ABSTRACT

Evelyn Fox Keller's historical and philosophical analyses of gender and science have been foundational to the development of Anglo-American feminist critiques of science. Keller's advocacy for a gender-free science, her psychoanalytic critique of scientific objectivity and her concern with the effects of language and metaphoricity in scientific knowledges have been particularly influential on feminist and social analyses of the natural sciences. Keller has argued for the establishment of a 'gender-free', rather than feminine or feminist, science. The constitutive effect of language on scientific knowledges and practices has been Keller's other major critical concern. Keller has demonstrated how metaphor has been a powerful guide of scientific models and methods. Marxist-feminism led Kelly to postulate that through history, sexual inequalities have been bound to control of property, wealth and labour. She observes that in societies where familial activities coincide with the public domain, women's status has been higher than in those where the domestic and public spheres are clearly delineated.