2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

The interaction between gender and science is explored through the four papers on this panel. Rachel O’Donnell discusses the modern efforts to harness indigenous plant knowledge in Guatemala. O’Donnell’s fieldwork focuses on a women’s group devoted to protecting plant knowledge among the Maya, and raises issues of the rights of traditional knowledge in the modern knowledge economy. Debottam Saha focuses on the gendered cultural aspects of the arrival of electricity in early 20th century colonial India. Allison Horrocks draws our attention to one woman, Dr Flemmie Kittrell and the history of home economics as a gendered academic discipline. Horrocks recovers the role of women in nutrition science, and home economics as a path to academic influence for women. Cécile Stehrenberger discusses the gendered element of Cold War era disaster research groups. Together these papers raise issues about gendered participation in scientific knowledge.