Has Feminism changed Science?

Women occupied a significant position in the natural sciences well into the Enlightenment. Gradually however, they were systematically excluded. Londa Schiebinger will trace some of the contributions women have made in mainstream science within shifting historical and institutional frameworks. Furthermore, she will consider women scientists cross-culturally with an emphasis on the European scene and review recent developments in ‘gender and science’ in the United States.

How can the number of women in science be increased and how has gender analysis brought spark and creativity to several fields of science? And the crucial question: can an understanding of how gender operates in the natural sciences open new vistas for future research and participation of women?

Londa Schiebinger is professor of history and science and the director of the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at Stanford University. She is the author of a variety of books on gender and science: Nature’s Body: Gender in the Making of Modern Science (1993, 2004), Has Feminism Changed Science? (1999) and Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World (2004).

Jantina Tammes and the Jantina Tammes Chair
After admitting Aletta Jacobs as the first female student in 1871, the University of Groningen appointed dr. Marie Loke in 1907 as the first female lector in the Netherlands. After this, appointing the first female professor was just a matter of time. Indeed, in 1911 dr. Jantina Tammes (1871-1947) was the first woman in the Netherlands to be nominated for such a position. It took until 1919 before she was appointed as professor. Jantina Tammes was famous for her research in biology, more specifically in genetics and botany.
Londa Schiebinger is the fifth Jantina Tammes Professor at the University of Groningen. The Jantina Tammes Chair has been established in order to enable female visiting professors to do research with colleagues in Groningen, in the field of gender studies. Londa Schiebinger teaches classes for one semester at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.