Taking a feminist standpoint on chemistry

Scientist is a gender neutral term. But can a scientist conduct research in a gender-neutral manner? And, more importantly, should they?

In the feminist studies of science, Donna Haraway and Sandra Harding introduced a concept called situated knowledge, according to which knowledge is informed by the position people hold when producing it. The idea behind this concept is quite simple. Consider investigating why a bridge has collapsed. A mathematician with an expertise in geometry would follow a starkly different approach than a geotechnical engineer or a materials scientist – they may even all offer different explanations of what happened.