ABSTRACT
Gender matters in science. At the deepest level, the conceptual structure of science is built on the basis of sex distinctions. Linnaeus, for example, imported traditional sex hierarchies into his hierarchical distinctions between the class of a plant and the orders of plants in that class. The class of plant, higher up the taxonomy, is identified on the basis of the number of male organs and the order, lower down the taxonomy, is identified on the basis of the number of female organs (Schiebinger, 1993). Historically, science has taken for granted such masculine epistemologies and the practice of science predominantly has been a male domain (Harding, 1991). The consequence of these historical patterns is that fewer women than men enter science and even fewer women occupy senior science posts in universities and other research institutions (Osbourne, 1994). When women do enter science they choose the ‘soft’ biological sciences more often than the ‘hard’ physical sciences, focusing on science that helps people, animals and the earth (Baker and Leary, 1995).
