The lack of representation of women in technological fields has and continues to be a major issue we’ve discussed in class. Despite numerous cultural pushes, women remain locked out of science for the most part. I don’t think there’s anything inherent in women that makes them worse at science, so it must be for societal… (read more)

Des Jardins mentions Chein-Shiung Wu very much in passing on pages 235-236, yet there is a racial element to the discrimination Wu faced and fought against, exemplified by her nick name of the “Dragon Lady” of physics; in class we’ve tried to shine some light on the other ways scientific culture marginalized various groups and… (read more)

Both Ava and Megan touch upon the similarity between the Harvard astronomers and Caroline Hershel’s story, as told by Michael Hoskin. I agree that both of these are framed very similarly, in ways which try to minimize their accomplishments. What struck me, however, was how differently Caroline was treated in this article versus how the… (read more)

In class, we’ve often discussed how technology and science are not neutral, but have a long history of being gendered, usually masculinely, except for the various niches such as domestic technology and midwifery. In my literature review, I plan to look at how different authors identify the source of gendered technology in their respective topics… (read more)

Last class we spent some time debating Schiebinger’s thesis, specifically if she was claiming that science itself was gendered or just the practices surrounding it. I think in this section about biology, she clearly describes how the gendered practices of science have created a gendered science. Schiebinger writes that “we cannot free ourselves of cultural… (read more)

How technology can become gendered Representation of women scientists (including lack thereof) Detrimental effects of androcentricsm/phallocentrism

Dr. Carolyn Huntoon was known as the mother hen to the women astronauts in Group VIII. In Ava’s post, she mentions how Huntoon advocated for the women and chose to make waves – something many previous women had avoided doing to lessen the backlash for them stepping outside of their prescribed gender roles and stereotypes…. (read more)

Poovey’s analyses the representation of Florence Nightingale as “joining what could be seen either as two apparently antithetical narratives of as the manifest and latent contents of the same narrative by reworking or repressing their discordant features” (172). This description of a powerful and notable woman in a male/technology dominated industry reminded me very strongly… (read more)

Ava talked in her post about “androcentrism,” or the practice of placing the male experience in the center of one’s world view and history. This affected how men sought to cure hysteria (believing marriage with a man to be the only good solution) but it also affected all the other scientific aspects. The reading mentioned… (read more)

The “Cult of Masculinity in the Age of Heroic Science,” I was fascinated by Jardins’s secondary explanation for the lack of women’s visibility in science. We’ve already discussed women being more accepted in “softer” sciences and dismissing women’s accomplishments as inherent to their organized and patient nature but taking a closer look at the masculine… (read more)