Gould’s and Sterling’s Feminist Articles Critique Thesis

The focal point of this paper is to prepare a critical reflection on the articles by Stephen Jay Gould named “Women’s Brains” in The Panda’s Thumb and by Anne Fausto-Sterling named “The biological Connections,” from the book The Myths of Gender. Both the authors evaluated the scientific community from a feministic point of view and explained the gender differences in the parameters of social and institutional trajectory.

When we think of science’s impact on gender, we need to understand first what is defined by ‘gender’. What is gender? Gender is basically the term that is most commonly used for ‘women’. It is mostly used as a social term than a biological one. Gender as a term is closed to the definition of anything that refers to women in a social connotation. Now let us think about science vis-à-vis gender. How has science impacted gender? Is science gendered? Should it be, in the first place? Should it not be?

Stephen Jay Gould’s “Women’s Brains” looks inside the scientific community, and the society as a whole, of the nineteenth century and indicates the prejudice held against women as a polarized group of population. The author indicates that though the science of craniometrical research was very helpful for the development of biological science, there was a different aspect of the research. He indicates that the research by Paul Broca was a significant study on the human skull but the interpretation of this study was ramifying for women.

It was found that the size of an average woman’s skull was smaller than that of a man’s. However, it was interpreted that “Women, like it or not, had smaller brains than men and, therefore, could not equal them in intelligence”. (Gould, 53) This appears as though science was used as a tool to establish male superiority and evolve a mode of an excuse to suppress women in society, particularly those who belong to the lower economic group of the society. The fundamental thesis of the article is concentrated on this context of deliberate misinterpretation and structured propaganda.

The second article Anne Fausto-Sterling’s “The biological Connections,” from the book The Myths of Gender is more direct in the context of feministic philosophy. The author specifically indicates that the scientific community is controlled by men and therefore is completely sexist in nature. The author indicates the research involving gender is too aggravated in the context of sexuality and gender identification. The author mentions, “What could be more personally significant than our sense of ourselves as a male or female?” (Fausto-Sterling, 58) However, the author even mentions that “the most widespread methodological problem is pinning the results of a study on gender when differences could be explained by other variables”. (Fausto-Sterling, 57) Thus, the author indicates that there is a problem regarding gender-related research but states at the same time that while interpreting the available data the researchers tend to follow their own personal preferences on gender and sexuality.

The authors present themselves with a common agenda, that is revealing the sexist nature of the scientific community, and the interpretation of scientific data acquired. However, the authors missed out of one aspect. It should be noted that this manifestation of gendered scientific documentation is more about power and dominance than a simple male-female crisis. This dominance and exertion of power is manifested in every aspect of human society and is not limited to the scientific community alone.

If the economy were taken into account, we would see that Poverty is tightly associated with unemployment, which spirals out of control through lack of basic amenities and services, hunger and death. Women become inadvertently the worst sufferers because they not only have to care about themselves but most of the time their children too. Here one should be able to observe the interplay between the wider social activities and the local ones. It is imperative to understand that science is canalized through the basic political and economical fiber of the nations at large individually first and then collectively. The doggedness of the local cultural and societal pull should not be ignored in the face of science. It is significant to record here that there is very little doubt that gender inequity is prevalent throughout the world and misinterpretation of science only aggravates it.

The biological reproductive aspect of women brought on by science also projects a mixed bag. Those who can have access are enjoying the freedom of choice for abortion, while those who do not take a step back into the cultural taboos, which ironically have become more pronounced with the advent of science. This is mainly because the health issues have decreased in importance locally with the lower allotment of funds and attention in the modern era. Due to poverty, women tend to neglect their health, particularly gynecological ones due to cultural and social taboos. There is an increase in pornography and women trafficking due to easier global access, particularly to poor women in developing countries. Early marriage, genital mutilation, prostitution, rape, and exposure to AIDS are some of the major threats to which women are exposed post-globalization. It is also possible to detect girl fetuses and abort them with the help of modern technology brought on by globalization. Hence, modern technology or science hence has been a boon for the affluent women while it added to the exploitation and death of the poor factions.

Education is another aspect where globalization has played a neat role in the lives of women. As discussed above, it brought a wealth of opportunity for those who can afford it and totally closed the door on marginalized women. This is proved by the fact that more than as much as two-thirds of the total illiterate adults in the world are from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. There are countries where 84% have never seen a school. This is not all, in the Middle East, most textbooks depict women only cooking, cleaning or working in the house. These are hard statistics. The fact is that women often go in search of employment or work on their agricultural land, leaving the elder daughter ‘in charge’ of the house. These girls age beyond their years through the force of taking up responsibilities beyond their age. On the other hand, scientific interpretation has brought those who can afford it, the opportunity to study wherever they want in the world.

For a democratic society with its democratic form of the government system, it is but an obvious choice to opt for a society that is predominantly unbiased towards women. The basis norm of a democratic society is to provide its mass with a structural form that offers equality in terms of justice and social characteristic. Hateful attitude or sexist behavior is an unwanted phenomenon but it is also extremely true at the same time that this attitude is a curse that exists among us whether we like it or not. It could be summarized that this is the result of having negative judgments, beliefs, and feelings towards certain identifiable groups.

In conclusion, it should be stated that both the writers indicate the common aspect of woman’s position from the parameters of the scientific community and further indicate that this community is predominantly gendered. It affects gender in each aspect of a woman’s life, health, economy, decision-making, education and politics. Each one of these aspects has been touched by science. One cannot say really whether its impact is negative or positive since it has influenced different strata differently. While promoting the cause and identity in one, it totally crushed the same aspects in the other. One can safely say that it has brought change, positive for middle and upper classes and negative for lower-middle and lower classes. Gendered scientific interpretation, derailed in this case, has however failed to take into consideration the motion and the movement of liberating women from subjugation by male domination. This is a positive impact by all standards. It will take some time to percolate the movement to the marginalized classes, but the good news is that this has indeed started the ball rolling. It looks like in the next two-three decades women’s role in society would be a more enlightened one, and they will be recognized as the global citizen she is. This would give her rights. – on par with the other half, the man.

Works Cited

Gould, Stephen Jay; “Women’s Brains”; The Panda’s Thumb; New York: McGraw-Hill; Pages 152-159.

Fausto-Sterling, Anne; “The biological Connections,” The Myths of Gender; New York: McGraw-Hill; 2006; Pages 8-10.