distinctinitiatives to increase gender equity. The framework can be used in the planning and analysis ofhow gender initiatives work to address gender inequity in science education.

Gendered education in a gendered world: looking beyond cosmetic solutions to the gender gap in science

Young people in countries considered to be at the forefront of gender equity still tend to choose very traditional science subjects and careers. This is particularly the case in science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects (STEM), which are largely male dominated. This article uses feminist critiques of science and science education to explore the underlying gendered assumptions of a research project aiming to contribute to improving recruitment, retention and gender equity patterns in STEM educations and careers. Much research has been carried out to understand this gender gap phenomenon as well as to suggest measures to reduce its occurrence. A significant portion of this research has focused on detecting the typical “female” and “male” interest in science and has consequently suggested that adjustments be made to science education to cater for these interests. This article argues that adjusting science subjects to match perceived typical girls’ and boys’ interests risks being ineffective, as it contributes to the imposition of stereotyped gender identity formation thereby also imposing the gender differences that these adjustments were intended to overcome. This article also argues that different ways of addressing gender issues in science education themselves reflects different notions of gender and science. Thus in order to reduce gender inequities in science these implicit notions of gender and science have to be made explicit. The article begins with an overview of the current situation regarding gender equity in some so- called gender equal countries. We then present three perspectives from feminist critiques of science on how gender can be seen to impact on science and science education. Thereafter we analyze recommendations from a contemporary research project to explore which of these perspectives is most prevalent.

The Sociologies of Knowledge, Science, and Intellectuals: Distinctive Traditions and Overlapping Perspectives

This article reviews sociological approaches to the production, evaluation, and diffusion of knowledge in the arena of scholarly production – the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. At first glance, sociological approaches to scholarly knowledge production seem to congeal around the hard sciences, on the one hand, and philosophy, on the other. I eschew this polarization and construct an analytic frame of reference for analyzing the sociological dimensions of scholarly production more generally. This article maps successive phases of sociological approaches to scholarly production, by overlaying and distinguishing among theories in the sociology of knowledge, sociology of science, and sociology of intellectuals. I analyze classical theorists’ emphases on class analysis and the social function of intellectuals; mid-century adaptations of functionalism, social structure theory, and institutional theory to analyze intellectual and academic life; critical and reflexive theories, including feminist critiques of science and knowledge; recent emphases on how social movement politics and social networks influence intellectual change; theories of the university as a professional arena and a field of culture production; and studies of knowledge-making practices in group research situations. In addition to arguing for more theoretical and methodological precision in analyses of scholarly and scientific knowledge-making, I conclude with cautionary tales and future prospects for sociological studies of modern academic life.

Moored Metamorphoses: A Retrospective Essay on Feminist Science Studies

“Moored Metamorphoses” presents a retrospective on the development of feminist science studies as well as reflections on the current configurations and future possibilities of the field. I argue that the field began primarily with women scientists who made a strong critique of the cultural and professional practices of science and who developed a foundational body of work, the feminist critiques of science. These critiques argued for an understanding of science as a socially, culturally, and politically embedded set of practices.The feminist critiques of science, which later came to ground the field of feminist science studies, took on science's claims of value neutrality and argued that biological determinism has always supported the status quo and those individuals in power. Exploring the science of difference (sex, race, class, sexuality, nation, etc.) and its political consequences, this early work demonstrated the social embedded nature of science. In “Moored Metmorphoses” I note some of the critical contributions of feminist science studies, which include analyses of scientific objectivity and value neutrality, reproduction and the labor of women, gendered images and language, the binaries of nature and culture, the role of capitalism, and, finally, knowledge and its production. I argue that in the past three decades the field has exploded in exciting and multiple directions yet remains moored to the early formulations of the feminist critiques of science. I then suggest some of the ways unmooring the field will open up new possibilities for a future of feminist science studies, possibilities that are urgent for both feminism and science in our contemporary globalized and transnational world.

Gendered Aspects of Scientific Knowledge: A Multidisciplinary Annotated Bibliography of Selected Sources

ABSTRACT This annotated bibliography focuses on multidisciplinary works since 1995 dealing with the intersection of gender, science, and knowledge. The selected works emphasize the feminist critique of science and are primarily drawn from women's studies, social epistemology, and science. That so much scholarship has been produced in the past decade demonstrates that this issue remains current and relevant today.

Approaches to gender equity in science education: Three alternatives and two examples

In this paper I use feminist critique of science to discuss different understandings of how sex/gender impacts on pupils' approaches to science education. I construct a theoretical framework that shows three different approaches to increase gender equity in science education. Each approach is grounded in a distinct understanding of how sex/gender impact on pupils' engagement in science education. I use the constructed theoretical framework to analyse the perceptions of sex/gender that underpin two science education initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The two initiatives are the ‘Female Education in Science and Mathematics’ project, FEMSA and ‘African Forum for Children's Literacy in Science and Technology’ (AFCLIST). My analysis shows that the two initiatives reflect two different understandings of how sex/gender impacts on pupils' engagement in science education and of how gender inequity in science education should best be approached. Although neither of the initiatives was influenced by feminist theories and critiques of science, this study suggests that this discourse can still be used to analyse such initiatives from a fresh perspective.

