The different shades of sexist science

Usually when we think of women in science, we focus on the access women have had to practicing science. This is not without warrant. Women have been persistently excluded from science, and their work has been disregarded by or even credited to male scientists.¹ With the exception of some sciences which for some period of time were regarded as feminine (such as chemistry and gynaecology), it was common belief that women should not be participating in the production of scientific knowledge.

However, there is another aspect in which women have been undermined vis-à-vis science. Throughout the history of science, well-established theories supposedly explained why women are inferior to men and thus why it is justifiable to exclude them from activities that are traditionally regarded as masculine, including scientific practice itself. The prejudices that emerged from such ’scientific’ accounts explain to a significant degree the biases and discriminations women continue to face today.