Gendered society, gendered futures research

New fields of research, new approaches and branches of science enrich the scientific world-view and scientific toolbox. Below I employ concepts developed for a newcomer to the domain of science, feminist and women's research, in the field of futures research. The distinction between biological sex and sociocultural gender is a useful conceptual device. The sociocultural woman's or man's role is distinguished from being a biological woman or man, With the help of this distinction feminists have shown that, especially in science, there is a dominant male mode of thinking, which they call 'the male bias'. The male bias in Western futures research gets its extreme expression in the forecasting approach, There are, though, early efforts to develop 'female futures research' from practical work with women's futures to theoretical and utopian considerations, The female approach is but an embryo and should be developed further. To begin is to understand the dilemma. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.