Approaches to Gender Equity in Science Education: Two Initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa Seen Through A Lens Derived From Feminist Critique of Science

Approaches to Gender Equity in Science Education: Two Initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa Seen Through A Lens Derived From Feminist Critique of Science

A Conversation on Feminist Science Studies

Previous articleNext article No AccessA Conversation on Feminist Science StudiesEvelynn Hammonds and Banu SubramaniamEvelynn HammondsDepartment of the History of Science andDepartment of Afro‐American StudiesHarvard University (Hammonds) Search for more articles by this author and Banu SubramaniamWomen's Studies ProgramUniversity of Massachusetts, Amherst (Subramaniam) Search for more articles by this author Department of the History of Science andDepartment of Afro‐American StudiesHarvard University (Hammonds)Women's Studies ProgramUniversity of Massachusetts, Amherst (Subramaniam)PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Signs Volume 28, Number 3Spring 2003Gender and Science: New Issues Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/345455 Views: 417Total views on this site Citations: 21Citations are reported from Crossref © 2003 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Anshu Ogra Situating climate change narrative for conceptualizing adaptation strategies: a case study of coffee growers in South India, Regional Environmental Change 22, no.22 (May 2022).https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-022-01919-xMarianne Blanchard Genre et cursus scientifiques : un état des lieux, Revue française de pédagogie , no.212212 (Dec 2021): 109–143.https://doi.org/10.4000/rfp.10890Annie Duchesne, Anelis Kaiser Trujillo Reflections on Neurofeminism and Intersectionality Using Insights From Psychology, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 15 (Sep 2021).https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.684412Jane Bailey, Sara Shayan The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Crisis: Technological Dimensions #*, (Jun 2021): 125–144.https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83982-848-520211007 Storytellers, (Jan 2021): 193–209.https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478012573-193Erica Prussing Through a Critical Lens: Expertise in Epidemiology for and by Indigenous Peoples, Science, Technology, & Human Values 45, no.66 (Nov 2019): 1142–1167.https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243919887448Rachel Fox Obesity: The Post Mortem : Reviving History and Dehumanizing Fatness via Televised Dissection, Women's Studies 48, no.33 (May 2019): 223–245.https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.2019.1594812Maria do Mar Pereira Boundary-work that Does Not Work: Social Inequalities and the Non-performativity of Scientific Boundary-work, Science, Technology, & Human Values 44, no.22 (Aug 2018): 338–365.https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243918795043Deepika Bansal Science Education in India and Feminist Critiques of Science, Contemporary Education Dialogue 15, no.22 (Jun 2018): 164–186.https://doi.org/10.1177/0973184918781212Shiri Noy, Timothy L. O’Brien An Intersectional Analysis of Perspectives on Science and Religion in the United States, The Sociological Quarterly 59, no.11 (Nov 2017): 40–61.https://doi.org/10.1080/00380253.2017.1383141Johanna Weststar, Marie-Josée Legault Women’s Experiences on the Path to a Career in Game Development, (Oct 2018): 105–123.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90539-6_7Seher Ahmad Family or Future in the Academy?, Review of Educational Research 87, no.11 (Jul 2016): 204–239.https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316631626Anna Vitores, Adriana Gil-Juárez The trouble with ‘women in computing’: a critical examination of the deployment of research on the gender gap in computer science, Journal of Gender Studies 25, no.66 (Sep 2015): 666–680.https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2015.1087309Heather Metcalf, Kenneth Gibbs Broadening the Study of Participation in the Life Sciences: How Critical Theoretical and Mixed-Methodological Approaches Can Enhance Efforts to Broaden Participation, CBE—Life Sciences Education 15, no.33 (Sep 2016): rm3.https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-01-0064Heather E. Metcalf Disrupting the Pipeline: Critical Analyses of Student Pathways Through Postsecondary STEM Education, New Directions for Institutional Research 2013, no.158158 (Jul 2014): 77–93.https://doi.org/10.1002/ir.20047Sara Giordano Scientific Reforms, Feminist Interventions, and the Politics of Knowing: An Auto‐ethnography of a Feminist Neuroscientist, Hypatia 29, no.44 (Jan 2020): 755–773.https://doi.org/10.1111/hypa.12112Glenda Strachan, Janis Bailey, Michelle Wallace, Carolyn Troup Gender equity in professional and general staff in Australian universities: the contemporary picture, Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic relations of work 23, no.33 (Sep 2013): 215–230.https://doi.org/10.1080/10301763.2013.839086Susan Schick Case, Bonnie Ann Richley Gendered institutional research cultures in science: the post-doc transition for women scientists, Community, Work & Family 16, no.33 (Aug 2013): 327–349.https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2013.820097Chayanika Shah From Numbers to Structures: Navigating the Complex Terrains of Science, Education and Feminism, Contemporary Education Dialogue 9, no.22 (Jul 2012): 145–171.https://doi.org/10.1177/097318491200900202Laurel Smith-Doerr Contexts of Equity: Thinking About Organizational and Technoscience Contexts for Gender Equity in Biotechnology and Nanotechnology, (Sep 2010): 3–22.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9615-9_1Banu Subramaniam Moored Metamorphoses: A Retrospective Essay on Feminist Science Studies Subramaniam, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 34, no.44 (Jul 2015): 951–980.https://doi.org/10.1086/597147

