Culture and Gender do not Dissolve into how Scientists “read” Nature: Thelma Rowell’s Heterodoxy

From her very first descriptions of the baboons (in the sixties), Thelma Rowell’s observations contrasted sharply with those of her colleagues (mostly males) working with similar animals. Numerous observers among primatologists and science studies scholars have suggested that women observed differently. For some, womens’ patience makes them ideal observers. Rowell insisted that her challenging ideas about dominance relationships in primates were a result of her having been trained always to question authority. Roswell’s distinction lay in doing the same sorts of things others scientists were doing but for far longer, which enabled her to see more and different results.