Blackwell Reference Online

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Feminist accounts of science expose the ways in which the various sciences exhibit androcentric bias in their theories, practices, and presuppositions. Some, but not all, of these accounts also raise questions about the extent to which our understanding of what it is to be rational, objective, and scientific is itself gender-laden. The analyses are wide-ranging and diverse, reflecting a broad range of commitments within philosophy of science and within feminist theory. It is a mistake to treat feminist critiques of science as constituting a monolithic body of literature, since doing so leads to caricature and to the inevitable repression of crucial issues. Moreover, one of the chief lessons to be gleaned from the accumulating research in this area is that the role played by gender in science is exceedingly complex and variable. Popular presentations and offhand references that downplay this complexity and variability misrepresent feminist research, and contribute to maintaining the unfortunate gulf between it and most “mainstream” philosophy of science.Not all of the vast literature on “gender and science” can be touched on here. Related bodies of literature that will not be dealt with include equity studies, efforts to reform science education, research on women scientists, and the literature on women and technology. The focus instead is on scholarship that addresses directly questions ... log in or subscribe to read full text