Women In Science. A Couple Of Centuries Ago, The Role Of

"Changing attitudes in Britain Society towards women was the major reason why some women received the vote in 1918". How accurate is this view?

Alissa Rosenbaum (Ayn Rand) was born February 2, 1905 is St. Petersburg, Russia. She was the oldest of three sisters and her father, Zinovy Rosenbaum was a successful pharmacist and businessman who owned his own pharmacy, Ayn and her family lived a wealthy life. Early in life, Ayn found school to be unchallenging and found refuge in writing screenplays at the age of six and

A more recent evolutionist of the theory is Lynn Margulis, who is famous through her research career that mainly focused on this concept. It was Biologist Lynn Margulis from Boston University who in 1967 began to tell an older view. She suggested that certain prokaryotes had been overtaken by larger more active species. Instead of being digested inside the host cell some victims continued to thrive and grow. The theory of Endosymbiosis describes the origin of chloroplasts and mitochondria and their double membranes. This concept explains the idea that chloroplasts and mitochondria are the results of years of evolution started by endocytosis of bacteria and blue green algae. Based on this theory, blue green algae and bacteria are not

And then towards the middle of the 1600, when the Scientific Revolution was beginning, women slowly began to work with the fields of math and science. Even though they

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

Many women have had an impact on science over the years and their accomplishments tend to be underappreciated by the public eye. Often times, there are important people that have made a significant impact on the world that we have today that do not receive the credit and attention that they deserve for their accomplishments. Recognizing and acknowledging people that have made an impact on society now and in the past, is an important part of learning about history and the accomplishments of the past.

Endosymbiosis is the theory that eukaryotic cells were formed when a prokaryotic cell ingested some aerobic bacteria. The first step of the evolution of a eukaryotic cell is the infolding of the cellular membrane. This process takes place when the plasma membrane folds inwards and develops an envelope around a smaller prokaryotic cell. Once the smaller cell is engulfed, it becomes dependent upon its host cell. It relies on the host cell for organic molecules and inorganic compounds. However, the host cell also benefits because it has an increased output of ATP for cellular activities and becomes more productive. This ATP comes from the mitochondrion (the aerobe) that is engulfed.

Mitochondria are small organelles found in eukaryotic cells which respire aerobically. They are responsible for generating energy from food to ‘power the cell’. They contain their own DNA, reproducing by dividing in 2. As they closely resemble bacteria, it gave the idea that they were derived from bacteria (which were engulfed by ancestors of the eukaryotes we know today). This idea has since been confirmed from further investigations, and it is now widely accepted. (Alberts et al., 2010a)

7. The theory of endosymbiosis says that mitochondria and plastids used to be small prokaryotes living within larger cells. The prokaryotic ancestors of mitochondria and plastids were bacteria engulfed by a larger cell. Because they both benefited from this situation, the bacteria living inside the cell was passed down from generation to generation. The evidence is that mitochondria reproduce and move independently within the cell.

The fact that many people probably have not heard of Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Lise Meitner, Esther Lederberg, Chien-Shiung Wu or Rosalind Franklin, is not surprising. These women, among many other female scientists, have been robbed of their recognition due to sexism. Female scientists have a reputation of being ignored, in a sense that they did not receive enough, if not any, credit for their ideas and work. If you ask people who were responsible for the discovery of DNA, most people would answer Watson and Crick. However, there were some scientists that made key contributions, and are not properly acknowledged. Rosalind Franklin is seen as one of the most discredited researchers of all times. She had played an important role in the development of the model of the DNA molecule, but the other male scientists took all the credit, and, received the Nobel Prize for ‘their’ discovery.

Amid the mid 1900s, women were a rarity in the field of science. Female participation in the field was not encouraged. Women were often discouraged from advancing their education and indulging in advanced academics solely due to gender. The relentless acts of courageous women continued to challenge the lack of diversity within the science world. Rachel Carson was a pioneer in changing the face of science. Carson broke barriers with her ecological education, forcing the acknowledgment of female researchers today.

From the beginning of time, science has been an essential part of the creation and progression of civilization. Although many scientists and their work are well known, such as that of Isaac Newton, female scientists are pushed into the shadows and discredited. Scientists such as Rachel Carson and Professor Wangari Maathai are often forgotten, but have done incredible work that was essential to the survival of the planet. Despite focusing their efforts in completely different regions of the world, both women had a major impact and had many similarities between them.

Mitochondria, dubbed the ‘powerhouse of the cell’, are a type of organelle present in most human cells. Their primary function is to generate Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP), the cell’s principal source of chemical energy. Unlike most other organelles, mitochondria store their own set of genetic material, distinct from the DNA situated in a cell’s nucleus. Although this ‘mitochondrial genome’ represents only 0.1% of a cell’s genetic information, it often plays a significant role in development.

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.

Feminist interaction with the philosophy of science, and in particular a feminist interpretation of epistemology, concerns the extent to which bias influences and shapes knowledge within the scientific community, and means to rectify this. There are three main distinctions of feminist philosophy of science - feminist empiricism, standpoint theory, and postmodernism. I am to be comparing and contrasting two of the three, specifically feminist standpoint theory and empiricism. I shall argue that standpoint theory and empiricism are both legitimate methods for feminist epistemology, yet standpoint theory is a more applicable and plausible method for the analysis of science in particular. I will first explain the main tenets of the feminist philosophy of science, going on to then explain reasons why standpoint theory and postmodernism are legitimate tools of analysis in their own right, and then evaluate their legitimacy.