The Egg And The Sperm By Emily Martin

Miller, Alice H. Eagly, and Marcia C. Linn, it measured gender-science stereotype, “” (2). which is defined as associations that connects science with men more than women. This is believed to come from a lack of representation of women in the relative field. The study notes that putting women in science related fields in media, or having more women in the field, lessons that stereotype. They conducted the experiment by measuring 66 nations, which consisted of 350,000 participants’ explicit and implicit gender-science stereotypes. They found a relationship “between women's representation in science and national gender-science stereotype” (Eagly, Linn, Miller 8). The results of the study concluded that “implicit and explicit measures indicated strong association of science with man” (Eagly, Linn, Miller

Emily Martin’s reading about the egg and the sperm was interesting due to the fact that many people never notice how gender norms are portrayed in science. Science books are using metaphors within their text that reflect the socially constructed definitions of male and female. Martin points out that science is supporting the gender norm of women being less worthy than men in the way they describe the reproduction process. It is noted that after viewing different scientific texts about the reproductive system, none of them expressed enthusiasm for any female processes. In opposition, the male’s role is very much acknowledged and held to a high regard. Evidence of this difference is shown in the words that are used to describe each

The hierarchical aspect of America’s contemporary gender system is reinforced through the use of language. We frequently associate biology and the sciences with objectivity, but in “The egg and the Sperm,” Emily Martin argues that it is not outside the socially constructed idea of gender (485). The association of gender norms at the cellular level suggests that the process of gendering is natural beyond alteration; yet, this is merely a result of the implantations of social imagery on representations of nature. Literary works can subtly emphasize the stereotypical differences between males and females in a way that goes unnoticed, consequently ingraining these concepts into our brain and thought processes. In many biological texts, the egg is described as “drift(ing)” and being “swept” throughout the process (Martin 489). This denotes passiveness—a clearly feminine characteristic that society would deem to be appropriate for women. On the other hand, the sperm “streamlines” and

In Reflections on Gender and Science by Evelyn Fox Keller, Keller writes about the presence of masculinity, rather than femininity, in science. Keller begins makes it clear that, although there are significantly more men than women in the field, the issue at hand is not the lack of women working in science, but the “attribution of masculinity to science as an intellectual domain” (76). This means the language, tone, and overall dominance. Keller states that this stems from the myth that masculinity is associated with objectivity and neutrality, whereas femininity is associated with subjectivity and emotions. Therefore, because of these two associations, it is believed that men are better suited to be scientists than women, which is why the

Throughout Gender and Race in the Physical Sciences, I have been struck by how rarely in STEM we shed a light on the women of color that already exist and thrive in the sciences. Often, when we discuss diversity in the sciences, we only discuss it in the frame of a problem. More specifically, we tend to focus on the problem of there not being enough of these women in the field. As a result of the lack of attention paid to pioneering women in STEM, many young people of all backgrounds are inclined to believe that there are no women of color doing great things in the field- that there are no role models. With this paper, and an on-campus event to be held in the spring, I hope to challenge people’s assumptions about what a scientist looks like, and inspire people through a discussion of innovative women of color.

As per research ‘gender’ provides a perspective from which one could examine the biases that exist in the larger society. Some believe that to arrive at a more eloquent understanding of the problems of women in science , one should begin by asking what is the nature of science space that leads to under-representation and marginalisation of women rather than questioning the situation of a woman’s life that makes it difficult for her to pursue science.

Since the beginning of evolution, females have been subjected and objectified based on their gender. History taught us that when during the 19th century, Charles Darwin, an English naturalist and geologist stated in his papers “The Origin of Man” (1859) and “Descent of Man” (1871) that men were superior to women. Unfortunately, such subjections to women still persist today; in politics, education, labor and surprisingly in science.

