Feminism and Science

Bibliographic Data

ID23740841
AuthorsEvelyn Fox Keller (0000-0002-5116-852X, corresponding author)
Year1996
Pages28-40
Publication date1996-04-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueFeminism and science (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University PressOxford (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780198751458.003.0003
OpenAlexW4388064297
ISBN9780198751458
LanguageEN
Citations received7

In recent years, a new critique of science has begun to emerge from a number of feminist writings. The lens of feminist politics brings into focus certain masculinist distortions of the scientific enterprise, creating, for those of us who are scientists, a potential dilemma. Is there a conflict between our commitment to feminism and our commitment to science? As both a feminist and a scientist, I am more familiar than I might wish with the nervousness and defensiveness that such a potential conflict evokes. As scientists, we have very real difficulties in thinking about the kinds of issues that, as feminists, we have been raising. These difficulties may, however, ultimately be productive. My purpose in the present essay is to explore the implications of recent feminist criticism of science for the relationship between science and feminism. Do these criticisms imply conflict? If they do, how necessary is that conflict? I will argue that those elements of feminist criticism that seem to conflict most with at least conventional conceptions of science may, in fact, carry a liberating potential for science. It could therefore benefit scientists to attend closely to feminist criticism.

Criticism · Dilemma · Epistemology · Feminism · Feminist philosophy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Feminist Epistemology and Gender Studies · Gender Studies · Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration · Law · Philosophy

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