Beginning in the 1970s, anthropologists began to address theproblem of androcentrism (overvaluing of male gender) within thefield of anthropology. Since then, subtle gender biases have beenfound. Specifically, in a 1990 publication, Catherine Lutz foundthat in the journals American Ethnologist, American Anthropologist,and Ethos, male authors failed to reference publications by womenas often as female authors did. In a 1985 publication, Joan Gerofound that male archaeologists were more likely to do fieldworkdissertations while female archaeologists were more likely to dolabwork dissertations. Specifically, between 1980 and 1984, 176male dissertations in archaeology were fieldwork-oriented while 107were lab-oriented. In contrast, 60 female dissertations inarchaeology were fieldwork-oriented while 115 were lab-oriented.This led Gero to conclude that there was what she called a “womanat home†ideology, in which men were encouraged to go outside theconfines of the university and bring home the data, while womenwere expected to stay within the university (to “stay homeâ€) andprocess (“cookâ€) the data. Gero argued that this pattern inarchaeology reflected broader expectations that the public spherewas gendered male while the domestic sphere was gendered female. Isthe pattern in Gero’s data statistically significant? Also, use astrength test to calculate the strength of the association of menwith fieldwork and women with labwork.
