Science from women’s lives. Better Science? How gendered studies improve science and lives (original) (raw)
2016, Mètode Revista de difusió de la investigació
The American Journal of Physics published an editorial several years ago on the number of Physics PhDs obtained by men and women in the United States. Romer (1988) used quite an overt title, «958 men, 93 women-How many Lise Meitners among those 865?», and wondered how many women with the talent of Lise Meitner had been lost along the road. The figures the author used corresponded to 1985-1986, and so two decades have now passed since that wake-up call emerged from the core of the scientific community. The questioning that once pushed the identification of historical obstacles and difficulties for women trying to gain access to scientific institutions-universities, scientific societies, great academies, and diverse forums-is now taking a positive turn. Following on from Romer, the questions are now: what are we missing when we do not include the talent of half of humanity? What happens when we do not modify the institutions that maintain these obstacles? What is the outcome when we do not include gender and sex analyses in basic and applied research? The first two questions focus on achieving more inclusive scientific institutions, but the last one is the most novel and can be operationally posed as follows: how can researchers take advantage of gender analysis in order to make new discoveries? In 2005, at Stanford University, California, USA, this latter question was the origin of an interesting project named Gendered Innovations. Since then, under the leadership of the science historian Londa Schiebinger, more than sixty scientists, engineers, and gender experts (first in the United States and later in Canada, Europe and Asia), started gathering in interdisciplinary working groups to develop methods to analyse, identify, and exemplify case studies under this paradigm. Today, the search for new knowledge and technologies arising from the application of gender analysis to research has reached the level of international collaboration and garnered the support of institutions such as the European Commission, which created a group of experts to join the project in 2011, and the National Science Foundation, which did the same in 2012. SCIENCE FROM WOMEN'S LIVES. BETTER SCIENCE? HOW GENDERED STUDIES IMPROVE SCIENCE AND LIVES cArmen mAGAllón Recent gender analyses have been opening new paths for innovation and excellence. They are the basis for the Gendered Innovations project, led by the science historian Londa Schiebinger, in joint collaboration with the European Union. However, this work did not come out of nowhere; it is supported by decades of gender and science studies consisting of different research lines that critically reviewed the history of science and recovered the story of women's contributions to different scientific fields. This paper reviews the origin and genealogy of the project, highlights its positive effects, and highlights examples of its achievements.