Women and Science: On the Homelessness of Women in Research and Teaching and Their Attempts at Alternative Scientific Production. An Outline on the Example of the Social Sciences

Following a self-introduction, a general discussion of the situation of F scientists & feminist studies relates the underrepresentation of women in the sciences to the production & communication structures of the scientific community. The criterion for feminist research is that it seek a change in the status quo as regards the oppression of women: it must struggle to overcome the masculine norm in the approach to all subjects -- not merely "women's studies," which incur the danger of ghettoization. Women have succeeded in developing new themes in the social sciences, including a better understanding of the value of women's work; but obstacles to a scientific career for women have scarcely diminished. Whereas the family normally represents a support system for M scientists, for Fs it is the opposite -- a second workplace, whose demands conflict with those of her scientific work. The Us have a primary responsibility to change the educational structure in order to integrate women & their significant contribution. C. Waters.