Lifting the Veil: The Feminine Face of Science

By Linda Jean Shepherd

Book Overview

What do we miss seeing of reality when we don't include the feminine perspective? The feminine principle with all its unique qualities is restoring the lost soul to disciplines once limited by... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0877736561
• ISBN13: 9780877736561
• Release Date: June 1993
• Publisher: Shambhala Publications, Incorporated
• Length: 329 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

An inspiring guide to a healthier, more inclusive science

Although there are many excellent books and articles covering particular aspects of feminism and science, finding a comprehensive text is difficult. I was delighted to discover _Lifting the Veil_ a few years ago, and have been using it ever since as a text in a class I teach, "Feminist Perspectives in Science." It is written with great sensitivity, insight, clarity, and conviction. Shepherd advocates for greater gender balance in the ways science is conceived, practiced, and taught. Specifically she imagines a more inclusive science--inclusive not only of women and people of color, but also inclusive of certain qualities customarily associated with women and customarily undervalued in Western science. Each chapter features one of these qualities: feeling, receptivity, multiplicity, nurturing, cooperation, intuition, relatedness, and social responsibility. Her writing style is engaging and enjoyable to read. Endnotes, bibliography, and commentary within her text are exceptionally illuminating guides to the literature, and inspire and facilitate further reading. Especially important to me as a teacher is that my students like the book, and read it--even the most skeptical males.Shepherd exposes male bias in science not in an accusatory way but simply by proposing a positive and appealing alternative-- "more creative, more productive, more relevant, and more humane"--noticing how a more "feminine," inclusive science is emerging already in a thousand different ways, and unveiling the places where it has all along been present but unseen. Her book seems to take into account, as if by design, most of the complaints about science voiced by my students. They find in this book a new face of science to which they can relate.

OUTSTANDING INSIGHT INTO SCIENCE

This is a wonderful book that details the difference between how men and women approach science. It demonstrates those charactoristics that women can uniquely bring to science. As a mathematician I was impressed with Dr. Shepherd's rigorous scholarship and enjoyed her interviews with living women scientists. I'm a father of a teenage girl who plans a career in science, and I appreciate the author's efforts to highlight the special ways that women contribute to the scientific effort.

Insightful and provocative

Linda Shepherd's book is a must for those seeking to understand why science has such a hard, "macho" edge and why it seems so divorced from wanting to look at the impact on society and the environment. Dr. Shepherd explores what it is that science and "scientists" lack--a compassionate face.

Revolutionary Scientific Book

Lifting the Veil shows the feminine perspective in science, instead of the normal male view. This is extremely illuminating, and makes the reader think of new things -- an alternate reality for many male viewers. There is an important message here: when we do not include the feminine perspective, we miss seeing part of reality. The author mixes philosophy, science, and feminism in a very readable way, filled with anecdotes and conversations with both women scientists and men who are not afraid of their feminine sides.

Falling in Love with the Beauty of Science

This book describes the changing trends in today's world of R & D as it strives to evolve itself. This book does not strive to bring science down to the reader, instead it seeks to illustrate the beauty and complexity of science and asks the reader to come up. Shepard illustrates her points with allusions to Jungianism and her own personal experiences as a scientist and as a woman (and proves they need not be separated). Shepard examines the effects on science being funded and conducted almost exclusively by men and the changes brought about by the inclusion of women into it at (almost) all levels. She discusses why many scientists are finding their way away from Baconian "rip from nature's breast what you will" philosophy to one more holistic, nurturing and sustaining. I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to fall in love with science or understand why scientists act the way they do. Finally, Shepard shows us why the true scientist need not be the cold, unfeeling demagogue society tells us they should be. I would advocate strongly any young woman looking to go into the science read this. Not only would it give her a sense of her past, but a good guide for the present and possible future.