Feminist Approaches to Science (Athene Series) [Paperback]

Ruth Bleier (Editor)

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Teachers College Pr (June 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807762016
• ISBN-13: 978-0807762011
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,466,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars A need to find the right balance, September 4, 2007

By 

L. SAXON - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Feminist Approaches to Science (Athene Series) (Paperback)

Twenty years on, I wonder if the arguments against science presented here have changed much. It is predominantly sociobiology that is being attacked, especially how it is used regarding differences between the sexes. But at least there is a contribution by Sarah Hrdy - a feminist, sociobiologist and primatologist who has done much to redress the male bias and androcentrism within primatology.

Though I am not as critical of science and sociobiology as nearly all the contributors to this book it is also important to acknowledge the points they make about the damage done to women and others by false 'scientific' pronouncements. As Ruth Bleier writes, people in the future may well look back at some of today's scientific beliefs in the way we look back at false ones from the past. She also makes the equally valid point about how we spend so much time, effort and money investigating what are often trivial differences between the sexes rather than researching the sources of the wide differences within same-sex groups.

But science is by its very nature about seeking more and better information so we cannot expect it to provide final truths about everything. And more women are becoming positively involved in evolutionary biology and sociobiology which is probably the most important place for women scientists to be in terms of redressing male bias.

Anti-science in general seems to have flourished over the past couple of decades and this ought to be of increasing concern as much to feminists as to anyone else. Highlighting the faults within science is one thing but opening the door to a resurgence of superstition, irrational false beliefs and practices is something else altogether. I have given this book three stars because the concerns needed to be voiced twenty years ago and need to be kept in mind today, though we now must make sure we do not throw the baby out with the bath water. Today we very much need to find the right balance.