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Article
Significant Differences: The Construction of Knowledge, Objectivity, and Dominance
Women's Studies International Forum (1995)
  • Donna M. Hughes, Dr.
Abstract
The scientific method is a tool for the construction and justification of dominance in the world. The invention of statistics was a major methodological advance in the descriptive sciences causing a shift from descriptive analysis to mathematical analysis. The new methodological techniques were invented by men who were interested in explaining the inheritance of traits in order to support their political ideology of natural human superiority and inferiority. The statistical techniques transformed the scientific method and resulted in a process that constructs knowledge and establishes "significant differences" between the dominant group as the norm and the subordinate group as the "Other." The five steps in the process that integrates dominance into the scientific method and results in the scientific construction of the Other are: a) Naming, b) Quantification, c) Statistical analysis, d) Reification, and 3) Objectification.
Keywords
  • statistics,
  • domination,
  • scientific method,
  • descriptive analysis,
  • mathematical analysis
Publication Date
1995
Citation Information
Hughes, Donna M. (1995). Significant differences: The construction of knowledge, objectivity, and dominance. Women's Studies International Forum. Vol. 18. No 4. pp 395-406.
Creative Commons license
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC-ND International License.