Scientific Vocabulary Divergence among Female Primatologists Working in East Africa

Abstract

Feminist philosophers have argued rhetorically that women scientists view the world differently from their male colleagues, and will therefore conduct their work on the basis of different paradigms. The argument, however, begs empirical support. Here, evidence is offered that female ethologists working in East Africa select substantially different vocabulary to describe their work than do male ethologists publishing in the same sources. Discriminant analysis was applied to a sample of vocabulary drawn from 122 scientific papers, and classified in terms of nine variables: those concerning cooperation and female gender are the most important in discerning women's approach to natural systems.