Sandra Harding, Feminist Philosopher of Science

Dr. Sandra Harding is the author or editor of nine books, most recently Is Science Multicultural? Postcolonialism, Feminism & Epistemologies (Indiana UP, 1998).  

Harding's groundbreaking work in The Science Question in Feminism (1986) and Whose Science? Whose Knowledge? (1991) has made these books classics in the philosophy of science.  In The Science Question in Feminism Harding critiques three approaches to the science question in feminism: 1) feminist empiricism, which sees the problem as lying only in bad science; 2) the feminist standpoint approach, which privileges the perspective of women in revealing masculine bias in science; and 3) the postmodern approach, which disputes basic scientific assumptions about objectivity and truth.  Harding argues for a perspective that includes anti-racism and anti-classism, along with anti-sexism. In Is Science Multicultural? Postcolonialism, Feminism & Epistemologies, Harding combines the best of feminist, postmodern, and post-colonial critiques of modern science, arguing for reconstructing objectivity rather than simply embracing total relativism. 

Harding has lectured at over 200 universities and conferences around the world. A professor at UCLA, she directed the UCLA Center for the Study of Women for almost five years, and currently co-edits Signs: A Journal of Women in Culture and Society, one of the most prestigious journals in Women's Studies.

Links to Sites about Sandra Harding
Harding's Faculty Web Page at UCLA 

News release summarizing arguments in Harding's Whose Science, Whose Knowledge? (1991) 

Notes on Harding's  Introduction  to The Racial Economy of Science (from a Georgia Tech course)

Sandra Harding's speech at SEDSAN website launch, July 28, 2000 
(SEDSAN is the Socio-Economic Disadvantage Support and Advocacy Network)

Bibliography on Feminist Theory Website

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