Is science objective?

Short answer: no. And this is one of the reasons that feminist science studies is particularly important.

Invisible biases from popular culture are woven into hypotheses and research without notice every day. Lets unpack this taking the scientific method into account. When we practice science we draw from observation to formulate our research agendas and hypotheses. We then conduct a repeatable experiment and interpret our data. As noted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities (1999) there are several points in which our own social, political and/or personal interests can affect the data we produce;

 Social, political or personal interests can affect:

   —how scientists set priorities for scientific investigation;


   —what questions are posed about a topic;


   —what explanatory framework or theory frames a scientific study;

   —what methods are used;


   —what data are considered valid and invalid;


   —how data are interpreted;


   —how data in one study are compared to data in other studies;

   —what conclusions are drawn from the analysis of scientific data;   and

   —what recommendations are made for future studies.

                                                            (AAC&U, 1999:5)

By pointing out ways in which science can be influenced by societal agendas and ideals, feminist science scholars aim to address and deconstruct the belief that science is wholly objective.

Furthermore, the way we are taught to write science works to covers up any ideas that subjectivity exists within the field. Our laboratory reports and manuscripts often include phrases like The findings suggest… and Increased ____ indicates _____. These phrases strip the context and ourselves out of our findings effectively diminishing the idea that personal interests may be inadvertently sewn into the science we produce; they make it appear as if our findings are concrete and not just a possible explanation or interpretation that we made in our head (Hubbard p 157).“Feminists must insist that subjectivity and context cannot be stripped away, that they must be acknowledged if we want to use science as a way to understand nature and society and to use the knowledge we gain constructively” (Hubbard 158).

so how do feminism and science go together?

As a double major, I often get asked how my interests in feminist theory and science overlap. To me it seems rather obvious, but others do not seem to quite see the connection between the two. As noted by Deebolena Roy: “For many individuals, the mere idea of mixing feminism and science together sets well – established modes of reasoning (perhaps even gravity) into topsy-turvy motion”  (Deebolena Roy from article in Women, science, technology page 233 – online one). However when we closely examine the goals of feminism, we see how the two studies fit hand in hand with one another.

Feminist scholars, across disciplines, have made an effort to study and understand systems that perpetuate subordination and marginalization. In doing so, feminists hope to diminish differences between genders, as well as other oppressed groups, and to establish equality across all groups. As noted by the Association of American Colleges and Universities: “In applying feminist analyses to scientific ideas and practices, feminism sees science, like all spheres of intellectual activity, as conditioned by historical circumstances, societal beliefs, and accepted norms” (AAC&U, 1999:3). In other words, feminism examines how cultural norms and stereotypes translates and contributes to our own scientific thinking and practices.

Feel free to contact me if you are interested in finding out more - I have a whole thesis on this thing after all! 

On Creating my very first zine

My very first zine:

I wanted my first zine to be simple and provide a foundation for future zines. Originally, I anticipated that this zine would be a complete introduction to the equity and content branches of feminist science studies, however, as the focus of my first semester research is on the equity branch, I figured it may make the most sense to break the zine up into two separate editions: the equity edition and the content addition. This makes the most sense for the flow of my zine series as well as the first couple of zines explore the equity branch. 

link to complete zine: http://scigrrrl.blogspot.com/2013_10_01_archive.html

Creating scigrrrl:

I struggled with the creation of the image of scigrrrl for my zine. I wanted her to appeal to all kinds of women interested in science with all kinds of backgrounds (with respect to ethnicity, field, and gender performance). In order to do so, I thought of changing her image/look in each of the zines I create to represent that anyone can take on the identity of scigrrrl. I also thought of attributing the title of scigrrrl, not only to the image and myself, but also to my readers and women who I look up to in the field. In the process of making my second zine, I decided the latter may be the best way for me to go about making scigrrrl inclusive. 

In creating the image of scigrrrl for this particularly zine, I had a lot in mind: I wanted her to look sciencey but also feminine to go against the most prominent image of women in science - reserved, masculine, dorky. With this being said, I also did not want her to look over feminine, or be wearing something you would NEVER see a women wear in a science/lab setting ( so no intense make-up, open-toed heels, or over-the-top dress). 

Zining process: 

While this cover does not look like much, I can assure you it took hours on hours for me to create. I included a diverse range of scientific images to represent math, biology, neuroscience, physics, chemistry, and medicine. I did so because I wanted my zine to appeal to a diverse group of scientists and not only those in a certain field. 

I also decided on using bright colors and cartoonish drawing to make the text more appealing. Since the original intent was to distribute the zines across my college campus, I believe that bright cartoons screamed “pick me up and read me” more than any other format I could have chosen (feel free to disagree or give me feedback on this!) 

My Project: Let the Zine-ing Begin!

