Die Lerneinheit Gender & Chemie liefert Grundlagen zum Verständnis, wie Chemie, Gender und Gesellschaft zusammenwirken. Ziel ist es, dass Sie mit diesen Grundlagen Genderaspekte für Ihre Arbeit in der Chemie reflektieren und eigene fundierte Posititionen entwickeln können.
In drei Kapiteln werden Sie kennenlernen, wo Geschlecht in der Vermittlung von chemischem Wissen eine Rolle spielt und wie Geschlechtervorstellungen die Fachkultur der Chemie beeinflussen. Für die Chemiedidaktik geht es um Fragen der Motivierung für das Fach und um fachdidaktische Ansätze für die u.a. schulische Bildung.
Gender refers to sociocultural norms, identities, and relations that: 1) structure societies and organizations; and 2) shape behaviors, products, technologies, environments, and knowledge (Schiebinger, 1999). Gender attitudes and behaviors are complex and change across time and place. Importantly, gender is multidimensional (Hyde et al., 2018; Dubois et al., 2025) and intersects with other social categories, such as sex, age, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and ethnicity (see intersectionality. Gender is distinct from sex (Fausto-Sterling, 2012). Historically, gender definitions have been based on a binary concept – women and men. In most key UN definitions, this binary framework continues to dominate, including in chemical policy. To avoid exclusions, newer definitions and guidelines often additionally use the term “all genders”. Beyond defining gender, applying a binary concept within the difference approach to Gender Mainstreaming remains valuable, productive and necessary, as it allows for comparing the experiences of women and men. Analyzing these differences and using binary-disaggregated data provides insights into social structures and inequalities. While we often work with binary categories for analytical purposes (also in chemicals management), we want to do so with a clear awareness of their limitations and with the aim of building more inclusive approaches in the future.