Abstract This paper argues that androcentrism in science means more than the absence of women and female perspectives. Instead, it means that a specific space is elevated to be the norm while its perspectives are historically and culturally contingent. This affects the scientific personae that such a space forms, such as the body-denying book scholar, the athletic field-scientist, or the battle-worn soldier-scientist. Based on 165 autobiographical texts from the Archive of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, this paper examines scientists’ male-coded writing styles, their self-fashioning as hegemonic, and their criticism of others as deficient. Academic competition, performance, and debate often center around fitness (for war or fieldwork) and closeness to nature (with the “laws of nature” understood as the pure truth). From a male perspective, women are supposed to be supportive, self-sacrificing, and not transgressive or competitive. Thus, hegemonic masculinities stabilize and orient gender constellations in academia towards efficiency and elitism.
Sandra Klos (Sat,) studied this question.