The theme that
has been selected for the 2003 Gender Institute is: Gender,
Science and Technology.
The social
struggles for equality between men and women are a contemporary
topical issue. Thanks to a powerful emancipation movement, women
, who have long been relegated to inferior social positions are
now progressively breaking the barriers that had branded them as
subordinate persons. it is gratifying to note that the age-old
beliefs in men's superiority over women are being vehemently
contested today; the actions of NGOs and civil society activists
have succeeded in putting the issue of equal rights for men and
women firmly on the African agenda. In this connection,
particular attention has been paid to the unequal access to
education as one of the main causes of the inequalities between
men and women and the important role which access to all levels
of schooling can play in expanding and enhancing the involvement
of women in public affairs. however, behind the entire quest for
improving girls' access to education lies one of the last
existing bastions and instruments of power, namely, the control
of science and technology. It is a domain that is overwhelmingly
male dominated. And yet, few ill disagree that the full
participation of women in the development and application of
science and technology is critical to the socio-economic
development of African countries.
Science ant
technology, which are the indisputable foundations of political
and economic power in our modern world, are still marked by
various layers and dimensions of deep-seared gender inequality
that works mostly to the disadvantage of women. Women's
exclusion, paradoxically enough, starts form the early phase of
their education, when feminine identities are defined in the
manner which, overall, tends to reproduce the ideology of
domesticity among girls and encourage a rejection of science and
technology. This translated into stereotypes and result in women
being kept away from scientific positions and denied technical
jobs. Further, the accumulated experiences and knowledge of
women are excluded and, as a consequence, do not feature in the
human scientific patrimony; almost by instinct, women are not
considered to be capable of creating science and technology and
as a consequence are reduced to the role of passive recipients,
even helpless victims. Thus, while it may be true that some of
the historic advances that have been recorded in science and
technology would seem to have been empowering to women in
certain domains, the logic of domesticity within which much of
these advantages have occurred has, in fact, tended to be
disempowering even as the gulf between men and women in the
field of science and technology continues to widen. Still, for
all the obstacles that they experience, women have never ceased
devising clever and ingenious combinations to enable them to
master things, most of the times away from the lime light of
official science.
Participants
in the 2003 Gender Institute will be invited to explore three
main aspects of the following multidimensional relationship:
gender, science and technology. Within this relationship, it is
proposed that attention should be paid to the ways in which the
various forms of the socialization of young girls in Africa
induce unequal access to science ant technology. The questions
which arise are legion: How can early gender education be
transformed into an instrument of equity between men and women
in the field of science and technology? Is a purely feminine
conception of science and technology possible and/or desirable?
How has the interaction between old and new feminine identities
contributed to shaping the professional options and the social
positions and roles of women in households, as well as in the
political and religious organisations? In what ways does the
exclusion of women's knowledge and collective experience impact
on the progress of society as a whole? What examples of the
dialectic of the empowerment and disempowerment of women through
the intermediation of science and technology can we point to and
what explains the balance? What are the challenges of making
science and technology more gender-sensitive?
The
objectives of the 2003 Gender Institute are to:
-
Provide a
platform of African scholars undertaking theoretical and
empirical research on gender, science and technology to
exchange and share ideas;
-
Familiarise
researchers with the latest literature in the field and
through this help consolidate an African perspective to the
theoretical debates taking place;
-
Sharpen
researchers' gender analytic skills, as well as promote an
African feminist methodology in the field of gender, science
and technology;
-
Encourage
African knowledge and production on the interface of gender
with science and technology and, in so doing, contributing to
the emergence of a critical mass of networked intellectuals
with an active research interest in deepening research on this
theme.
