| Lecture | |
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| Source banner: 🔗 https://pixabay.com/fr/photos/bannière-livres-globe-conseil-354429 | |
A personal illustration for this lecture Poster from the Ministry of Women’s Rights in 1985. Exposure “Au bazar du genre” in Marseille, Mucem, MP 2013. 🔗 Jeanne Menjoulet. Creative Commons CC BY 2.0. | |
| “Women and Science” conference as part of the international day of struggle for women’s rights 2013 | |
| Title | Has science got a gender? |
| Animation | Françoise Mariotti |
| Place | House of Philosophy in Toulouse |
| Date and times | Saturday March 9, 2013 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. |
| Frame | The lecture was held as part of a conference “Women and Science”, organized by the ALDERAN association and held on the occasion of International Women’s Rights Day (March 8) in 2013. |
| Keywords | engineering, gender, inequality, injustice, reading, representation, science, stereotype, woman |
| Information |  I am a member of the ALDERAN association in Toulouse. |
I am writing an article on this lecture more than a year later, with hindsight: the right distance or the right proximity? 😮 I now present its summary to you:
1. A few words about the speaker▲
Françoise Mariotti is a psychologist and therapist working in her office in Saint Gély du Fesc, near Montpellier. She is also a doctor in social psychology. She is the founder of the PSYC & GENRE association. She runs psycho cafés, gender cafés and discussion groups on social issues.
2. A few words about the conference▲
During the conference, I took some personal notes, in particular notions or elements that struck me. I share with my own words:
- Has science got a gender? Sadly YES, the masculine…
- the weight of history: the absence of instruction and education of girls in this area for (too) long and a non-professional purpose,
- the essentialist point of view of our society, so unfavorable to the blossoming of the diversity of talents,
- coeducation at school where the groups are very (too!) “gendered”: we live together while being separated… A mixer is a system which allows elements to be mixed without being able to recognize them when they come out. Is the school succeeding? Well NO, not yet in the 21st century… When will we live together without being separated by anything: sex, sexuality, skin color, culture, … eye color, color of underwear – why not these characteristics too…?
- stereotypes and self-fulfilling prophecies: not letting yourself be influenced by social pressure when choosing your profession or sporting activity: an achievement! Realize your dream: only a dream for women (…for science)?
- the notion of social representation: in science, women are exceptions and cannot be easy models to follow (question of representation). Consult on this subject:
- Françoise Mariotti’s thesis entitled: “Experimental studies of social representations of science and scientific professions according to gender in middle and high school”.
- Isabelle Collet‘s works: coeducation, gender and science, computer science (my job). Cf. her book L’informatique a-t-elle un sexe ? (Does IT Have a Sex?)).
3. My personal point of view▲
As an engineer and science enthusiast, I am sad today by such an observation. I am appalled to see that we still think that there is a “natural” reason to explain this social inequality, which has harmful consequences on diversity and scientific research.
For information, I consider myself scientifically minded. It turns out that I have a monozygotic twin sister for whom this is not the case, even though we were raised in the same way, that is to say with great freedom. My husband is an engineer like me and I consider that there are more differences between me and my twin sister than between me and my husband and… I adore my sister 😉 The cultural, social reason is much more stronger than biological reason (which remains to be proven and which for me is a false belief, an urban legend), especially when we see Malaysian women doing computing! I personally studied (computer science) with two Malaysian women for two years.
This observation is still denied in the professional world because it disturbs, it questions and calls too many privileges into play. Change mentalities, modify a comfort zone (in a place of power because of knowledge?), even when it is acts of glaring (screaming?) inequality, is not easy, even today in the 21st century. The historical weight is still felt despite the latest advances in neuroscience…
4. A passing thought▲
This conference also invited me to think about another… gender: grammatical gender in French. Should I write engineer in French: ingénieur or ingénieure (either with a final e or without this final letter)? I wrote an article on my blog on the issue.
Scientifically yours.
Sonia Kanclerski
