FIELDS

- gender, race & science
- science & technology
- sexuality
- biology

Gender, Race & Science

INTRO - RESOURCES - LINKS

I N T R O D U C T I O N

The scholarly analysis of gender and science began in earnest in the 1980s. At the time scholars in the field of women's studies had begun to examine gender--by which we meant a system of power relationships which mapped onto those bodies which we conventionally call "male" and "female". Historians asked how gender politics shaped history. Literary scholars asked how gender politics shaped the novel, or made some literary forms seem more important than others. In each case, asking such questions changed the structure of the discipline by holding up for analysis things which had hitherto seemed like natural truths.

Women's studies scholars interested in science began to ask similar sorts of questions. Is scientific knowledge gendered? What is meant by the idea of objective knowledge?  Women's studies scholars trained originally in the sciences, in history of science, philosophy, anthropology and literary theory all started to write actively about these topics.

At the same time scholars in a newly developing field called Science Studies began to analyze science  as a cultural product, and feminist scholars began to use insights from science studies. In the history of biology the questions of gender and race have always been linked. Furthermore, as the field of women's studies began to grapple with its own cultural diversity, some scholars started to analyze race and science in a manner analogous to studies of gender and science.

There are now dozens of books and thousands of articles on the topics of gender, race and science. I list a few of my favorites below and links to web sites with additional resources as well (see also the book series Race, Gender and Science).

R E S O U R C E S

Gender & Science

Gero, Joan M. and Conkey, Margaret, W. eds. (1991) Engendering Archeology: Women and Prehistory. Blackwell.

Harding, Sandra (1991) Whose Science, Whose Knowledge? Cornell University Press.

Haraway, Donna (1997) Modest_Witness@Second_Millenium.FemaleMan_Meets_Oncomouse^TM Routledge

Keller, Evelyn (1985) Reflections on Gender and Science. Yale University Press.

Keller, Evelyn Fox (1992) Secrets of Life, Secrets of Death: Essays on Language Gender and Science. Routledge

Martin, Emily (1987) The Woman in the Body.  Beacon Press.

Martin, Emily (1994) Flexible Bodies. Beacon Press.

Park, Katherine. (2006) Secrets of Women: Gender, Generation, and the Origins of Human Dissection. Zone Books.

Russett, Cynthia Eagle (1989) Sexual Science: the Victorian Construction of Womanhood. Harvard University Press.

Schiebinger, Londa (1999) Has Feminism Changed Science? Harvard University Press.

Race & Science

Coates, Peter. (2007) American Perceptions of Immigrant and Invasive Species: Strangers on the Land. University of California Press.

Dupre, John. (2003) Human Nature and the Limits of Science. Oxford University Press.

Guthrie, Robert V. (1976) Even the Rat was White. Harper and Row.

Harding, Sandra, ed. (1993) The "Racial" Economy of Science. Indiana University Press.

Harding, Sandra (1998) Is Science Multicultural? Indiana University Press.

Haraway, Donna (1989) Primate Visions: Gender, Race and Nature in the World of Modern Science. Routledge.

Longino, Helen (1990) Science as Social Knowledge. Princeton University Press.

Schiebinger, Londa (1993) Nature's Body: Gender in the Making of Modern Science. Harvard University Press.

Wailoo, Keith (1999) Drawing Blood: Technology and Disease Identity in 20th Century America. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Wailoo, Keith (2001) Dying in the City of the Blues: Sickle Cell Anemia and the Politics of Race and Health. University of North Carolina Press.

L I N K S

History of Race in Science A comprehensive site offering links to bibliographies, web sites and courses addressing various aspects of race & science. Mathematicians of the African Diaspora 25% of whom are women. Image archive of the American Eugenics Movement A good entry into an important aspect of the history of race & science. Women & minorities in science & engineering Gateway site to other good resources on the web. National Science Foundation Source of current data on PhD's awarded to women & minorities in science.

The History of Women and Science, Health and Technology: A Bibliographic Guide A comprehensive bibliography from the Women's Studies program at the University of Wisconsin. Gender Science & Technology for Development Launched under the auspices of the UNESCO World Congress on Science  in June 1999. Feminist Theory Website In English, Spanish & French includes over 5000 bibliographic entries. Graduate women in science Professional sorority with many links related to women in science. World Conference on Science Held in 1999, this conference addressed issues of both race & gender; informative reports on conference deliberations.

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Last update: 8/20/2007