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"La Sida"
by Cecilia Concepcion Alvarez


Science and Technology









WS 595: Science and Technology
in Women's Lives
Spring 1998

This seminar explores the participation of women in science and the impact of science and technology on women's lives.

This seminar explores the participation of women in science and the impact of science and technology on women's lives. The recent scholarship in this area is extensive, and covers a wide range of concerns. We will address the following areas, as well as others you may discover:

  • Where were women? Were they there? Historical exclusion and resistance
  • Intersections: Race, gender, class, as well as world views
  • Professional opportunities in the 1990s - issues for diverse women
  • Challenges to traditional science: Feminist perspectives on "technoscience"
  • Women in action: U.S. and global ecofeminism
  • New technologies, old ideas - Who decides?


Students should be able to:

1. Describe the role(s) of women in scientific fields in the U.S. and other parts of the world; and understand the contemporary structure of opportunities for women in science and technology.

2. Analyze factors affecting women's participation in western science/technology from an historical perspective; examine critically a range of images of women/nature and alternative feminist views.

3. Understand feminist critiques of science/technology and comprehend alternative strategies for thinking about science as it affects women's lives.

4. Develop a critical analysis of a public policy area in science which has consequences for women.







Requirements: Each will be explained further in class.

  • (40%) Active participation in electronic and classroom settings is expected, and each student will take responsibility for leading a discussion. Weekly papers (1-2 pages, with a copy for each student) reflect critically on readings and present issues for consideration.
  • (20%) Critical report on a biography of a woman scientist, or group of women in science. (3-5 pages). Shared with the class.
  • (40%) *Research paper (15-20 pages; a case study related to one aspect of the course; requires bibliographical research)



Required Texts:

Feminism Confronts Technology, 1991. Judy Wajcman, Penn State U.

Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature. 1993. Greta Gaard,ed., Temple University Press.

Women in Science: A Selection of 16 Significant Contributors, San Diego Supercomputer Center, 1997.

Woman on the Edge of Time, 1976. Marge Piercy, Ballantine Books.

Women Encounter Technology, 1995. Ed. Swasti Mitter and Sheila Robotham, Routledge.

Women in Mathematics: The Addition of Difference, 1997. Claudia Henrion, Indiana University Press.


Nonrequired Reading:

Ecofeminism Bibliography



Course Outline - Spring 1998

Week 1, Jan 29

    Overview of the course, indicating the range of issues and voices to be heard. Jennifer Esquivel-Parker, slides on women scientists. Film: Evelyn Keller with Bill Moyer on gender and science.

Week 2, Feb.5
    Groundwork: Thinking about what Donna J. Haraway calls "technoscience" from feminist perspective(s).

    Read: Mitter, Ch 3 "Feminist approaches to technology: women's values or a gender lens?" by Sheila Rowbotham; Gaard, Ch 1 and 2, "Living Interconnections with Animals and Nature," by Greta Gaard and "Ecofeminism: Linking Theory and Practice," by Janis Birkeland; Wacjman, Ch 1, "Feminist Critiques of Science and Technology." Discussion of possible research topics.

Week 3, Feb. 12
    Making Women Visible. Contemporary women scientists, where are they? Mathematics as a way of looking at the lives of women scientists and the various myths/multiple realities in the world of science. Film: Discovering Women in physics.

    Read: Henrion, Ch 1, 2 and 3

Week 4, Feb 19
    More on Women in Mathematics, biography with social context. Intersections of gender, race and class. Panel of women scientists.

    Read: Henrion, Ch 4, 5 and 6 Research topic due

Week 5, Feb 26
    Technology and Work.

    Read: Wacjman Ch 2, "The Technology of Production: Making a Job of Gender,"and Mitter Ch 2 and 8, "Information technology and working women's demands," and "Computerization and women's employment in India's banking sector."

Week 6, March 5
    Reproductive work.

    Read: Wacjman Ch 3, "Reproductive Technology: Delivered into Men's Hands," and Piercy, Ch 5, 6 and 12. Please schedule a conference to discuss your research.

Week 7, March 12
    Woman's Place, in the Home?

    Read: Wacjman Ch 4, "Domestic Technology: Labour-saving or Enslaving?" and Mitter, Ch 4 & 13, "Conflicting demands of new technology and household work," (Argentina and Brazil) and "Gender perspectives on health and safety."

Week 8, March 19
    The geography of women's lives. Speaker: Doreen Mattingly, Geography and Women's Studies.

    Read: Wacjman Ch 5, "The Built Environment: Women's Place, Gendered Space. Bibliography for your research paper is due.

Week 9, March 26
    Information Technology. Speaker from Supercomputer Center.

    Read: Mitter Ch 10, 11 and 12, "Women in software programming," (Brazil) "Something old, something new, something borrowed..." (Calcutta), and "Women and information technology in sub-Saharan Africa."

Week 10, April 2
    "Don't Agonize, Organize."

    Read: Mitter Ch 14 "Using information technology as a mobilizing force," (Tanzania) & 15 "The fading of the collective dream?", Wacjman Ch 6 "Technology as Masculine Culture" and Conclusion.

April 6-10 Spring Recess

Week 11, April 16

    Ecofeminism as new perspectives.

    Read: Gaard, Ch 3, "Dismantling Oppression: An Analysis of the Connection Between Women and Animals," Ch 4, "Roots: Rejoining Natural and Social History." and Ch 5 "Ecofeminism and the Politics of Reality." Film: Thinking Green - Ecofeminists and the Greens.

    DRAFT OF RESEARCH PAPER DUE

Week 12, April 23
    Ecofeminism continued.

    Read: Gaard, Ch 6, "Questioning Sour Grapes: Ecofeminism and the United Farm Workers Grape Boycott," Ch 11, "A Cross-Cultural Critique of Ecofeminism," and Ch 12, "Ecofeminism and Native American Cultures: Pushing the Limits of Cultural Imperialism."

Weeks 13, 14 and 15 will be devoted to research presentations.
    Final papers due May 14

*Research paper:
    (15-20 pages, bibliography) You have a great deal of flexibility in selecting your topic for this paper. The most important aspect is that you consider seriously the implications of your subject for understanding the role of science and technology in women's lives. You may choose to explore further theoretical perspectives (i.e., Keller, Harding, Haraway, Bleir, Tuana and others); or you may select a specific area (such as the contributions of African-American women to science; or the impact of reproductive technology on women's lives; or a specific environmental concern). Again, my concern is that you become familiar in some depth with literature in this fast-growing area, and generate your own analysis of the issue or problem. You are expected to consult with me early and often.

Research links



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