Ally or oppressor? Exploring science through feminist lenses

Prof Gita Chadha and Prof Hiyaa Ghosh of NCBS had an in-depth discussion on ‘feminist perspectives in science’ at an event conducted around the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

Is science an ally of feminist movements? Or has it been, absorbing the biases of the practitioners, oppressive towards women and other marginalised genders?

“It’s a complex relationship,” says Prof Gita Chadha, Obaid Siddiqui Chair in History and Culture of Science at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bengaluru.

“In feminist science studies, there are many versions of how we relate to science. Women’s movement continues to think of science as an ally, but we also realise it can be extremely problematic and oppressive,” she said.

Prof Chadha was in conversation with Prof Hiyaa Ghosh, neuroscientist at NCBS, on “Feminist Perspectives in Science.” The event was organised by NCBS and Champaca bookstore in connection with the International Day of Women and Girls in Science that fell on 11 February.

Feminist science studies emerged in the mid-1980s as a strong critique to the professional practice of science that was until then largely carried out from a male point of view. While science, or practitioners of it, often claim to be neutral and objective, history says otherwise. Different streams of sciences have more than often mirrored the cultural and social biases of the practitioners and legitimised social stereotypes around gender.

“Women, somewhere along their struggles for equity and equality, realised that at the bottom line, there is a notion that the inequality is justified biologically, a belief that there is a biological basis to gender differences, and in extension to patriarchy sometimes. I think that was perhaps why feminists felt the necessity and urgency to engage with science,” Prof Chadha said.

Delving into the history of perceptions of science and shifts in it, prof Chadha noted that while science has been considered the institution of modernity and progress, in the post-World War period, perceptions – different from earlier – started emerging.