A Feminist Cognitive Anthropology: The Case of Women and Mathematics

This article is an exploration of the insights that a marriage between feminist and cognitive anthropology offers for understanding the scientific gender gap. Using comparative ethnographic and questionnaire data from India, I argue that Indian cultural models of family, gender, and schooling interact with macrostructural features of Indian society (educational, socioeconomic, and occupational) to frame academic decisions, producing a gender‐stratified scientific community. I then evaluate the applicability of Western theories to India. I suggest American individualistic models that emphasize internal, female mathematic deficiencies and gender‐identity conflicts embody American cultural models of gender and schooling not shared by Indian informants. Indian patrifocal family institutions also do not imply essentialist gender concepts. Finally, I argue American theories of gendered science embody long‐standing American cultural models that warrant critical scrutiny.