Androcentrism

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The Vitruvian Man - man as the normative center of man and science, symbolized by Leonardo da Vinci (pen and ink on paper, around 1490)

Under Androcentrism a point of view is understood the men as the center, scale and standard understands. Androcentrism can be understood as a social fixation on the man or the " masculine " (compare masculinity ). An androcentric worldview understands the man as the norm, the woman as a deviation from this norm.

Androcentrism is a specific form of sexism in which the feminine is not necessarily referred to as inferior, but simply as "the other", "that which deviates from the norm". " Man " is tacitly set as "man" and the male view of things as the generally applicable one.

The term androcentrism was first used and defined in this meaning in 1911 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman in her book The Man-Made World or Our Androcentric Culture . According to Perkins Gilman, male life patterns and systems of thought have the claim of universality (general validity), while female life patterns and systems of thought are considered deviance (deviation). Since the equation of “man” with “man” is largely unconscious, androcentrism is difficult to recognize and very often deeply internalized by women.

Androcentric perspectives can, for example, also influence the formation of religious statements and thus legitimize themselves and immunize themselves against criticism .

Androcentrism in Science

The term androcentrism was widely used in the feminist criticism of science of the 1980s . The practice of the scientific community was critically analyzed. With four subsequent steps, the scientific community was accused of androcentrism:

  • Due to the late entry to universities and the scientific community, female participation, especially in basic research, is marginal.
  • The androcentrism that automatically prevails as a result means that the problems to be examined are selected and defined unilaterally. As a result, science is not universal.
  • Scientific experiments were therefore based on factors chosen unilaterally.
  • On the basis of the three previous points, the objectivity and rationality of the sciences must be called into question, because even in the fundamental principles of the sciences, male views and prejudices are predominantly represented.

This type of feminist science criticism goes far beyond the feminist science that emerged in the 1960s , since it does not attempt to establish a new kind of science, but criticizes the foundations of the conventional sciences and accuses them of their own claim to neutrality and universality not meet.

See also

literature

  • Susan A. Basow: Androcentrism. In: Judith Worell (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Women and Gender: Sex Similarities and Differences and the Impact of Society on Gender. Volume 1: A-P. Academic Press, San Diego CA 2001, ISBN 978-0-12-227245-5 , pp. 125-136 (English; page previews in Google Book Search).
  • Ann E. Cudd: Objectivity and ethno-feminist critiques of science. In: Keith M. Ashman, Phillip S. Barringer (Eds.): After the Science Wars: Science and the Study of Science. Routledge, London / New York 2001, ISBN 0-415-212-0-8-1 , pp. 79–96, here 86/87: Androcentrism and ethnocentrism (English; page previews in the Google book search).
  • Sandra Harding : Feminist philosophy of science: On the relationship between science and gender. 3. Edition. Argument, Hamburg 1999, ISBN 3-88619-384-5 .
  • Sandra Harding: The Gender of Knowledge: Women are rethinking science. Campus, Frankfurt / M. u. a. 1994, ISBN 3-593-35049-1 .
  • Sandra Harding, Merrill B. Hintikka (Eds.): Discovering Reality: Feminist Perspectives on Epistemology, Metaphysics, Methodology and Philosophy of Science (= Synthesis Library: Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Sciences. Volume 161). Reidel, Dordrecht a. a. 1983, ISBN 90-277-1496-7 (English).
  • C. Hibbs: Androcentrism . In: Thomas Teo (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Volume 1: A-D. Springer, New York 2014, ISBN 978-1-4614-5582-0 , p. 94 ff. (English; doi: 10.1007 / 978-1-4614-5583-7_16 ).
  • Evelyn Fox Keller : Love, Power, Knowledge. Male or Female Science? Carl Hanser, Munich a. a. 1986, ISBN 3-446-14652-0 .

Individual evidence