Women and Science Fiction
In the arena of science fiction, women have been discriminated
against, whether as writers or characters. The image of women in science
fiction writing has often been troubling. Starting from their entire
absence in many of the earliest works, to running-screaming-falling-and-being-saved,
to evil alien Amazons in the pulps, the portrayal of women in sci-fi
is frequently abysmal. For much of its history, sci-fi has been written
by boys for boys. Joanna Russ has written eloquently about this subject
in many articles, as well as in her book How to Suppress Women's
Writing (1983.) Fortunately, there
are a growing number of 
great
women writers who have been correcting this imbalance. In my reading
of the genre, women writers tend to focus more on the social aspects
of a situation and how technology affects social structures. Characterization
is as important as any technological aspects.
Some of the best sci-fi written by women takes place in
a dystopia after an apocalypse of some sort brought on by misuse of
technology. Marge Piercy, Margaret Atwood and Octavia Butler have all
written tales in this vein. The characters are dealing with the effects
of the misuse of science and the technology itself is not the focus
of the stories. The commentary then is on how a woman survives in a
society destroyed/disrupted by technology. Butler's The Parable of
the Sower (1993) and the sequel
The Parable of the Talents (1998)
are set in a post apocalyptic world in California where law and government
have broken down. An empathic woman builds a community around herself
and they must survive the bandits, religious fundamentalists and bad
luck that befalls them. The
novel is a harsh indictment of religious fundamentalism, and has been
compared to Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel The
Handmaid's Tale (Baccolini, 2000).
Atwood's story takes place in a totalitarian religious society where
ecological breakdown (caused by nuclear technology) has lead to widespread
infertility in women. Fertile women are used as breeding stock and technology
is used to oppress these women.
There are many celebrated as well as lesser known women writing in the sci-fi field today. These include Sarah Zettel, Linda Nagata, Pamela Sargeant, Nancy Kress, Alison Sinclair, Judith Merril or feminist writers like Ursala K. LeGuin, Evelyn Coleman, Joanna Russ, Carol Emshwiller and Toronto's Nalo Hopkinson, who puts a West Indian folk tale spin on some of her stories.
