oschalit's blog

*put titles of poems in quotations ("W", "Schrodinger's cat said meow and died", "Oedipa") because serendip was not allowing underlining or proper spacing.

"W"

Yes, the letter on my chest is W.

And no, I prefer not to be seen that way.

At the end of the article, "How Stereotypes about Science Affect the Participation of Women", Ruskai says, "In the past, scientists have often emphasized the differences between science and other fields in ways which emphasized the objective and analytic aspects, while obscuring the role of creativity and intuition" (p.9). This statement touches upon an issue that I think has been greatly overlooked. This issue is one that the language used by scientists and non-scientists in discussing science may be playing a huge part in the perpetuation of the very stereotypes that we are trying to counter.

Frame the issues and describe some responses to the ways in which women scientists are made….

            Bryn Mawr College, among other women’s institutes, suffers from one of the greatest symptoms of the struggle between women’s oppression and the fight to overcome it. While it fights to distinguish itself as an academic community that not only provides but, also, encourages a thorough, non-gendered education through the removal of men and the empowerment of the students and teachers, it also seeks to project itself by assuming a neutral role in gender labeling. Herein lies the question; do we abstain from portraying ourselves as providing something seemingly unusual and “extra” for women so that we may then make social changes and neutralize the role of gender differences in society? Or do we take pride in the fact that we are a single sex institution and distinguish ourselves as a community that helps women flourish and help them own who they are, thereby running the chance emphasizing the difference between men and women? Grosz encourages us to accept who we are as women, as individual entities in this world, and to embrace it and utilize it. But through these efforts to become scientists, through all that we deem necessary to accomplish that which we strive for, do we further isolate ourselves?