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Honoris Causa » Londa Schiebinger » Laudatio
Londa Schiebinger is Professor of the History of Science at Stanford University. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 1984. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has received several honorary doctorates (five from the Free University of Brussels in 2013, the Faculty of Sciences at Lund University, Sweden, in 2017, and the University of Valencia in 2018).
She is an international authority on gender and science. She was the first woman to receive the Alexander Humboldt Research Prize, among other prestigious awards. She is a leading researcher in Science, Technology, and Gender Studies and directs the Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering, and Environment program, funded by the European Union and the United States.
Her research has focused on the history of women's participation in science, gender in the structure of scientific research, and the gender of human knowledge, making her a recognized international authority on gender and science.
With a solid academic background and a prolific career, Dr. Schiebinger has significantly contributed to the understanding and improvement of gender inclusion in science and technology.
As a computer scientist and researcher, I will highlight Dr. Schiebinger's contribution to her "Gendered Innovations" project, a term she also coined in 2005, which developed practical methods for analyzing sex, gender, and intersectionality in science and engineering and provided case studies that illustrate how sex, gender, and intersectionality analysis leads to innovation. This project began at Stanford University in July 2009 and expanded with funding from the European Commission and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF).
Since 2011, more than 225 experts from Europe, the US, Canada, and Asia have collaborated in interdisciplinary workshops to develop peer-reviewed case studies and methods applicable across disciplines. The workshop has collaborated with and influenced institutions such as the European Parliament, the UN, and the Asia-Pacific Gender Summit. It has demonstrated how analyzing sex, gender, and intersectionality can foster innovation and that considering these perspectives can add valuable dimensions to research and open up new directions in science. A summary of this approach can be found in “Sex and Gender Analysis Improves Science and Engineering,” published in Nature (2019).
The Gendered Innovations portal shows us different examples of how improper research costs lives and money. For example, between 1997 and 2000, 10 drugs were withdrawn from the market in the US due to adverse health effects. Eight of these drugs posed greater risks to women than to men. In addition to the multimillion-dollar costs associated with drug development, the failures caused human suffering and death. In engineering, for example, ignoring short people (many women as well as men) as "out-of-position" drivers increases the risk of injury in car accidents. In computer vision, facial recognition systems trained on biased data sets may fail to recognize women, darker-skinned people, or transgender people, especially during periods of transition.
In basic research, failure to use adequate samples of male and female cells, tissues, and animals leads to flawed results. In medicine, failure to recognize osteoporosis as a male disease delays diagnosis and treatment in men. In urban planning, failure to collect data on care work leads to inefficient transportation systems. These research errors can be avoided thanks to this approach, and conducting research correctly can save lives and reduce costs. Gender-responsive innovations offer methods for analyzing sex, gender, and intersectionality, and integrating these methods into basic and applied research enhances excellence in science, medicine, and engineering, as well as in policy and practice.
Likewise, in the age of AI, Dr. Schiebinger investigates how machine learning (ML) technologies, such as risk scoring, recommendation systems, speech recognition, and facial recognition, operate in societies marked by structural discriminations based on gender, race, and other forms. ML systems can reinforce these structures in a variety of ways, from human biases embedded in training data to conscious or unconscious decisions in algorithm design.
Understanding how gender, sex, ethnicity, and other social factors operate in algorithms in specific contexts can help researchers make conscious and informed decisions about how their work impacts society. Dr. Schiebinger recommends paying attention to intersectionality when evaluating potentially discriminatory ML models, as some equity measures may miss intersectional forms of discrimination (e.g., “Black women,” “elderly Asian men”). This analysis is essential for creating more equitable ML systems that mitigate social biases rather than reinforce them.
We see how governments and universities have adopted three strategic approaches to gender equality: first, correcting the numbers, that is, increasing the participation of women and underrepresented groups; correcting the institutions, which means promoting inclusive equality in careers through structural changes in research organizations; and last, but not least, correcting knowledge, which means integrating sex, gender, and intersectionality analysis into research to promote excellence in science and technology. This focuses primarily on correcting knowledge, adding value to society by making research more sensitive to social needs, and creating responsible science and technology.
Her contribution to the analysis of gender bias in scientific publications is also notable. As an example, we can cite her meta-analysis of more than one and a half million articles to study authorship and first authorship. This work has led scientific publishers to propose gender policies for their journals. These proposals are embodied in the 2016 publication of her article "Editorial Policies for the Analysis of Sex and Gender" in The Lancet.
Dr. Londa Schiebinger has dedicated her life to demonstrating that well-done science is inclusive, innovative, and deeply humane. Her contributions have not only enriched academic knowledge but also transformed scientific practice by placing social justice at the heart of technological and scientific progress. Her vision and leadership challenge us to rethink our own practices and commit to responsible science.
Proposing her appointment as an Honorary Doctor is not only a recognition of her exceptional merits, but also an act of affirmation of the values she represents. Dr. Schiebinger invites us to imagine a future in which science and technology not only answer the questions of the present but also reflect the hopes of a more just world. With admiration, I present this proposal for an Honorary Doctorate as a tribute to a scholar whose life and work are a beacon of inspiration for all.
Carina Soledad González González
