Chapter 1 To “Make a Fuss”

Abstract

This innovative volume analyzes the historical entanglement of gender, technosciences, and government/governance. Situated at the crossroad of women and gender studies, science and technology studies, and political sociology, this volume shows the ever‑accumulating gendered mechanisms that have determined the careers of scientific women and their access to power positions. It underlines on different scales—from the lab to international organizations or states—how the masculine culture of technoscientific practices has assigned women to subaltern institutional positions, while social practices of legitimization and recognition ended up granting some women access to leadership positions outside of institutions. With a broad geographic, political, and disciplinary scope, the contributors draw on a variety of new sources including interviews, private collections, and archives to examine the institutions, structures, and policies that shaped the technosciences, as well as the individuals who developed practices and environments that gained agency for themselves and their contemporaries. This book will be of interest to students and scholars alike interested in women and gender studies, political studies, STS, history, and sociology of science and technology.