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Gender and the Biological Sciences

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Gender and the Biological Sciences
Kathleen Okruhlik
–Philosophy of science professor and Dean of Arts at Western.
–This paper was published in 1994.
–Offers a sophisticated feminist critique of the philosophy of science.
Feminist critiques of biology are politically important
Because biologically determinist arguments are often cited to ‘explain’ women’s oppression.
E.g., genes, hormones, and evolution ‘explain’ why it is ‘natural’ for women to function in a socially subordinate role, why men are smarter and more aggressive than women, why women are designed to be homebodies, and why men rape.
Thus, promoting a more equalitarian and just society is useless or counterproductive.
Feminist critiques of biology are also epistemically important.
Because of the status of biology among the sciences.
Social sciences are often dismissed as not real sciences, so to criticise them is not as effective.
But biology is not easily dismissed as a pseudo-science, and so to criticise it can teach us something about the nature of science (i.e., its rationality, objectivity, degree of insulation from social influences, etc.)
Some cases studies: (1) gender and reproduction
The Sleeping Beauty/Prince Charming model of the relationship between egg and sperm in reproduction. –Just as women are seen as passive and men as active, the egg and sperm are traditionally assigned these roles.
–The sperm is the one doing all the work to get to the egg and penetrate it, while the egg merely wait. –Model suggested as early as 1795 and influential ever since.
A new model suggested in the last 25 years (15 years in 1994) to the effect that the egg is also quite active.
–Electron microscopy reveals than the egg grows small finger-like projections to clasp and draw in the sperm.
–Discovered in 1895 with the first photographs of see urchin fertilization, but largely ignored

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