An ever changing, yet common issue, in today's generation revolves around how society views gender. The general consensus dictates that gender, as a whole, is a spectrum, rather than a standard set for each individual male and female to follow throughout everyday life. However, there are those individuals who wish to remain reluctant in changing their view of society. Some believe it is better to allow the education system to be segregated by gender, in order to provide more resources to both girls and boys. One person in favor of this public education reform is David Brooks, a neuroscientist who published the article titled “The Gender Gap at School.” A thorough analysis of the effects of literature on men and women, biological factors

Although the recent upward trends in the number of women in STEM fields are promising, they are not truly due to decreasing cultural stereotypes. Women receiving graduate degrees in engineering increased by 2 percent from 2000 to 2008, but this trend is not as hopeful as it may seem (Giges). This increase was mainly evident in communal fields like environmental or biomedical engineering (Giges). This is further evidence of the impact of cultural stereotypes and their influence on women’s career paths. Society’s expectation of women is that they serve as caring motherly figures and community-centered careers adhere

Over time there has been a change in gender success throughout education “coming into the late 1980’s girls were less likely than boys to obtain one or more A-levels and were less likely to go on to higher education however 1990 's there was a sudden reversal girl were doing better than boys and In 2006 10% more females were obtaining 2 or more A-levels than males (Trueman,2016)”. In today’s society feminist’s doubt that the topic in school want girls to achieve less like the model also considers that gender stereotyping may still be in society as boys are believed to fit better in the workforce than girls. The distinction between girls and boys are often sketched on sex and ideas of biology Dr Zuleyka mention that “Sex are the biological traits that societies use to assign people into the category of either male or female, whether it be through a focus on chromosomes, genitalia or some other physical ascription." (Zevallos), Gender does not depend on biological personality it is an idea that describes how societies determine and manage sex categories also determined by what an individual feels and does. Girls are more conscientious and mature while boys are seen as a liability student. A parent who spends less time reading to their son impact their son to achieve a lower grade. Many jobs tend to be dominated by one gender for example nursing which is seen as a female job. Girls do consistently better than boys at all levels and likely to get higher grades

Martin investigates how cultural stereotypes of the two sexes are subtly incorporated into descriptions of the egg and sperm in scientific papers. She expresses that giving stereotypical roles to the egg and sperm has the “power to naturalize our social conventions about gender” (501). By associating the egg with feminine traits and the sperm with masculine traits, scientists make these

“Belief is nearly the whole of the universe whether based on truth of not.” by Kurt Vonnegut. People live day by day on what they believe whether it is their morals or values, and what people say. We choose to believe what we want to like in all of the Bluebeard variances. Bluebeard is a not as well known fairytales that tell you the grim consequences of disobedience and curiosity that women deal with during marriage. Although, marriages have many secrets, every wife and husband deserves the truth when it comes to dishonestly, disloyalty, and sometimes murder.

As I mentioned above, the biggest problem that causes the negative stereotype of women are worse scientists than men is because comparing to the number of males working in the science field, the number of females working in the science field is relatively low. Therefore, the most effective strategies to decrease the negative stereotype on female scientist is to boost the number of women who work in those field. Lack of critical mass can be a threat scenarios to me as a female scientist, but if I have critical mass, which means there are enough female scientists working in the science field, then I will not be affect by the negative stereotype. This is important because as Steele concludes in the book, “it tells us whether there are enough identity mates around that we won’t be marginalized on the basis of that identity… a low count signals bad possibilities: that we might have trouble being accepted, that might lack associates who share our sensibilities, that we might lack status and influence in the setting” (140-141). This means that for people who are affected by their identity threat, people with the same identity in that setting is important to them because that means they are not the only one or two who need to face these stereotype threats, and they have the power and influence in that setting. Hence, if the percentage of women working in

Gender stereotypes have existed since the beginning of modern man. We've all heard them before; male dominance and female weakness, a controlled male and a flustered female, aggression and passion, and many others that all basically boil down to the same thing. Emily Martin, in her essay entitled The Egg and the Sperm, takes this problem of gender stereotype to a new and much more serious level. As an anthropologist, Martin is concerned with the socio-cultural impacts on many different aspects of everyday life, including biology. In doing her research for this article, Martin was trying to uncover suspicions she had about socio-cultural gender stereotypes, and the affects they had on the diction used to describe egg and sperm

Sitting in my general biology class today, learning about amazing biological discoveries, my male teacher jokingly said “Did you know there are women in science?” then went on to joke about how these women who had just made an amazing biological discovery even had PhD’s. As he went on to talk about the amazing things these women did, he talked about the discovery like he had for the other ones made by men. If women can make biological discoveries like men can why are they looked at differently in their graduate fields of study. In this essay I will explore the gender issue in education through the lens of feminism by evidence shown in past decades and today. Education was primarily for men while women were not even allowed in some classrooms, while over time this has changed.