Vanessa A. Bentley

Neuroimaging research on sex, gender, and sexuality is a growing field. Despite a plethora of criticisms from feminist scientists, science studies scholars, and philosophers, the dominant research framework is sex essentialist, which assumes that there are two biologically distinct human sexes. Drawing upon Intemann’s description of feminist standpoint empiricism, I develop a feminist standpoint framework for cognitive neuroscience using the neuroimaging of sex/gender differences as a case study. Feminist standpoint epistemology involves initiating inquiry from the lives of the oppressed, subordinate, marginalized, or neglected. By reflecting on the differences between the lived experiences of individuals from the dominant group as compared to those from nondominant groups, we can take those experiences into account and incorporate the interests of nondominant groups in the research. Revisions to scientific practice may involve changing: (1) the research question; (2) the experimental set-up, data collection, or analysis; or (3) the standards for the interpretation and dissemination of results. Adopting the feminist standpoint has the potential to create knowledge that may be more reliable and less narrow in scope and knowledge that is liberatory rather than oppressive.