Book to Note

Londa Schiebinger, ed. Gendered Innovations in Science and Engineering. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008. 265 pp. $65 cloth, $24.95 paper.

Reviewed by Hilary Domush

As editor of Gendered Innovations in Science and Engineering Londa Schiebinger argues that raising scientists’ and engineers’ awareness of gender bias in their research will lead to new and better understandings of their own results. In part, Schiebinger and her contributing authors see the collection as a guidebook for researchers who must comply with the National Institutes of Health’s requirement that researchers address the impact of gender difference on the results of clinical trials. The collection will help those unfamiliar with gender analysis learn to identify if and when it has been used. It contains specific examples that highlight how considering women specifically instead of as a generic, genderless group of consumers can alter a research project’s outcome. But the book’s intended audience, especially researchers outside of the biological fields, will have difficulty learning how to effectively use gender analysis in their own research.