What Does It Mean to Say Science Is Gendered?

Questions about the relationship between gender and science have been explored from multiple angles, often in conjunction with the need to account for women's underrepresentation or marginalization in many scientific fields. The articles in this special issue target many kinds of scientific institutions and aspects of scientific inquiry and thus vary in what these articles mean when the term "science" is used. They also focus on a wide range of phenomena and processes in the discussions of what is gendered (i.e., associated with masculinity or femininity) about science and how those elements reflect and affect the situations of women in science and in society. As such work continues, it will be important to not lump together the many meanings of "gendering science" as if these meanings are all equally plausible and consequential. In particular, we should be cautious about reading into apparently gendered patterns of comportment a deeper set of differences between women's and men's ways of conducting or processing scientific (or any intellectual) inquiry. We should be similarly cautious regarding suggestions that there are inherently gendered aspects of scientific knowledge. Public Significance Statement This commentary highlights the wide range of reasons offered for why women have been underrepresented or marginalized in many scientific fields. It explores how the articles in this special issue propose several different possible ways that scientific institutions and practices might be "gendered." It urges caution regarding suggestions of gender differences in ways of knowing, and also warns against claims that there are inherently gendered aspects of scientific knowledge.