Abstract
In the report, ‘Recommendations for action on the gender dimension in science’, published in Spring 2010 (genSET 2010), a group of 14 science leaders from across Europe consider the role and status of women in science and propose 13 specific, evidence-based actions for institutions to take. In this unique ISR collection — unique because it examines gender as a dimension of scientific excellence — are presented nine different perspectives on how gender and science interact. Drawing on a thorough gender research scholarship and on their own extensive expertise and experience, the authors examine a variety of gender issues that interconnect and impact on scientific quality. As a relationship between biological sex and behaviour governed by social norms, in the context of science, gender both shapes and is shaped. Its influences are created, reinforced and cross over at three key junctions of scientific activity: participation, which governs how women and men are organized within and across different disciplines; scientific culture, which determines attitudes to gender roles and differentiates treatment of women and men; and research process, which controls how the similarities and differences between men and women are regarded in science knowledge-making. Current understanding of the role of gender in science has evolved over time from the early and oppositional associations of ‘gender ’ with women and men to gender as an organizing principle for both institutions and scientific disciplines, then further to gender as biological and social factors affecting research itself. Weeding out errors in the knowledge base is one of the core conditions of scientific excellence. It has been said that such weed-control could be made easier and more robust by diversifying the values of the participants in scientific discourse (Allchin 1988). This is the strongest justification for bringing more women into research areas and top decision-making positions, where they are a minority; and for training both women and men on the correct ways to address sex/gender issues in the context of investigation and innovation. The historical betterment of women in society has been partly due to scientific advancements, and we could venture that therefore science is good for gender equality. With the evidence presented in these pages, we can also put forward a bolder proposition that gender equality is good for scientific quality.