FEMINIST APPROACHES TO SCIENCE THE PERGAMON TEXTBOOK INSPECTION COPY SERVICE An inspcc1ion cop)' of i1ny tcl1bt)t1l;: puhli~hcd h~ Pl!rgamon l)r~~s. \\tll gladly b1.· sent to academic staff w11hou1 obligation for their consideration for cou,sc: adoption or rccoinmcnda1ion. Copies ma~ t,..,, rcrnincd for :1 period of {,(J days from receip1 and returned if not suitahlc. \Vhen a panicul:u 1i1lc i.s adopted or recommended for adoption for class use and th'-' recommendation results in a sale of 12 or more copies. the in~l)Cclion copy may be re1aincd "4·ith our compliments. The publisher "rill be pleased to receive any suggestions for revised editions and new tilles. THE ATHENE SERIES l:.tltt,,n ( ,c.•11c.•rid Gloria Bowles Renate Klein Jan ice Raymond C"11<1t!t111Jl. Fd11or Dale Spender "'""°'" Till' ATI IENI: SF.RIES th:11 .,II tlw,..- wlw .,rt· n>1Kt·mnl w11h l11n11ulaung ,·xpl:1n:11inn, Pl ilw \\':I)' 1lw \\·,,rlJ w,,rk, lll'<"d to kno\l' and .1ppr,·ci.11,· ch,· ,ig11itic11Kc· ui h,1S1r kminisc pnnripk·,. Tht· µ11>\\'th nl kminisc rcsl',1rch h:1, ch.111,·11µ,·d almnst :1ll .1>p1;,1, ol wu.il 11rµa11iz:11io11 ,Ii,· in ,·uhur,·. Th,· i\TI IEi\:I~ SERIES f,,n,,..-, on co11>1n1<·t11>11 ut k11""'lnlµ,· ,111d (11.11' tlw ,·xcluS1nn ,,I \\'11111,·11 lrom 1hc pron·,s- hoth 1hn1n,1, ;ind ,11hic-cts ,,t ,tud)•-and .1> ufk,·, ,nnov:11 i,·,· ,111.ample copies available.· upun ri:~ui::,.11 \X'O~II:.'.:':-. :-. I l 'DIJ.:-. 1:--.' I LR~:\TIO.'.:.\I. IURl ,\I REJ>R(ll)ll( Tl\'I :\:--.'I) t,1-.'-:LTIC E:---'Cli\:1.I·.RI.'.:(, FEMINIST APPROACHES TO SCIENCE edited by Ruth Bleier University of Wisconsin-Madison Pergamon Press New York · Oxford · Beijing· Frankfurt Sao Paulo· Sydney. Tokyo · Toronto U.S.A. Pergamon Press. Inc .• Maxwell House. Fairview Park, Elmsford, New YOik 10523. U.S.A. U.K. Pergamon Press pie. Headington Hill Hall. Oxford OX3 0BW. England PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC Pergamon Press, Room 4037. Qianmen Hotel. Beijing. OF CHINA People·s Repubhc of China FEDERAL REPUBLIC Pergamon Press GmbH. HammerweQ 6, OF GERMANY D-6242 Kronberg. Fede.-al Republic ol Germany BRAZIL Pergamon Editora Lida. Rua E<;a de Oueiros, 346. CEP 040,t 1. Paraiso. Sao Paulo. Brazil AUSTRALIA Pergamon Press AusIralia Pty. lid, P.O Box 544. Potts PoinL NSW 2011. Australia JAPAN Pergamon Press. 51h Fl00<. MatsuOka Central Building. 1-7·1 N1shish1njuKu. Shinjuku, Tokyo 160, Japan CANADA Pergamon Press Canada lid. Su,Ie No. 271, 253 College Street. Toronto. Onta110. Canada MST 1R S © Copynghl 1988 Pergamon Press. Inc. All Rights ReseNed No part of th,s publication may be reproduced. stored in a retr,eval system or transmtlled in any form or by any means: electron,c. electrostallc. magnet,c tape. mechanical. photo· copy,ng. recording or otherwise. without permission ,n writing lrom the publtshers First printing 1986 Second printing t988 library of Congress Cataloging In Publication Data Main entry under trlle Fem,nisI approaches to science (The Athene senes) 1 Sc,ence-Soc1al aSl)8Cls 2 Women in sc.,ence I Bleier. Rulh. 1923- II Series O1755F46 1986 591·01 8!>-28378 ISBN o--08-032787-7 Hardcover ISBN 0--0&-03278&-9 Flexrcover Printed ,n Great Britain oy A. Wheaton & Co. Ltd.. Exeter Contents Preface vu Acknowledgements x, I. lmroduction J Ruth Bleier 2. Science Seen Through a Feminist Prism l8 Marion Name11wir1h 3. Critiques of Modern Science: The Relationship of Feminism 42 10 Orher Radical Epistemologies Eli:.abeth Fee 4. Beyond Mascilinist Realities: A Feminist Epistemology for the 57 Sciences Hila,J' Rose 5. Primatology ls Politics by Other Means 77 0011110 Haraway 6. Empathy, Polyandry. and the Myth of the Coy Female I 19 Sarah Bla//er Hrdv 7. Sex Differences Rc·search: Science or Belk•f;> 147 Ruth Bleier 8. The Relationship Hctwecn \X/omen', Swdies .ind \X/omen 1n 165 Science Sue V. Rosur 9. Taking Feminist Science to the Chissroom: 181 Where Do We Go "From Here? Maria11111e H. Whatley 10. Further Readings on Feminism and Science I 9 l Susan E. Searing Index 196 About the Editor and Contributors 205 The Athene Series 213 V Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2014 https://archive.org/details/feministapproachOOruth Preface This collection of papers explores the nature of contemporary science and attempts 10 extend our visions toward a science that is different, better, feminist. and emancipating. Most of the papers were presented in their orig inal form at a symposium. Feminist Perspectives on Science, at the Univer sity of Wisconsin, Madison, in April 1985. My introductory essay attempts 10 highlight and weave together the main points and common themes of the nine papers, as well as point up some im portant contradictions. In the first paper, Marion Namenwirth sets the stage for the