How many people are aware of the word "gender"? How does it relate to science? To be honest I didn't know anything about gender. This series of lectures was the first time for me to get to know about this issue.

The lectures started this year as part of a series of projects promoting Waseda's gender equality activities. Each lecture has different lecturers, which helped us to learn about gender and science from various perspectives. The latest course consisted of four lectures, in the first of which Professor Mariko Ogawa (Mie University) asked us whether science is independent from values and gender from the viewpoint of scientific history. The second lecture was given by Professor Naomi Wakasugi (School of Political Science and Economics), who lectured on gender issues from a medical perspective and dealt with topics such as AIDS, FGM (Female Genital Mutilation), and reproductive relations. The third lecture was taught by Associate Professor Atsuko Takamatsu and Professor Mitsuo Umezu (School of Science and Engineering), who talked about the present situation of female researchers. The last was a lecture about evolution and living things based on biological anthropology, and was taught by Akiko Uchida (School of International Liberal Studies).

By the way, do you know the gender ratio at Waseda University? Although Waseda seems to have lots of female students, they only constitute about 30% of the total number of students. Moreover, only 10% of the teachers in the Faculty of Science and Engineering are female; there are even some divisions with no female professors. However, it is expected that more female researchers will be trained and that the number of female faculty members will be increased in the near future.

Many of the students studying science and engineering probably pay little attention to gender issues since they don't have much opportunity to learn about them. But if you have even a little interest in "gender and science," this course will help you to learn new views of the issue. And even if you are not particularly interested, knowing about gender might change the way you think about modern society.