ANDROCENTRISM: CHARACTERISTICS, PRESENCE IN HISTORY AND SCIENCE, EXAMPLES - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The androcentrismo is a vision of the world where man occupies a central position in the culture, society and history. This epistemological practice or inclination can be conscious or unconscious, but in any way excludes or makes women invisible and places only men as the subject of reference.

According to the author Gema Celorio, in her text Androcentrism and Eurocentrism in the Social Sciences (2004), androcentrism places the male point of view as the only parameter of analysis and study of human reality, leaving aside the perspective of 50% of the population, made up of women.

Androcentrism is a vision of the world where the male occupies a central position within culture, societies and history. Source: pixabay.com

Likewise, Celorio affirms that androcentrism has resulted in the concealment of the scientific, cultural and artistic contributions made by women throughout the history of humanity.

This can be appreciated, for example, when studying art history or some other science, where generally the authors studied are men, despite the fact that there were female representatives.

The first time that the term “androcentrism” was used -from the Greek andro: male- was in a pejorative way by the North American intellectual Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in her text The Man-Made world (1991). In this book, Perkins established what androcentric social practices were along with the problems that derived from them.

One of the criticisms that has been made of the androcentric vision is the fact that it reinforces the stereotypes concerning the gender roles imposed on both men and women.

Therefore, it is limiting for the development of each individual, since it generally reduces women to domestic and family tasks, while men to intellectual skills or physical strength.

Characteristics of androcentrism

Androcentrism is characterized by the following elements:

- Proposes a study and analysis perspective where the male experience is the universal and main one, leaving aside the female experience.

- The androcentric vision is based on the origins of the human being, where the use of physical force was considered as an elemental capacity for the survival of people. The men, having greater muscular strength, dedicated themselves to the most outstanding jobs, while the women were relegated to housework.

-Androcentrism is nourished by social roles or roles, which consist of the set of tasks that a person must perform depending on their gender or status. Traditionally, female roles covered only motherhood and housekeeping. Instead, male roles were focused on financial support and professional development.

- Another characteristic of androcentrism is that it supports stereotypes, which are preconceived ideas imposed on the members of a social group and which deeply influence people's behavior. Furthermore, stereotypes are transmitted from generation to generation, although they undergo slow modifications according to social realities.

- Androcentrism is based on a value system derived from the virile archetype, which generalizes the human species as that individual who is white, heterosexual, adult and owner.

Androcentrism in history and science

Androcentrism in the scientific field

Although science defines itself as a neutral and objective entity devoid of ideology, the author Ana Sánchez Bello, in her text Scientific androcentrism (2002), affirms that scientific disciplines often have gender biases that lead to invisibility from the female point of view.

However, this was much more noticeable a few decades ago. Currently, Ana Sánchez defends the position that there has been a massive inclusion of women in certain scientific fields, which has implied the transformation of scientific categories.

Currently, there has been a massive inclusion of women in certain scientific fields. Source: pixabay.com

Although this advance cannot be denied, androcentric traits still exist in the so-called hard sciences, as occurs for example in the field of molecular biology, physics and cyberscience.

Many authors and scientists have been interested in modifying this structure, since they affirm that the female perspective is necessary to have a more heterogeneous and complete look within the investigations.

Androcentrism in history, art, and literature

Previously, social structures established that men should have a better education than women, since the main interest of the latter had to reside in raising children and caring for the husband. Therefore, they received a basic education (reading, writing, adding and subtracting) complemented with other activities such as sewing and weaving.

Men, on the other hand, were allowed to study scientific careers and could also pursue the Fine Arts. For this reason, most of the great known artists, composers, and painters were men, as well as most of the most influential scientists.

Although these circumstances have now changed, some claim that there is still a notorious androcentrism in artistic and literary developments. For example, in 2010 only 37% of the books published by the Random House conglomerate were written by women, which makes the male point of view predominate within the publishing world.

Examples

Here are some examples of women whose cultural or scientific contributions were harmed by androcentrism:

Alice Guy (1873-1968)

For some historians, the French woman was the first filmmaker, since she was a pioneer in the introduction of many cinematographic elements, such as sounding the first films using a gramophone and developing the movement in reverse.

However, this filmmaker did not receive the recognition she deserved; in fact, her male disciples enjoyed greater popularity and success despite learning from her.

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1654)

Artemisia Gentileschi was an Italian painter who followed the style of Caravaggio. Currently, her paintings are considered as invaluable masterpieces, however, her paintings are not usually mentioned in the main art books, nor in the chairs taught in educational institutions.

Dorothy Hodkin (1910-1994)

In the field of science, one can mention Dorothy Hodgkin, who was a crystallologist who managed to map the structure of penicillin, which allowed her to obtain the Nobel Prize in 1964.

Although her research achieved this recognition, British newspapers titled the event “Housewife wins a nobel”, underscoring the stereotypes of the time.

Other women scientists did not even obtain any kind of recognition despite their important contributions, such as Esther Lederberg, a pioneer in the field of genetics or Rosalind Franklin, a benchmark in X-ray crystallography.

References

1. Abrams, K. (1993) Gender in the military: androcentrism and institutional reform. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from HeinOnline: heinonline.com
2. Bello, A. (2002) Scientific androcentrism. Retrieved on October 23, 2019 from CORE: core.ac.uk
3. Celorio, G. (2004) Androcentrism and Eurocentrism in the social sciences. Retrieved on October 23, 2019 from Bantaba: bantaba.ehu.es
4. Iqbal, J. (2015) The great scientists forgotten by science. Retrieved on October 23, 2019 from BBC news: bbc.com
5. Plumwood, V. (1996) Androcentrism and anthrocentrism: parallels and politics. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from JSTOR: jstor.org
6. Puleo, A. (sf) Equality and androcentrism. Retrieved on October 23, 2019 from Dialnet: Dialnet.net
7. SA (sf) Androcentrism. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from Wikipedia: es.wikipedia.org
8. Saiving, V. (1976) Androcentrism in religious studies. Retrieved on October 24, 2019 from The Journal of Religion: journals.uchicago.edu