ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects on images of human chromosomes and the meaning attributed to them as scientific objects of human genetics from a gender perspective. It aims to be a contribution to a history of women in cytogenetics and thus to an inclusive historiography of knowledge production as a collective and transnational endeavour. To this end, the trajectory of woman geneticist Lore Zech is analysed by focusing on an image-thing. Such a scientific object allows us to explore women’s skills and the part those skills played in the production of knowledge and scientific recognition. Gender is presented as involving both women’s contributions, the order of authority, and the interactions between experimentation and observation.