subsequent papers by examining how the method and philosophy of science are supposed to work and how they do indeed work in the day-to-day realities and tensions of today's laboratories. A scientist, she suggests ways in which science could be made to work better. Elizabeth Fee brieny traces the tradition of sexualized and gendcrized metaphors that have characterized science and nature and that have helped to shape views of science as male and as dominating. She describes the feminist responses to the ideologies and goals of modern science. Fee explains the im portance 10 our theoretical and practical work of understanding other litera tures of criticism and struggle against the various and interrelated forms of human domination. Hilary Rose asks why women have been excluded from science and why science is, therefore. a peculiarly masculine institution. She grounds her answers within the theory of labor. She projects a view of a feminist epistemo logy, feminist approaches 10 knowledge of nature and people, that will be qualitatively different because it is rooted in the caring labor of women's work. Donna Haraway examines the practices of women primatologists in the United States in the past decade and a half. She shows that the study of monkeys and apes are major areas in which feminist concerns about the rela tions of gender, knowledge, and power are played out. They are sciences of complex story-telling practices, through which feminist scientists contest for authoritative accounts of human origins, evol~tion, and behavioral biology. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy examines classical Darwinian theories of sexual selec tion with their assumption of the sexually aggressive, promiscuous male and VII VIII PREFACE the coy, passive female. She shows the extent to which such erroneous assump tions have hampered understanding in important areas of primate social behaviors and indicates the importance that gender of the researcher has played in the cognitive history of the field of primatology. In my paper, I use the example of research on brain hemispheric lateraliza tion and cognitive functioning to demonstrate the damaging effects of gender biased assumptions and interpreiations in important and highly publicized areas of the neurosciences. I suggest that the language scientists use often in vites the reader to supply the relevant cultural significance that the data they present would fail to support. Instead of the meaningless nature-nurture dichotomy implicit in sex differences research, I present an alternative argu ment for the inextricability of biological and environmental factors in the development and functioning of the brain. Sue Rosser explores possible relationships bet ween the phenomenal devel opment of the field of women's studies and the marked increase in the number of women being trained in the sciences over the past decade and a half. Us ing a scheme tracing steps by which feminist transformations have occurred in other disciplines, she explores the changes that have been occurring in the teaching of science, in research, and in the personal development of feminist awareness among women scientists. In this she sees movement t0ward feminist transformations of science itself. Mariamne Whatley emphasizes in her chapter the practical and damaging social, political, and medical consequences of biased, misogynist, stereotyped, and biologically determined thinking that pervades many of the science and health issues that capture public anention. She discusses the importance of the classroom-at the university and long before-as a place to undermine the unchallenged authority of scientific pronouncements that have conse quences for human health, dignity, and potential. Finally, Sue Searing has provided an up-to-date, but not exhaustive, list of references to feminist writings on science as a guide for further reading in the area. The project in which we- and others not represented here-arc engaged is to understand the natural world as well as the behaviors and relationships of people. But we arc also preoccupied with understanding better how to gain that understanding. Readers will note that the contributors have some pro found differences in approaches, altitudes, and beliefs. These relate to scien tific theory and approach (for example, sociobiology) and to the nature itself of science, as a body of knowledge and as a route to knowledge. Some of these are discussed in the Introduction. Beyond and including the differences, our routes and goals for understand ing are no different than those of our feminist colleagues in other disciplines. In fact, a fair statement for most of us has been made by a biographer, Carol Ascher:

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