Abstract (eng)
Starting from Jasanoffs concept of the co-production of science and society, and corresponding observations in the contemporary brain research, a historical example of their mutual relationship was presented and discussed in this thesis focused on the academic discourse on the admission of women to medical school and profession. The data included an amount of different papers published between 1867 and 1900, which were analyzed via the “Situational Analysis” by Clarke. The method allowed a comprehensive investigation of the exclusion of women from the study of medicine and the medical profession, in which science and society constituted each other in three key moments: in the classification schemes of the actors, their reasoning and their positioning as experts. Toward predominant patterns men and women were ascribed to specific differences, for example in terms of physical or mental characteristics and abilities according to their position in the gender order. These flowed into science and after their apparent proof back into society. The actors of the discourse tried to legitimize or/and to challenge predominant gender conceptions and orders through scientification and/or moralization of socio-political arguments. In order to make their arguments credible for both their own network and the public, they based themselves on own experiences and studies, renowned scientists, scientific disciplines or statistics, referred to human nature, Christian-influenced moral, and discussed the influence of gender differences on the aptitudes and abilities of women or the expected consequences of their admission to medical school and the medical profession for themselves, the medical field and society. Belonging to science and society made the actors to their connecting links. So they presented themselves as members of society, by presupposing gender differences positioned in schemes of classification and ordering, or idealization of the mother role, but at the same time they also had an authoritative position. So they staged themselves as experts in their fields with reference to their own experiences and skills or renowned colleagues.