The Gendering of Objectivity in Science: An Interview with Anne Fausto-Sterling and Julie Nelson

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Gendering of Objectivity in Science

T2 - An Interview with Anne Fausto-Sterling and Julie Nelson

AU - Skewes, Lea

AU - Lodahl, Mads Ananda

PY - 2021/7

Y1 - 2021/7

N2 - What is the difference between having an opinionon gender and having knowledge about gender? Can both laypeople and scientists tell opinion and knowledge apart? Can we successfully separate science from cultural assumptions about gender? These were some of the questions we invited Anne Fausto-Sterling (who is a Professor Emerita of Biology at Brown University) and Julie Nelson (who is a Professor of Economics at University of Massachusetts Boston) to discuss at the Wo-men’s Museum in Aarhus in March 2015. We cho-se these two professors because they are both famous feminist icons who have chosen to raise important discussions about gendering in science within their disciplines of biology and economics, respectively.1Some of the highlights from our discussion center on how the discipline of science and the concept of objectivity have been fundamentally gendered from the beginning, with white Euro-pean men being understood as the ideal scientists, while women and people of color have been disqualifi ed from legitimate knowledge producti-on simply because of their gender or skin color.

AB - What is the difference between having an opinionon gender and having knowledge about gender? Can both laypeople and scientists tell opinion and knowledge apart? Can we successfully separate science from cultural assumptions about gender? These were some of the questions we invited Anne Fausto-Sterling (who is a Professor Emerita of Biology at Brown University) and Julie Nelson (who is a Professor of Economics at University of Massachusetts Boston) to discuss at the Wo-men’s Museum in Aarhus in March 2015. We cho-se these two professors because they are both famous feminist icons who have chosen to raise important discussions about gendering in science within their disciplines of biology and economics, respectively.1Some of the highlights from our discussion center on how the discipline of science and the concept of objectivity have been fundamentally gendered from the beginning, with white Euro-pean men being understood as the ideal scientists, while women and people of color have been disqualifi ed from legitimate knowledge producti-on simply because of their gender or skin color.

KW - Objectivity

KW - Science

KW - Gender Stereotypes

KW - Backlash

KW - FEMINISM

U2 - 10.7146/kkf.v31i2.127881

DO - 10.7146/kkf.v31i2.127881

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0907-6182

VL - 31

SP - 74

EP - 84

JO - Kvinder, Køn & Forskning

JF - Kvinder, Køn & Forskning

IS - 2

ER -