Feminism and Science Studies

Question 1

Feminist thinking about science is united on a particular idea. What is this?

Answer 1

It is unified by the idea that science has been part of a structure that has perpetuated inequalities between men and women.

Science itself, and mainstream theorizing about science and knowledge, have helped to keep women in a “second-class” position as thinkers, knowers, and intellectual citizens. (Even these generalizations about feminist discussions of science have exceptions.)

Question 2

What are some of the major goals of feminists when it comes to science?

Answer 2

Feminism in general aims to understand and fight against inequalities between the sexes, with respect to political rights, economic standing, and social status. This has a simple application to science: women were for many years excluded or discouraged from a life in science, as they were excluded from other high-prestige areas of work. This is a simple matter of equality of opportunity, one that raises questions about policy (such as the appropriateness of affirmative action).

Question 3

Briefly discuss Lloyd’s critique of Francis Bacon on “real” knowledge.

Answer 3

-Lloyd argues that the early development of ideas about reason and knowledge were greatly affected by views about the relation between maleness and femaleness.
-The concept of reason evolved in Western philosophy in a way that associated reasonableness with maleness, and associated the female mind with a set of psychological traits that contrast with reasonableness.
-association between femaleness and nature; the earth is fertile, female, the source of life. Via this association, ideas about the relationship between the mind and nature were modeled on the relationship between male and female.
-For Bacon, real knowledge is manifested in control of nature: “Knowledge is power.” But as Bacon developed this idea, he retained the image of nature as female. His model for the relation between the mind and nature was the model of marriage, a marriage between the knower (man) and nature (woman).
-Male mind is more suitable for scientific investigations
-Shows bias against women
-Science is objective, regardless of gender, you get same results
-No changes in the way we do science, just create more opportunity for women in science

Question 4

Explain the case of primatology as a clear example of the role that gender has played in a particular part of science.

Answer 4

-Field of primatology
-First generation mainly men believed male primates sexually very active, have many sexual partners and impose themselves, female primates passive
-Women entered field and felt empathy for female primates and observed primates more carefully, found female primates not as passive as previously thought, actually choose their partners
-Gender of scientists offered opportunity to look at science differently, more nuanced interpretation
-Gradually changed the science entirely
-Changed it in an objective way, male scientists overlooked important details
-Science not gender biased, but gender can play a role in finding evidence/gathering information
-when you allow more women in the discipline it can open our eyes to new sets of data

Question 5

What are three kinds of feminist criticism of science, according to Harding? Very briefly explain them.

Answer 5

Spontaneous feminist empiricism:
Use feminist point of view to criticize biases without challenging fundamentals of science

Philosophical feminist empiricism:
-Need to revise and improve ideas about science and knowledge
-Remain faithful to fundamentals of empiricist ideas

Radical feminist epistemology: 2 approaches

Feminist post modernism-
-No one single truth, truth is context dependent
-Committed to relativism, no unique way of justifying a theory
-Science is political
-Truth is constructed
-Politics shape what we consider to be truth

Standpoint epistemology-
-being man or woman plays a role in how you experience life
-race, gender, social class, etc.
-People who share same gender perceive the world in a way that is fundamentally different from other genders
-When it comes to science, it is important to be inclusive, because everyone brings a new perspective
-Encourage and give voice to minorities to enrich science/knowledge