Society Writes Biology / Biology Constructs Gender

Truth, bias, objectivity, prejudice. In recent years both defenders and critics of the activities of the modern Western scientific community have used these words with a certain abandon as they engage in debate about the role of science and the scientist in our culture. Perhaps the best-known voice in this discussion is that of Thomas Kuhn, whose historical analyses of the "progress" of science threw into sharp relief the uneven nature of the development of scientific ideas.1 In the past decade feminist analysts of science have joined the discussion. Historians, philosophers, anthropologists, and scientists who write from a feminist perspective have raised varied and complex questions about modern science.2 In this essay I propose to examine the interaction of two processes that have important consequences for our understanding of how science works. These are (1) the process by which cultural under standings of gender become building blocks in supposedly objective understandings of nature, and (2) the process by which scientific theory helps to shape social concepts such as gender. The two case studies presented in this essay (one historical, one contemporary) will illustrate how cultural understandings or beliefs, whether conscious or unconscious, influence the construction of scientific theory. Two current examples of the way scientific ideas are