fem2106.lecture 1.posting

8/8/2019 FEM2106.Lecture 1.Posting

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FEM 2106 A

Copyright, 1996 Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc.


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Overview

the power of science & technology

History and philosophy of science

Feminist theory overview

Gender as an analytical category

The gender of science?


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Question

Why are science and

technology so powerful inour society?


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Uneasyrelationship betweenscienceand

society

Scopes trial

VD Testing on Blacks (Tuskegee syphilis study)

Hiroshima and Nagasaki (nuclear weapons)

eugenics

industrialization Thalidomide babies


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Whatispolitics?

Who gets what, when and how?

Harold Lasswell (1935)

politics as power


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Whyis genderimportant?

Gender as an analytical category

A way of critiquing science andtechnology

Does science have a gender?


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Whyso fewwomenin S & E?

a consequence of less ability?

just not interested?

innate differences in some kinds of ability? (not

intellectually equipped?) biology culture? socialization -Is society holding girls/women

back?

non-cognitive factors (institl barriers, discrimination)

demands placed on women outside of work? tenure clocks vs. biological clocks?

Sure theres an imbalance but so what?


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feminism

Review (see PPT)

Feminism as a social

and political movement


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feminism

Feminism is a theoretical project whosepurposes are to understand the

power structures, social practices, and

institutions that disadvantage andmarginalize women, and to devise innovativestrategies of social transformation that willpromote womens emancipation. LoraineCode (1993:19)


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Why a feminist approach?

how assumptions we have about gendershape very fundamental concepts like

rationality women excluded from politics, law, science--

too irrational, emotional

excluded from medical clinical trials --saidtheir menstrual cycles made them acomplication


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Womens brains Late 18th C: female cranial

cavity too small to holdpowerful brains

late 19th C: exercise ofwomens brains said toshrivel their ovaries

20th C: peculiarities in right

hemisphere make womensupposedly unable tovisualize spatial relations(Schiebinger, 1989)


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Doessciencehavea gender?

Thearguments for:

(1) men control Western

science and women have

been excluded

(2) mens scientific enterprise attempts tocontrol and dominate nature


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(3) Nature conceived as feminine

(4) Methodology has been male focused(competition, disinterestedness etc.)


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(5) Research assumptions, subjectmatter, questions & answers where

women and things feminine are largelyinvisible (Kourany)

(6) Results of [male] science sociallyadvantage men and disadvantagewomen e.g. women excluded from clinical trials


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1. MencontrolWesternscienceand

womenhave beenexcluded

Men were associated with reason

Women - too emotional to go into politics,

law, philosophy, science In order to make sound judgments we must

abstract ourselves from our emotions,feelings, sentiments

Emotions cloud our judgments


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MencontrolWesternscienceand

womenhave beenexcluded

women physically, numerically excluded

men in control of scientific academies

Marie Curie won 2 Nobel prizes but wasdenied entry to prestigious Academie desSciences in 1911 because she was a woman

Not until 300 yrs. after it opened its doors(1979) that a woman was elected to fullmembership in the Academie


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Marie Curie (1867-1934)


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childbirth

17th , 18th C medical science - takingwomens hc out of the hands of midwives

practitioners of birthing techniques needed to

know anatomy they said but women barred from universities and

scientific academies couldnt study it

irony many male midwives had not everattended at a birth surgeon only called in foremergency forcepts developed at this time


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androcentrism

Society is male-centered

Man is seen as the standard

represents the human norm e.g. first moonwalk: one small step for

man, one giant step for mankind

but this is afalse generic

reflects a hidden bias


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male-centered

The idea of a career, for example, withits 60-hour weeks, is defined in ways

that assume the career-holder hassomething like a wife at home toperform the vital support work of taking

care of children, doing laundry, makingsure theres a safe, clean, comfortablehaven for rest and recuperation from


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the stress of the competitive male-dominated world. Since womengenerally dont have wives, they findit harder to identify with and prosper

within this male-identified model.(Allan G. Johnson, p.6)


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Objectivescience

Assumption that sci. is objective, neutral, value free

Quantitative, hard sciences

maintain a distance, eliminate bias

Qualitative, soft sciences

Scientific method means hypothesis testing,reliability, repeatability etc.

Knowledge obtained is objective and value free


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Objectivescience?

individuals doing science live in a particularcountry during a certain time in a definable

socio-economic condition

their situations impinge on their discoveries

no individual is completely objective


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Frankensteinwasinventedinalab!


