Retorts

Living with Science

The 1993 Women's Suffrage Centennial Science Conference -- W2(SC) -- was for many of New Zealand's science-women the highlight of suffrage year. Over 400 women and a handful of men came to Wellington with little in common but their interest in science and their experience of how they see it, feel it and interact with it.

The results were astounding: landscape architects discussed feminist science philosophy with chemists and geologists; nurses and sociologists found common ground with physicists and meteorologists. Three generations were represented, with the youngest "participant" being only three weeks old. Since then, women who went to W2(SC) have enthused that the energy created by the three days of speakers, workshops and discussions lasted well into 1994 and brought renewed vigour to their scientific endeavours.

At a recent meeting on Health Science funding, after a relatively heated outburst from me on the position of women in the biomedical research workforce, a science journalist remarked to me "I am waiting for the next generation of women who are happy just being what they are". The remark cut deeply into my consciousness and I have pondered on it ever since.

I can only guess at the assumptions he was making, which are not born out by either my experience as a science-woman, or my knowledge of other women in science. I feel he will have a long wait however, because the majority of women in science that I know are already exceedingly happy with who they are and what they do, both as scientists and as women. I know that this subject, along with many other topics, will be discussed and debated at the second women in science conference "Science-Women and our Future", organised by the NZ Association for Women in the Sciences Inc., which will be held in Wellington on 29-31 May 1996.

Thanks to the generous sponsorship of ECNZ, FRST, ESR, HortResearch, AgResearch, NIWA, The Plaza International, The British Council, the RSNZ and others, this second conference looks set to be just as good, if not better than, the first.

Keynote speakers include Dale Spender (courtesy of FRST), author of the recent book Nattering on the Net; Women, Power and Cyberspace; Dell Wihongi-Te Rarawa, the founder of, and the inspiration behind Te Pu Hao Rangi Ethno-botanical gardens in Tamaki Makaurau; Sandra Coney and Prof Robyn Rowland (Deakin University) on women's issues in health and ethics; and Kathleen Lennon, feminist science philosopher from the University of Hull and author of Explaining Human Action.

The themes of the 1996 conference range from "what are women doing with their science?" and "the nature and structure of the scientific workplace" to "social responsibility, community participation and accessibility", providing an underlying structure for the dozens of papers and workshops that will be offered. The 1996 Zonta National Science Award will also be a feature of and will be presented during the week of the conference.

I am confident that at "Science-Women and our Future" I will find many women who are happy "just being what they are" -- women in science.

Information and registration forms are available from Helen Hancox (Tel: 04 389 2578; fax 04 389 2589 or email hancox@actrix.gen.nz). There's also a conference World Wide Web Home Page at http://www.vuw.ac.nz/~parrwv/

Jean Fleming is one of the organisers of the Women in Science Conference