Are ways of knowing gendered?
I never got far enough learning German to tell you if there are different genders for “intuition” and “logic”, but that’s not what this is about, anyhow. Alex at A Most Curious Planet asks, “Is Science Sexist?” Chad at Uncertain Principles responds with “Huh?” Don’t worry he explains.
To me this is a question that is only slightly more sane than the faux-feminist accusation that science is a man’s way of knowing that suppresses an equal, but unexplainable (and actually fictitious) woman’s way of knowing. In terms of answering practical scientific questions, science is the way of knowing. As Chad points out, intuition isn’t separate from science, which is not strictly logic.
To really get anywhere at all, I think, scientists have to be intuitive. Eschewing intuition, I would personally be left with a very time-consuming list of things to check every time there’s a problem in my hardware. Sure, it’s not a flash of insight that will lead to anything like QCD, general relativity, or the quantum hydrogen atom, but I need to be able to make a pretty good guess where to look for the problem to save myself from checking the entire setup only to discover there was a bad connector on a BNC cable (hint: check the connectors first).
Propagating the myth that different ways of knowing belong to specific genders isn’t doing anybody any good, especially if one way of knowing is given most of the credit for scientific progress. A man can have keen intuition, be a good scientist, and be masculine. A woman can have sharp logic, be a good scientist, and be feminine. The idea that intuition implies femininity or precludes masculinity is only going to hold back potential scientists from venturing into territory they feel is forbidden by their gender. Like I’ve said before, the gender gap isn’t about ability, it’s about broadly perceived inability.