"Taking into account gender in science means asking scientific questions from a woman's point of view"

On 15 May, Deboleena Roy offered a conference entitled "Women, Gender, and Feminist Theory in Science" at the Faculty of Science. The conference formed part of the workshop in "Getting Engaged with Gender-Sensitive Science". Her research reveals male-centred aspects of the discipline and touches on elements such as brain plasticity.

20/05/2015

"The majority of researchers in the field of biology are men, and they've always been interested in designing new hormones which can regulate a woman's ovulation. And I ask myself: Why does a woman's body always have to be the one regulated? If scientific questions were posed by women, maybe we would be talking about finding birth control methods for men, and not only for women".

Deboleena Roy is Associate Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She specialises in reproductive neuroendocrinology and molecular biology, area in which she received her PhD from the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. Her areas of interest include feminist science and technology studies, philosophy of science, critical disability studies, postcolonial studies, sexuality studies, neuroscience, molecular and synthetic biology, and reproductive health and justice movements. Her research and scholarship attempts to make a shift from feminist critiques of science to the creation of feminist practices that can contribute to scientific inquiry in the lab.

-Is the research currently being conducted gender-sensitive?
In general, I think in the past 20 to 25 years efforts have been made in this sense and there has been an interest to include this aspect in research, but not enough has been done. Maybe we haven't found the formula yet. Sometimes we speak about gender without the need to speak about feminism. I believe there is a need to take into account some of the aspects of feminism when working on science and research. For example, when it comes to relations of power in science, the subordination of many groups, etc., we should take this into account as well and group it all together to conduct a better and more equal research. We've opened a door and have started to walk down this road. But we need to delve into it and acquire a broader perspective.

-Is science different if it is conducted by men or by women?
There is a feminist theory that says: “If a women were in charge of science, the rules would not change: the apple would still fall from the tree”. But we are talking about something else. It depends what we understand as science! If one believes science is discovering the truth, then it is of utmost importance to see who is making the questions, what it is they want to know, because depending on who it is, they will look for one thing or another. If the questions are always made by people of the same gender, then the approach will always be the same. If you [as a woman] are on the questioning side, then maybe the questions change.

-Could you give me an example?
- I am a biologist and study aspects of neuroscience and reproductive biology. The majority of studies conducted on birth control are how to design yet another anticonceptive pill for women. Most of researchers in this field are men, and their research asks questions such as: How can I design a new hormone that regulates a woman's ovulation? And I ask myself: Why does a woman's body always have to be the one regulated? If scientific questions were posed by women, maybe we would be talking about finding birth control methods for men, and not only for women.
As a scientist, one must know how hormones and biology work, but the question asked is the one that marks the difference in research.

-You study ethical questions in neurosciences.
-Yes. For me, when we find differences in research, I find it interesting to study what we do with these differences, and this is the fundamental question. In scientific research, you must ask yourself what you are going to do with what you discover, and these are very serious ethical questions, and maybe you are justifying differences (such as naturalising racism, or differences which do not exist but which can be used to oppress women even more, etc.). The question is: why are you looking for that? Will it serve to justify differences even more?

-Why do you think women do not reach such high levels of teaching and research in universities?
Well, according to what Maria Jesus Izquierdo explained in the conference, here at the UAB the numbers are higher than in other places, so I think you must be doing something correctly! But it is true that in general women are not occupying high-ranking positions.
In the US, in the field of biology, more than 50% of the students are women, but the percentage falls the higher you go up the faculty ladder: 25-30% of junior professors are women, 10-15% of associate professors are women, and less than 10% of full-time professors are women.

Some people believe - but I do not - that we are the ones who do not want to reach the top. I believe there are institutional factors which make us not reach our full potential. The question is why? And the question can be answered with the metaphor of the "holed pipeline" structure. What happens with this pipeline?

For example, a male scientist takes for granted that he need not take on the workloads women do, and that society assumes that she will take on: a series of jobs only she can do, such as raising the children, organising the home, etc. Society considers that a researcher's work requires much dedication and many hours of solitary work, a monastic work almost, but it also considers that only men can do this type of work, not women. Women are supposedly meant to focus on being beautiful and elegant, but nothing else. Why should that be so?

-What does the concept you talk about, "brain plasticity", entail?
-My interest of study focuses on brain plasticity. I begin with the concept that gender is not a fixed idea. I am not talking about intersectionality, because that is assuming that there are two identities which need to be together. Brain plasticity means that it can change at any moment depending on the factors. We now think that the chromosomes that make us men or women are fixed, but they are not. Within the X or Y chromosome there are variations in gene expression and that should make us understand that the definitions and reasons we rely on to explain something are not fixed either, just ast these gene expressions can vary.

-What will your conference be about?
In this conference I want to talk about how when we embark on crucial projects, we must think about the concept of gender and the meaning of difference, so that they can have an influence on the scientific questions we pose, in which we decide to ask ourselves and within our experimental frameworks, since that will in turn influence how we interpret and implement our scientific findings.