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SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

S. F9 -95

MIMORANDUM

*To ....... S

From.^^NATE.. COMMITTEE .

9..

WOMEN'S STUDIES - PROPOSED NEW COURSE

Subjed ... L...

.204-3. .-. WOME1L,. .SCIENCE. AND ....... 

Date. ZeptevtbeK. 

I.L.

1982 ........................... 

TECHNOLOGY

Action undertaken by the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies 

at its meeting of September 14, 1982 gives rise to the following motion:- 

MOTION:

"That Senate approve and recommend approval to the Board

of Governors, as set forth

in

S.82-95 , the proposed new

course W.S. 204-3 - Women, Science and Technology." 

Subject to the approval of the course by Senate and the Board of 

Governors the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies gave approval 

to waiver of the two semester time lag requirement in order that this 

course may be first offered in Spring 1983-1. 

There was considerable discussion of this course by the Committee 

without clear resolution of differing views, and with tie vote on 

approval resolved by vote of the Chair. 

SENATE cOP1lTTEE ON UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES 

NFN COURSE PROPOSAL PORN 

Calendar Information 

?

Department: 

Women's 

Studies 

Abbreviation Code: W.S. 

?

Course 

Number: 204 

?

Credit Hours: 

3

?

Vector: 

2-1-1 

Title of Course: 

Women, Science and Technology 

Calendar Decriptiofl of Course: 

We live in a society based on science and technology. 

Women have, in large part, been excluded from the development and practice of both ofsthese. 

Mathematics, the foundation of scientific and technical work, appears to be one of the 

crucial filters acting to maintain this situation. In this course we will 1) examine some 

of the impor 

t

ant factors that influence the participation of women in these fields, 

including particularly the relation between women and math and 2) explore, through practical 

projects., some of the conditions for women's success in scientific or technical work. 

Nature of èburse: Lectürë/tutorial 

Prerequisites (or special instructions): None. 

What course (courses), if any, is being dropped from the calendar if this course is 

approved: 

None 

2. Scheduling 

How frequently will the course be offered? 

Once or twice a year 

Semester in 

which the 

course will first be offered? 

?

Spring 1983 

Which of your present faculty would 

be available to make the proposed offering 

possible? 

Margaret Benston 

•.?. Objectives of the Course 

To provide an overview of the situation of women in relation to scientific and technical 

work and to provide an exposure to scientific and/or mathematical practice. See also 

the Calendar description. 

4. Budgetary 

and Space Requirements 

(for information only) 

What additional resources 

will be required in the following areas: 

Faculty 

Possibly an occasional sessional lecturer when taught twice a year. 

Staff ? 

None 

Library Existing resources are adequate. 

Audio Visual 

?

None 

Space None 

EquipmentACCesS to one microcomputer/10 students for approximately five weeks. 

Estimated enrolment is around thirty students. 

5. Approval ? 

Date: 

Department h 

?

irman ? 

ai(

Chairman, 

SCUS 

SCUS 73-34b:- (When completing this form, for 

instructions see 

Memorandum SCUS 73-34a. 

Attach course outline). 

RATIONALE 

It is well documented that the low participation of women in scientific 

and technical fields is related to gender differences in the relation to and 

experiences of math, sciences and technology (see the attached bibliography). 

In the proposed course, we will be providing an interdisciplinary 

(historical, psychological, sociological and mathematical/technical) look at 

the important factors in such gender differences. Besides theoretical 

material, the course will involve practical projects providing "skills maps" 

illustrating basic principles of the areas involved and allowing students to 

assess their own changing reactions to the areas as they give greater 

understanding of them. We do not intend to teach mathematics or computing or 

science. We will show what is required to do them. Student participation in 

the projects, together with the accompanying theoretical material, will allow 

students to analyse and understand how motivation and confidence are shaped 

and changed. The notes following the lecture outline provide further details 

on the practical work. 

.

??

Women's Studies 204-3 

wa4EN, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 

WEEK ? 

TOPIC ? 

SUGGESTED READING 

PART ONE: GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 

1 a) Science and Technology: the 

Ambiguous Legacy 

b) Women in Science and 

Technology: Statistics and 

Attitudes 

Firestone Dialectics of Sex 

Gearhart Wander ground 

Marcuse, Mwiford, Roszak (selected 

parts from the above) 

Keller "Women in Science" 

Rossi "Women in Engineering", 

"Women in Chemistry" 

?

2 a) The Development of Modern 

?

Keller "Bacon and Patriarchy in Science" 

Science and the Role of Women Merchant The Death of Nature 

?

b) Technology and Automation: 

?

