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An essay is presented on the historical association between the human X chromosome and femaleness. Research published in 2001 demonstrates that this chromosome carries several male sperm genes. According to the author, scientists' assumptions that the X chromosome carries female genes and traits and determines feminine behavior demonstrates the gender-ideological bias in science. Particular focus is given to theories of female biology known as X chromosome mosaicism.

Knowledge about health and medicine expanded dramatically in the first half of the twentieth century. This expansion raised an important question for women, especially mothers, who are traditionally responsible for the health of their families: where could they learn the most up-to-date information? One possible significant venue was the public library. This close study of five public libraries analyzes the diverse sources of scientific and medical information available in Midwest rural libraries. It documents the critical role that individual librarians played in bringing new sources to their patrons, and discloses that such collections reinforced contemporary medical orthodoxy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the sociological works of Harriet Martineau, particularly 1838’s How to Observe Manners and Morals, through the lens of disability studies and Donna Haraway's “Cyborg Manifesto.” The authors argue that Martineau depended, due to her perceived “disabilities” of deafness, illnesses and gender, on objects such as the ear trumpet, the telescope, and various theoretical constructs to mediate her access to the outside world. In doing so, she created a “cyborg self” whose tools allowed her to re-write traditionally masculine concepts such as scientific objectivity. These tools were both actual – the ear trumpet and telescope allowed the detachment and control necessary for the nineteenth-century scientist – and metaphorical – Martineau stressed that her disability forced method, a concept that grew ever more important to scientists as the century progressed. Martineau's disabilities reshaped her into a “cyborg self” who was able to approach questions of scientific objectivity from an un-gendered perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses underrepresentation of women in the field of physics, which is being seen as a serious problem by experts. It states that men possess prior knowledge of undergraduate physics problem sets and textbook examples than women. This tendency is being considered discouraging for women to pursue careers in physics.

This text is about women and science although it does not specifically or directly examine the position and experience of practising scientists who carry out experiments, publish and are otherwise engaged in academic traffic. Building on John Law’s modes of mattering (2004), the authors explore the enactments of ‘women and science’ in various locations where gender and feminist approaches, science policies and support activities for women in science meet in the European context. By exploring some of these ‘trading zones’ (Galison, 1999), the authors offer some suggestions on power and marginalization in the flagship of European research, the European Research Area. By introducing the notion of a mode of ‘retrenchment’, they argue that while gender equality has been co-opted into European science policy, an enactment with a feminist potential that emerged at the beginning of the new millennium has been gradually displaced by one building on an economic perspective of utility, resources and waste. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]