INTERSPECIES REPRODUCTION: XENOGENIC DESIRE AND THE FEMINIST IMPLICATIONS OF HYBRIDS

This article explores the image of interspecies reproduction, arguably the most disturbing of the range of contemporary images of reproductive technology, as both a metaphor of some historical standing and as a new, and troubling, medical/scientific capability. Moving from the 1994 report of the Human Embryo Research Panel of the NIH, also known as the Muller Panel, through a range of sites – natural history, popular science writing, social critique, fiction, feminist theory and science studies – the article explores the context in which our current scientific perspective on interspecies reproduction is constructed. The study demonstrates the value of contextualizing – both in terms of history and literature – even the most seemingly transparent scientific or medical intervention, in order to achieve the fullest understanding of its implications. A concluding consideration of the philosophical/theoretical construction of interspecies reproduction in the present (postmodern) moment explores its implications for our understanding of the feminist critique of science.

Scientific discourse and the geographical work of Marion Newbigin

Marion Newbigin is known within the history of geography for her work as editor of the Scottish Geographical Magazine (1902–34), but her own considerable body of geographical writing merits further attention within contemporary historiography than has hitherto been given to it. This paper focuses on the impact of Newbigin's training in the natural sciences on her construction and representation of geography and draws on feminist critiques of science as a framework for analysing her work. Whilst adopting a linear view of the progress of science and society, gendered and generalised classes are problematised and blurred in a number of ways in Newbigin's work.

What Physics Is Fundamental Physics? Feminist Implications of Physicists' Debate over the Superconducting Supercollider

The feminist critique of science is one of the most active areas of current feminist scholarship. Most of this work has concentrated on the life and social sciences, but some feminists, most notably Evelyn Fox Keller, Sharon Traweek, and Karen Barad, consider the physical sciences as well. Feminist critics have pointed out, among other aspects, the prevalence of hierarchical models in our thinking about science and scientific ideas. Sandra Harding observes that we think of the sciences themselves as a hierarchy, with the pure, hard, analytic, or mature (depending on one's choice of complimentary adjective) physical sciences at the top, the life sciences in the middle, and the irredeemably soft social sciences at the bottom. (The Science Question). This hierarchical structure is apparent in most traditional works on the philosophy of science, which treat as the paradigm for all sciences. Even heretical philosophers of science like Thomas Kuhn and Paul Feyerabend draw most of their examples from physics. Stephen J. Gould speaks of physics envy on the part of scientists in other fields, an often inappropriate desire to reduce complex phenomena to simple and quantifiable causes. Physicists have for the most part accepted our position at the top of the scientific hierarchy, regarding other sciences and feminist critiques of science with complacency and a touch of arrogance. We have been reluctant to challenge traditional paradigms of science. We also accept a similar hierarchy in itself, ranking the subfields. Physicists ask questions about many things: the universe; galaxies and stars; bridges, spaceships and other machines; the structure of crystals, atoms, nuclei, and quarks. But some of these questions are regarded as more important-physicists say more fundamental-than others, and the branches of that pursue these questions are more elite and competitive than others. Until recently this hierarchy of subfields has been taken for granted by the community. However, the proposal to build the superconducting supercollider (SSC)l stimulated a debate within the community, one that turns on our use of the word fundamental and calls into question the hierarchical structure of and its relation to other sciences.

The values of science: Empiricism from a feminist perspective

This essay delineates the contributions of feminist critiques of science to contemporary reconstructions of empiricism. I argue that three central tenets arise from feminist attention to the dynamics of gender and oppression in the theories and methods of science: 1) a rejection of the science/politics dichotomy; 2) an acknowledgement of the epistemic import of subjective components of knowledge; and 3) a reconfiguration of the subject of knowledge. These three tenets are illustrated and supported through examples from the history of science.

Weaving a new tapestry of research: A bibliography of selected readings on feminist research methods

Since the publication of Reinharz, Bombyk, and Wright's (1983) bibliography on feminist research methods, feminism and feminist approaches to social science have grown in the academic community. Whereas early writings focused on developing a clear, feminist critique of science, more recent work has concentrated on creating and implementing alternative research methods, as well as reconceptualizing traditional techniques. This current bibliography expands previous collections in three areas: (1) the addition of readings on women who experience multiple forms of oppression and the implications of such oppressions for research; (2) an update of writings on feminist critiques of science, feminist epistemologies, and feminist research methods; and (3) the inclusion of articles that target the specific steps of the research process and how feminist approaches can be implemented at each stage.