We had an interesting discussion in my intro. to women’s studies class. Then again, I’m thinking that every class period is going to be an interesting discussion. What we do in this class is read from articles and books with a feminist perspective and then comment on them in class. That’s why I say this class should always be worth attending.
Here’s a quote from the article our class read from Helen E. Longino titled Can there be a Feminist Science?:
Women in the sciences who feel they are being asked to do not better science, but inferior science, have responded angrily to this characterization of feminist science, thinking that it is simply new clothing for the old idea that women can’t do science.
Do you all remember about a decade ago when the medical community annouced that aspirin could prevent heart disease? Did you all know that there was not a single woman in the study? According to the medical researchers, including women into the study meant an unnecessary complication; that is, women have an unstable hormonal imbalance and this could jeopardize the stability of the project.
Many people commented in class as you might imagine. One woman, in her mid forties posed the question, “How could those male doctors claim that their science was objective when their study in itself was extremely biased (subjective)? How can they get away with that?”
After some other people said their two cents in class, I decided to say mine. I told her that it all revolves around politics: “Historically, we as a human race have done some really bad things and people get away with it because at the time there was no significant opposition to challenge disenfranchising policy.”
Many women said, “Women are subordinates and men dominate because that is the way it has always been…” I responded by saying that, “The only reason why women are in the same subordinate position for thousands of years is because we are conditioned in our cultures to believe that it is favorable and more rewarding to take the passive and not the active role in society. If we became more active in politics things would change. I can’t imagine how difficult it must have been for our great great grandmothers who had a dozen kids and still managed to fight for women’s suffrage in 1920. Today, we college students have no excuse.”
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