fem2106.lecture 1.posting
TRANSCRIPT
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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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Doessciencehavea gender?
(3) Nature conceived as feminine
(4) Methodology has been male focused(competition, disinterestedness etc.)
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Doessciencehavea gender?
(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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