Since 1990, neuroscience has garnered increasing attention from political figures, scientists, and the media (Roy, 2016). In recent years, numerous transnational projects (Humain Brain Project, BigBrain) have proliferated, placing neuroscience into a position of far greater epistemic authority (Fine, 2012; Weisberg et al., 2008). The media subsequently captures select neuroscientific findings to popularize to the general public. Today, there is a large number of articles in popular literature addressing neuroscience. While indeed a commendable goal to popularize scientific data and make it accessible to the general public, a dire issue remains: specific results chosen to be shared by the media are received by the public with significant biases that in turn, perpetuate stereotypes¹. Beyond such issues of biased interpretations of select neuroscience result amplifying gender stereotypes, neuroscience itself has a complex history. Criticisms of neurofeminism denounce the ways cognitive and behavioral capacities are predominantly considered ‘biologically determined’ (or ‘immutable’),and the way male physiological and social models are treated as the norm (Pontin et al., 2017). Thus, neurofeminist researchers seek to understand how and why gender stereotypes have infiltrated every stage of research, from conception to the presentation of results (Friedrisch et al., 2022). This literature review focuses on examining sexism within neuroscientific literature, as well as the emergence of the neurofeminist movement in response to this phenomenon.
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