Londa Schiebinger

Londa Schiebinger
Londa Schiebinger presenting the Gendered Innovations Project at the European Parliament.
Born (1952-05-13) May 13, 1952 (age 72)
Known forGendered Innovations in Science, Medicine, Engineering, and Environment
AwardsAlexander von Humboldt Research Prize (1999), Prize in Atlantic History, AHA (2005), Interdisciplinary Leadership Award, SSM (2010)
Academic background
Alma materHarvard University
ThesisWomen and the origins of modern science (1984)
Academic work
InstitutionsStanford University
Notable works″The Mind has no Sex? Women in the Origins of Modern Science″ (1989), ″Nature’s Body: Gender in the Making of Modern Science″ (1993), ″Plants and Empire: Colonial Bioprospecting in the Atlantic World″ (2007)

Londa Schiebinger (/ˈʃiːbɪŋər/ ⓘ SHEE-bing-ər; born May 13, 1952) is the John L. Hinds Professor of History of Science, Department of History, and by courtesy the d-school, Stanford University. She received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1984. An international authority on the theory, practice, and history of gender and intersectionality in science, technology, and medicine, she is the founding Director of Gendered Innovations in Science, Medicine, Engineering, and Environment. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Schiebinger received honorary doctorates from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium (2013), from the Faculty of Science, Lund University, Sweden (2017), and from Universitat de València, Spain (2018). She was the first woman in the field of History to win the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize in 1999.

Over the past thirty years, Schiebinger has analyzed what she calls the three “fixes”: "Fix the Numbers of Women" focuses on increasing the underrepresented groups participating in science and engineering; "Fix the Institutions" promotes equity in careers through structural change in research organizations; and "Fix the Knowledge" or "gendered innovations" stimulates excellence in science and technology by integrating sex, gender, and intersectional analysis into research design. As a result of this work, she was recruited in a national search to direct Stanford University's Clayman Institute for Gender Research, a post she held from 2004 to 2010.[1] Her job was to promote and support research on women and gender across Stanford University—from engineering, to philosophy, to medicine and business. In 2010 and 2014, she presented the keynote address and wrote the conceptual background paper[2] for the United Nations' Expert Group Meeting on Gender, Science, and Technology.[3] The UN Resolutions of March 2011 call for “gender-based analysis ... in science and technology” and for the integrations of a “gender perspective in science and technology curricula.” Again in 2022, she prepared the background paper for the United Nations 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women’s priority theme, Innovation and Technological Change, and Education in the Digital Age for Achieving Gender Equality and The Empowerment of all Women and Girls.[4]

In 2013 she presented the Gendered Innovations project at the European Parliament.[5] Gendered Innovations was also presented to the South Korean National Assembly in 2014.[6] In 2015, Schiebinger addressed 600 participants from 40 countries on Gendered Innovations at the Gender Summit 6—Asia Pacific, a meeting devoted to gendered innovations in research. She speaks globally on gendered innovations—from Brazil to Japan, and her work was recently presented in a Palace Symposium for the King and Queen of the Netherlands at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam. In 2018-2020, she led a European Commission Expert Group to produce Gendered Innovations 2: How Inclusive Analysis Contributes to Research and Innovation.

Schiebinger's work is highly interdisciplinary. In recognition of her creative work across academic fields of research, she was awarded the Interdisciplinary Leadership Award in the Stanford Medical School in 2010, the Linda Pollin Women's Heart Health Leadership Award from the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles in 2015, the Impact of Gender/Sex on Innovation and Novel Technologies Pioneer Award in 2016, and the American Medical Women's Association President's Recognition Award in 2017.[7] She has held prestigious Fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin (1999–2000) and at the Stanford Humanities Center (2010/2011, 2017/2018, 2022/2023). She served as an advisor to the Berlin University Alliance, 2022/23.[8]

  1. ^ "The Clayman Institute for Gender Research (home page)". Stanford, California: The Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford University.
  2. ^ Schiebinger, Londa (October 2010). Gender, science and technology (PDF). Paris, France: UN Division for the Advancement of Women and UNESCO. EGM/ST/2010/BP.1.
  3. ^ gender news (8 October 2010). "Londa Schiebinger keynotes UN conference on gender, science and technology". Stanford, California: The Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford University. Archived from the original on 12 March 2018. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
  4. ^ "CSW67 Expert Group Meeting". UN Women – Headquarters. Retrieved 2023-02-17.
  5. ^ "Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering, and Environment (home page)". Stanford, California: Stanford University.
  6. ^ "Interview with Londa Schiebinger". South Korea. January 1, 2014.
  7. ^ "American Medical Womens Association". Stanford, CA. March 27, 2017.
  8. ^ "Diversität in der Wissenschaft: Gleichstellung und Exzellenz: Ein Widerspruch?". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 2023-02-01.