The Gender of Science [Paperback]

The only book of its kind, The Gender of Science inspires readers to critically reflect on science in order to help them become more socially responsible in their dealings with science. Provides a diversity of scientific fields and aspects of science. Ideal for anyone interested in learning about gender and science, the philosophy of science, science, technology, and values, and in gender studies/women's studies.

During the last two decades there has been a near avalanche of work in the area of gender and science—scores of books and collections of essays by historians and philosophers of science as well as scientists themselves, special issues of journals and newsletters, lectures, symposia, conferences, journal articles, bibliographies, and of course media exposes and analyses. But there have been few if any anthologies or textbooks designed specifically to structure courses on gender and science so as to introduce students to the area in a clear and systematic way, though there has been much interest in teaching such courses (to judge from the syllabi and requests for syllabi informally circulating around the country). This anthology is intended to rectify the situation. In it I have included articles that are accessible, eye-opening, and challenging to a wide range of students—students of philosophy, the sciences, gender studies/women's studies, as well as students in interdisciplinary science studies programs such as science, technology, and values. I have organized the articles so as to bring out very clearly the interrelations among them and their relevance to the students. And I have tested in the classroom over a number of years now both the anthology's format and its articles, with great success.

Work on this anthology has been made much easier as a result of the efforts of a number of people. Sue Rosser of the University of South Carolina, Helen Longino of the University of Minnesota, James Maffie of Colorado State University, and especially Alison Wylie of Washington University gave me many useful suggestions and much encouragement. Students in my Gender and Science classes over the years have been unfailingly helpful in pruning out the lemons (both readings and topics) of each new syllabus, and their suggestions for organizing or reorganizing their coursework were always well considered. I owe them a special debt of gratitude both for their generous feedback and for the sheer enjoyment of our interactions. Prentice Hall philosophy editor Ross Miller and production editor Joanne Riker have been wonderfully resourceful and accommodating on a whole slew of thorny issues, and wonderfully pleasant to work with as well. Notre Dame history and philosophy of science graduate student Elizabeth Hayes did a stellar and truly memorable job trying to extract every last error from the proofs. My partner and fellow philosopher Jim Sterba as usual provided the necessary support, humor, love, and distractions to see the project through. Finally, our daughter Sonya, now a twenty-year-old psychology major, has helped me envision a more hopeful future for science. To her, energetic and absorbed and socially concerned scientist-to-be, I dedicate this book.