Within psychology, as in other areas of science, rationality continues to be equated largely with the rules of logic and objectivity. It is also associated typically with masculinity. Psychological theories of rationality and of gender have been used, consciously or otherwise, as an effective social control strategy in the continuing social suppression of women, by portraying them as more suited to subordinate social roles. This paper shows how this has occurred through the imposition and maintenance of rules and ideologies based on rationality as objective logic. In order for the current locus of male social control to shift, several changes are necessary, including the recognition that rationality involves more than logic and that women's knowledge and its expression have their own equal validity.
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