Over the course of my senior year, I am going to create a zine series on feminist science studies (aka what I am not being taught via my science degree) to share with others. Before I delve deeper into why I chose a zine format, let me first talk about what exactly feminist science studies is.

WHAT IS FEMINIST SCIENCE STUDIES???

Feminist science studies is, in short, the examination of science with a feminist lens. This is a pretty hefty topic as science itself is so diverse. (Stay tuned - I will go into more detail in a later post).

Zine and online format 

I believe that the best way of facilitating awareness amongst my peers is by creating an accessible text that gives them a taste of my research without requiring them to read the entirety of my thesis. The medium of this accessible text came to me immediately: a zine.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with zines, they are a homemade booklets or little magazines. Zines often include personal and political narratives as well as information that is not readily available in other formats (aka what magazines and newspapers are not talking about). Zines cover a diverse range of subjects; I am pretty certain you could find a zine on absolutely everything. 

A popular subset of zines are called “grrrl zines.” Grrrl zines gained their popularity in the early 1990s with popular zines like Jigsaw and Riot Grrrl(Piepmeier 2009: 2). The rewriting of “girl” for these zines was meant to “incorporate an angry  growl” (Piepmeier 2009: 5). These zines are created by women and are used to create discourse (Piepmeier 2009: 2). As Piepmeiers states in Girl Zines: making Media and Doing Feminism, “Grrrl zines offer idiosyncratic, surprising, yet savvy and complex responses to the late-twentieth-century incarnations of sexism, racism, and homophobia” (4).My intent is to create a grrrl zine along those very same lines: My zine will be a response to my experiences as a female science student, equity in the field, and some studies that I find to be backwards. 

3 projects all stemming from one

Over the course of my senior year, I am producing three separate medias all stemming from the same project in feminist science studies.

The first, and probably foundation of my entire project is my zine series scigrrrl (all of which will be posted to this very blog). The series aims to briefly cover different topics under the umbrella of feminist science studies (super big field, so very very brief!).

The 2nd is this very blog. This is where all my rants go, my random thoughts, problems I am having with making my zine, my reasoning for doing what I am doing with my zine.... etc. In addition to this blog, I also have a tumblr account. Why have two blogs? Because my tumblr account has a completely different purpose - on that site I am gathering interesting articles and sources that may or may not be included in my other media sources.


The 3rd is an academic paper that goes into way more depth than my zine does on the same topics (still not completely comprehensive as there is no way I could do that in just a year...). This is meant to appeal to those interested in learning more, and those who maybe don't like the zine presentation as much.

Long overdue introduction

As a female science major (and gender, sexuality, feminist studies major!) at a fairly progressive institution, it is hard to believe that I know very little about women in science. Yes, I know who Marie Curie and Rosalind Franklin are, but aside from those two astounding women, not a single female scientist has ever been mentioned in any of my courses throughout my four years here (at least that I can remember). Now whose fault is this? Is it my own for not pursing independent research? Is it my professors and teachers? I have no real answer, but I do know the fastest way to learn about women in the field, and feminist science studies in general, is to seek out the material myself. Hopefully, throughout my own journey, I can make the material more accessible to others like me who want to know more. 

My quest for more knowledge perhaps began earlier than I was even aware: during my sophomore year in Feminist Studies. This course not only led me to pursue a second major, but also changed my perspective on my beloved science. In Feminist Topics I learned read some great works by feminists like Luce Irigary (<http://www.egs.edu/faculty/luce-irigaray/quotes/>) and Donna Haraway (<http://www.egs.edu/faculty/donna-haraway/biography/>). These readings challenged me to question the objectivity of science: after, I began to look for the subjectivity in science, the socially informed assumptions and biases that are behind some disputably objective studies. 

This new perspective bled into my other seemingly non-related science courses in which I began to question the assumptions behind the science, the whys and so whats behind the research. Each disputable assumption I found, the more frustrated I became. And frustration led to more frustration when I realized that my professors and most of my peers were accepting the same assumptions as the papers were without noticing there were assumptions in the first place. The text that really pushed me over the edge however was John Alcock’s “Animal Behavior: An Evolutionary Approach” (I will save the details for a later post/vent session). Luckily, I was able to channel my frustration in my independent research, which not only led me to question the content of the papers in question, but also led me to learn more about equity studies, another branch of feminist science studies. 

Throughout my process, the more I learned about women in the field and the limitations they have faced, the more I realized how important it is for everyone to learn. There are some pretty spectacular women out there who have surpassed many obstacles, in part due to their gender, and have tremendously succeeded in the field, despite any adversity they have faced. I want these women to be known. I want women like me, teetering on the edge of college and the ‘real’ world to be able to look to these women as an emblem of hope: If they can do it, so can we!

update!

Moved to tumblr ... http://scigrrrl.tumblr.com/
Leaving my blogspot to exclusively post my zine series now :)