Women and science: what's the problem?

Garforth, L. and Kerr, A. (2009) Women and science: what's the problem? Social Politics, 16(3), pp. 379-403. (doi: 10.1093/sp/jxp015)

Abstract

In recent years the issue of gender and SET (science, engineering, and technology) careers has become prominent in policies and debates in the UK. This paper explores the ways in which equalities solutions pertaining to women and science are locked into a narrow stock of taken-for-granted assumptions about the nature of the problem. Drawing on Foucauldian models of the productive nature of discourse, we examine the proliferation of reports and initiatives which frame the issue and critically discuss their institutional consequences including gender audits and gender experts, and the ways in which raising the profile of women in science also involves reinscribing feminine difference.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kerr, Professor Anne
• Authors: Garforth, L., and Kerr, A.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Sociology Anthropology and Applied Social Sciences
• Journal Name: Social Politics
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• ISSN: 1072-4745
• ISSN (Online): 1468-2893
• Published Online: 12 August 2009