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cost of research $$$ - dependent on govt

grants and outside funding

therefore, no independent, isolated scientistsworking in their own labs

choice of problems for study determined byan agenda, what is worthy of study

research a reflection of the powerful (white,male, middle to upper class)


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Thecontext

The world view of a particular society,time, and person limits the questions

that can be asked and thereby theanswers that can be given. (Rosser, 2002:228)


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2. Mensscientificenterpriseattemptsto

controlanddominatenature

Keller: listening to the organism

Beatrix Potter: symbiotic relationship

Temple Grandin: The woman whothinks like a cow

Male science - not

always a holistic view


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3. Natureconceivedas feminine

-Mother Earth

-gendered terms


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4. Methodologyhas beenmale focused

bias in the methodology used

to collect and interpret data

(e.g. only males studied) Bias in conclusions drawn from that data

e.g. heart attacks

Potential bias in management of disease

Leads to possible inequitable treatment forlife-threatening conditions for women


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Methodologyhas beenmale focused

competition, disinterestedness etc. should we require interestedness?

ethics of AIDS drug trials usingplacebos for the dying


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Methodology:race,class, gender

Female research subjects not

always treated as fully human

e.g. initial testing of birth control pillon poor Puerto Rican women

Goldzieher et al. (1971) investigating side effects ofpill; gave dummy pills to 76 women seeking toprevent further pregnancies most were poor,

Mexican Americans

women never told they were in a research study orreceiving placebo


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methodology

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

effects of untreated syphilis studied in 399

men over a period of 40 years understanding human gender-related health

interdisciplinary approaches may be moreappropriate (e.g. teen girls smoking)

complex phenomenon requires interdisc.


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5. Things femininearelargelyinvisible

Research assumptions, subject matter(choice and defn of problems to be studied),

& answers where women and things feminineare concerned are largely invisible

e. g. breast cancer

e.g. cars (minivans)

e.g. hairdressers/stylists

not seen as chemical workers (WHO: higher %of cancer)


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6. Resultsof [male]sciencesocially

advantagemenanddisadvantagewomen

Sex differences not always considered duringmajor research studies

The Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial(1990): mortality from coronary heart diseaselooked at in 12,866 men only

Heart disease defined as a male disease

Most of research funding used to study riskfactors for men


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gendereddiseases

AIDS: a disease of gay men, IV drug users

Underdiagnosis, death rates for women

Women ignored until much later

Men die 30 mths after diagnosis, women 15 wks.(2002 data)

1988, only 13.5% of NIH budget for research onmajor womens illnesses (Narrigan, 1991)

Research agenda decided by politicians need moreelected women


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maleadvantage

Health care practitioners must treat themajority of the population, which is female,

based on information gathered from clinicalresearch in which drugs may not have beentested on females, in which the etiology of thedisease in women has not been studied, and

in which womens experience has beenignored.

Kourany, 2002:231


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HISTORY ANDPHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE


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Whatarethevaluesandassumptions

ofscience?

rationality; proof; replication

double-blind trial

objective

where do our beliefs about science andtechnology come from?


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3 facetstoknowledgedevelopment

Ontology: what is, or what exists.

The ontological study of mental illness would look at what

knowledge existed on the subject over time historically

Epistemology: the study of knowledge andjustified belief; issues having to do with thecreation and dissemination of knowledge;

ways of knowing


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3 facetstoknowledgedevelopment

Methodology: the way(s) we acquireknowledge


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2 paradigmsinknowledgedevt

Empiricist vs. Constructivist


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Thecreationofknowledge

Empiricist view

Knowledge is

revealed Scientific discovery

Quantitative

Unbiased Received view

Constructivist view

Knowledge is

created, constructed Not just science

Qualitative

recognition of bias(science is not value free)

Perceived view


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Perceivedview

yThe pursuit of knowledge is historical,contextual and value laden

yKnowledge is constructedyKnowledge is subjective and created by

individuals

yNeed to recognize gender, culture,

society, power relations when we arediscussing knowledge and science


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Rational,competentperson

Many philosophers assumea rational, competentindividual making areasonable choice from theset of available options

but rationality as defined inour male-dominated worldrequires objectivity andemotional distance

The philosophy of women isnot to reason but to feel[Kant]


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Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712-78

Rousseau: women should not

be taught to reason

Women use their

emotions to manipulate men

If women were taught reason,

they would have undue power over men


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Whyis genderimportant?

Gender disparities in :

access to science & technology

influence over science & technology

use of science & technology


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S&T forpoliticaland

socioeconomicdevelopment

great potential forS&T to improve lives

1 billion people living in poverty (mostare women and children)

1 billion no access to safe water


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2.7 billion no access to adequatesanitation

800 million chronically undernourished UNESCO: Science Technology and Gender: An

International Report, 2007


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Changing Agriculture

Agriculture is affected by temperature, precipitation and soilquality. But in the long run, Climate Change affectsagriculture by affecting:

agriculturalpractices (through changes of wateruse, pesticides, etc)

productivity

environmentaleffects (frequencyand intensityofsoildrainage, etc)ruralspace (lossofland due to desertification)

adaptation (change in biologyofspecies)

Pooragriculture leadstopoornutrition leadsto poorhealth


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