ABSTRACT
Science is based on facts, not wishful thinking or revelation or speculation, facts that are systematically gathered by a community of enquirers through detailed observation and experiment. Indeed, it is this grounding in facts that makes science the most trusted source of knowledge we have, distinguishing it from all other enterprises that claim to produce knowledge. So runs the account of science that has descended to us from Francis Bacon and the other founders of modern science, the account with “the facts” featured as the star of the story. Yet, the character of the star has been left very much in the dark. In this chapter I try to shed some of the light that has been missing: how what science presents as “the facts” is related to values, especially social values, how these values have not always been (and still are not) what they were supposed to be, and how women, especially, have suffered as a result. And I try to suggest some of what now needs to be done.
