True or false? Women are more emotional than men. Boys are better than girls at math and science. "Many things that 'everyone knows' about human sex differences are not scientifically accurate," says professor Caitilyn Allen, a plant pathologist at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Yet, she adds, these ideas "affect individual life decisions and broader social policies. Getting the facts right leads to increased opportunities for everyone and improves the quality of science in general." Separating fact from fiction in experimental research is one of the goals behind a new postdoctoral program in feminist biology in the UW's department of gender and women's studies. It will also train early-career scientists to avoid such biases in their own research. The program is the first of its kind in the country. It is funded through a bequest from scientist and feminist science advocate Dr. Gertraude Wittig, who experienced gender biases firsthand when she earned a Ph.D. in biology in the 1950s. Professor Janet Hyde, director of the UW's Center for Research on Gender and Women, will oversee the program and serve as a mentor to each postdoctoral fellow. Hyde says that patriarchal attitudes in biology have not only excluded women from the field, but … Continue reading →