Género y Ciencia. A propósito de los estudios de la mujer en las universidades

Abstract

This paper deals with the process of development and the present of the Women's Studies at the universities of many countñes, Spain included, as a consequence of the incorporation of new epistemological proposals to many scientific realms. The concept ofgender is analized as well as the need, aroused by the dialog and confrontation between gender and science, of redeftning and/or transforming many ofthose fundamental assumptions which have prevailed in scientific practices. It is shown that within the wider frame of the social studies of science, the reflection accomplished during the last decades, specially by many women, from different ways of understanding feminist analysis and practices, has contñbuted to focus attention upon some epistemological proposals that avoid the reproduction of differences because ofsex. And also that the critical analysis of the circumstances which have caused the absence of women in science and the scientific consequences ofit, does not attempt to straighten out the past, but to open ways to a knowledge not biased by androcentric positions. It is acknowledged that the incorporation ofthis perspective has helped to make certainties more flexible, weaken interdisciplinar limits, and enrich the intellectual debate ofmany people and groups.