"Reflections on Gender and Science"

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that Sigmund Freud defined his concept of Weltanschauung as an intellectual construction which gives a unified solution of all the problems of our existence in which no question is left open and in which everything has its place. The author points out that, as a scientist and a feminist, Evelyn Fox Keller, known for her work in history, sociology and the philosophy of the inter-relationship of science and gender, is neither too easy on the male-dominated scientific establishment nor is she calling for a "feminist science" of a different order from the current and classical prevailing form. This paper relates that Keller is calling not for a different science but for a science that recognizes the value of differences in approach and cognition, a gender-free science, a truly scientific Weltanschauung.

From the Paper:

"For example, Keller acknowledges that more and more women have been going into scientific careers, but until recently, most have been in the soft sciences, not the hard sciences such as physics, mathematics, chemistry, and biology. She notes that even these characterizations as "hard" and "soft" revel a sexist, masculine bias in the way people think about science--an attitude that is hardly objective and scientific. She even mentions that her five-year-old son stated that "science is for men." What better proof of the pervasiveness of the genderization of science than when your own child says that to his mother, who is a mathematical biophysicist who has done groundbreaking research in some of the "hardest" areas of quantitative scientific research?"

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