Benston "Women and Automation" 

Some History 

?

Kraft Programmers and Managers, Chapter 2 

Report on Science Education In B.C. 

Science Council Workshop on Women and Science 

Education Proceedings 

Stehelin "Science, Women and Ideology" 

Cole Fair Science (excerpts) 

Biographies from Conversations and 

and Working it Out 

Lowe "Cooperation and Competition in Science" 

Rose and Janmer "Reproduction and the Technical 

Fix" from Ideology of/in Natural Sciences, 

Rose and Rose, ed. 

Rose and Rose "The Incorporation of Science" 

UC Collective "Science and the Military" from 

Science and Liberation, Ardette, et al ed. 

3 a) Why Aren't Women in Science 

and Technology 

.

'- ? 

b) Experiences of Women in 

Scientific and Technical 

Fields 

4 a) Science and Social Issues 

PART 111O: BARRIERS TO 

THE

PRACTICES OF MATH AND SCIENCE: PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL WORK 

b) Basic Approaches to 

Mathematics 

5 a) Statistics: Basic Notation 

and Definitions 

b) Statistics: Basic Notation 

and Definitions 

6 a) Statistics: Basic Notation 

and Definitions 

b) Group work on projects 

For the whole of Part Two: Tobias 

Overcoming Math Anxiety 

Hill Statistics for Social Change 

Beckwith and Durlin "Girls, Boys and Math" 

Kimball "Women and Science: A critique of 

Biological Theories of Sex Differences" 

Fields About Computers 

7 a) Group work on projects 

?

Readings on the psychology of 

sex

roles 

b) Introduction to Computing 

ALL DAY WEEKEND WORKSHOP (SATURDAY) 

?

BASIC Primer 

8 a)Computer extensions of stats 

?

Kuhn, S. "Women and Computer Programming" 

projects ? 

Graham, The Mind Tool (excerpts) 

b) Computer extensions of stats 

?

Benston, M. "Afljfjcjal Intelligence and 

projects ? 

Dehumanization!' 

Fields About Computers 

9 a) Computer extensions of stats 

projects 

b) Computer extensions of stats 

projects 

10 a) Computer extensions of stats 

projects 

b) Sunday Math: Calculus 

11 a) Sunday Math: Calculus 

?

Report of the Saskatchewan Women in Trades Program 

b) Women and Machine Anxiety 

12 a) Women and Machines: Automobile 

Mechanics 

PART THREE: MORE GENERAL 

CONSIDERATIONS 

?

' ?

b) Science as a Model for 

?

Benston "Feminism and the Critique of the 

Rationality ? 

Scientific Method" 

Easlea "Objectivity and Commitment In Science" 

Gould "Morton's Ranking of Races" 

13 a) Science as a Model for 

Rationality 

b) Questions for the Future 

Notes on the Lecture Outline 

a) The intent here is to illustrate the structure of mathematics and, additionally, to 

illustrate the skills and approaches necessary to practice. Statistics has been 

chosen because it can be used to demonstrate fundamental mathematical concepts, 

particularly the idea of functions, and it can be used to introduce basic notation. 

There are a number of problems: statistics on male/female variability, analysis of 

drug testing results, changes in the distribution of traits as a result of 

hypothetical eugenics plans, possible effects on population statistics of being able 

to choose the 

sex

of children and the like, that are simple enough to be feasible and 

which illustrate some problem of concern in Women's Studies. Students will examine 

one problem in a group and a second one on their own. 

The computer section will involve one Intensive workshop that will teach the students 

to write a very simple program so that they get some feeling of control over the 

machine and some understanding of language principles. The intent is not to teach any 

actual programing skills; the work on machines will involve pre-written programs that 

the students will be expected to read, analyze and understand before using. The work 

will be done using stand alone micros using BASIC. 

c)

Calculus seems to be one of the major symbolic areas of difficulty in approaching 

math. In this section we will introduce students to numerical integration and to the 

reasons why one might wish to know these results (they will already have some examples 

from their statistics works). A careful treatment of basic concepts can lead to a 

comparison of their numerical results and the analytical solution. 

d)

Dealing with machines is another whole area of gender difference. We will examine 

social and psychological barriers to women's participation in areas involving 

machinery. (Automobiles, for example, are not just machines; they have a major 

symbolic signifigance that is different for men and women in this society.) As a 

practical exercise in this section the students will do some mechanical repair or 

procedure - dismantling and reassembling an automobile carburator, for example - on a 

machine that is strongly gender typed. 