F E M I N I S M

                                                       Feminism and science





Feminists has been critical of traditional scientific discourse, arguing that the field has historically been biased towards a masculine perspective.

Evelyn Fox Keller argues that the rhetoric of science reflects a masculine perspective, and she questions the idea of scientific objectivity.

Primatologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy notes the prevalence of masculine-coined stereotypes and theories, such as the non-sexual female, despite "the accumulation of abundant openly available evidence contradicting it".

Some natural and social scientists have examined feminist ideas using scientific methods.





Feminism and the biology of gender



Related terms:
Biology of gender



Modern feminist science is based on the view that many differences between the sexes are based on socially constructed gender identities rather than on biological sex differences.

For example, Anne Fausto-Sterling's book Myths of Gender explores the assumptions embodied in scientific research that purports to support a biologically essentialist view of gender.

However, in The Female Brain, Louann Brizendine argues that brain differences between the sexes are a biological reality with significant implications for sex-specific functional differences.

Steven Rhoads' book 'Taking Sex Differences Seriously' illustrates sex-dependent differences across a wide scope.

Carol Tavris, in 'The Mismeasure of Woman', uses psychology and sociology to critique theories that use biological reductionism to explain differences between men and women. She argues rather than using evidence of innate gender difference there is an over-changing hypothesis to justify inequality and perpetuate stereotypes.





Feminism and evolutionary biology



Related terms:


Evolutionary biology



Sarah Kember—drawing from numerous areas such as evolutionary biology, sociobiology, artificial intelligence, and cybernetics in development with a new evolutionism—discusses the biologization of technology.

She notes how feminists and sociologists have become suspect of evolutionary psychology, particularly inasmuch as sociobiology is subjected to complexity in order to strengthen sexual difference as immutable through pre-existing cultural value judgments about human nature and natural selection.

Where feminist theory is criticized for its "false beliefs about human nature," Kember then argues in conclusion that "feminism is in the interesting position of needing to do more biology and evolutionary theory in order not to simply oppose their renewed hegemony, but in order to understand the conditions that make this possible, and to have a say in the construction of new ideas and artefacts.