ABSTRACT
This essay gives an overview of the uneasy relationship between feminism and science that has evolved over the past two decades. I shall explain that although women’s studies has helped to put the contributions of women scientists on the map, more fundamental challenges to science have had less of an impact. Women first began to look more closely at gender and biology in the 1980s following the work of the women’s health movement that criticized medical experimentation on women’s bodies and the poor treatment women often experienced. More recent interest has focused on computers and information and communication technologies with a determination that women will not be left behind in new virtual worlds. As well as drawing from these areas, I have chosen to draw from examples in chemistry to assess how far feminist ideas have impregnated the world of scientists because chemistry is rarely mentioned in women’s studies. I shall argue that the sometimes hostile dialogue between science and feminism has meant that transformation of science and its sub-disciplines has begun, but there is still a long way to go. Mainstream science now acknowledges the contributions of once-obscured women in science, but physical science in particular has not taken this further to include the much more sophisticated analyses of science produced in women’s studies. This essay has been informed by many years of teaching and researching in science and an assimilation of a range of feminist viewpoints, and I hope this will provide a forum for continued discussion of some of the points I raise. Throughout the account, I shall consider science mainly as presented in education, but will also refer to science in an industrial and global context.
