QUALITATIVE INQUIRY / October 2001

Flannery / QUILTING

Quilting: A Feminist Metaphor

for Scientific Inquiry

Maura C. Flannery
St. John’s University

The author explores the implications of describing scientific inquiry as quilting. She
argues that most metaphors describing science are distinctly masculine in tone, such as
science as exploring, hunting, or penetrating the unknown. The author contends that
these metaphors have had a powerful effect on how science is done and that a feminist
view of science brings with it the need for new metaphors with less aggressive and alien-
ating connotations. The author describes the connotations of one such metaphor, that of
scientific inquiry as quilting, and presents what she sees as the consequences of such a
metaphorical shift. Drawing on her experiences as a participant-observer of both scien-
tific research and quilting, the author demonstrates the extensive similarities that exist
between both the processes and products of each endeavor.

In her poem “quilting,” Lucille Clifton (1991) writes of a “yellow-eyed

woman” sitting and quilting with her daughter and of alchemy “stirring into
science.” In the last stanza, she asks,

how does this poem end?

do the daughters’ daughters quilt?
do the alchemists practice their tables?
do the worlds continue spinning
away from each other forever? (p. 3)

This is a question that bothers me a great deal in teaching nonscience majors:

Must their worlds and mine continue to spin away from each other, is there
any way I can bring them together in my teaching, or are these worlds des-
tined to remain separate forever? Are the two cultures of C. P. Snow (1959) an
inescapable result of the development of modern science, or are they merely a
consequence of one approach to science, an approach that is neither neces-
sary nor inevitable? Many of the great science popularizers of the late 20th

Author’s Note: I would like to thank Robert Hendrick, Laurie Kutchins, and Julie
Upton for reading and commenting on this article in various stages of its evolution. I
am also grateful to the reviewers, who provided extremely useful and insightful com-
ments. Excerpt from “quilting” © 1991 by Lucille Clifton. Reprinted from Quilting:
Poems 1987-1990, by Lucille Clifton, with the permission of BOA Editions, Ltd.
Qualitative Inquiry, Volume 7 Number 5, 2001 628-645
© 2001 Sage Publications

628

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 Flannery / QUILTING 629

century—Lewis Thomas (1983), Stephen Jay Gould (1987), Edward O. Wilson

(1998)—have argued in different ways for a rapprochement, so I am hardly
attempting anything revolutionary in seeking the same goal, but I do want to
take a different tack. I want to look at this problem from a feminist perspective
and seek a partial solution by suggesting a new kind of metaphor for scientific
inquiry. In short, I want to turn Lucille Clifton’s poem around and use quilt-
ing as a metaphor for science.

DEVELOPING A METAPHOR
I am writing this article as both a scientist (a biologist) and a quilter,
although my experience in the two fields is hardly similar. I have been a scien-
tist for 30 years and a quilter for only 3, and oddly enough, it was science that
brought me to quilting. Because I teach nonmajors, I am always searching for
ways to make science more understandable and approachable for my stu-
dents. One way to do this is through metaphor, through comparing an area of
science to something that is familiar and perhaps even interesting to them. So,
over the years, I have become rather adept at creating metaphors. Although
we all think metaphorically to a greater extent than most of us realize, I am
conscious of this tendency because I like to mine metaphors for class.
One day, as I was leaving an art gallery where an artist had described the
thinking and experiences behind a striking series of collages, it struck me that
doing science was like making a collage: It involves taking bits and pieces of
information and experimental results that may have been acquired at very
different times and putting them together to form a satisfying whole. I liked
this metaphor and continued to play with it until a couple of weeks later,
when I came across a magazine article on quilts. It suddenly struck me that
doing science was even more like quilting than like making collages because
quilting, unlike collage making, often involves very defined patterns, as does
science, and like science, quilting has communal connotations.
The more I thought about this new metaphor, the more points of connec-
tion I discovered, and the more I liked it. Being an academic, I soon considered
writing an article about science as quilting. But, there was one problem: I had
never done any quilting. Although I could write from firsthand experience
about science, this wasn’t true of quilting. I decided that if I was going to pur-
sue this metaphor further, and I wanted to, then I had to learn to quilt. Before I
make this sound like a consummate sacrifice for my “research,” I should add
that I have sewn since childhood, so I have some expertise in both hand and
machine sewing. Also, I had toyed with the idea of learning to quilt for some
time; exploring the metaphor was in part an excuse for doing something I
wanted to do anyway.
From the night that I stood at my worktable with a pattern book and a pile
of old fabric pieces trying to figure out which pattern to use and which fabric

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630 QUALITATIVE INQUIRY / October 2001

to put where in that pattern, I was hooked on quilting. It has since become an
important part of my life. I don’t just like to quilt; I also like to read about
quilting, its history, and its practitioners. I like to look at quilts, talk to quilters,
take quilting classes, and, of course, buy fabric and plan new quilting projects.
So, this article is a piece of qualitative research into the metaphorical rela-
tionship between two fields written by someone who is a participant-
observer in both. Because I have spent time learning about and being
involved in both endeavors, I can write as someone who has not only knowl-
edge of but a “feel” for what it is to do science and to do quilting. But, because
I am still a neophyte quilter, and because my career has been more in teaching
about science than actually doing research, I also bring a certain sense of
detachment to this study. I am both an insider and an outsider, a stance that is
sometimes considered ideal for a qualitative researcher (Taylor & Bogdan,
1998).
From this perspective, I have created an argument for the significance of
this metaphor that can itself be considered a quilt, pieced together from a vari-
ety of different observations obtained from a variety of different perspectives.
This quilt is more a patchwork quilt put together to form a whole from very
disparate elements than a formally unified, embroidered quilt, to use a com-
parison made by Deleuze and Guattari (1987). The patchwork approach was
also taken by Paula Saukko (2000) in her article on interviews with anorexics;
she found too many individual differences to stitch an embroidered quilt, to
make global statements about anorexia. This is also similar to the approach
taken to African American women’s history by Elsa Barkley Brown (1990),
who saw such a history as resembling an African American strip quilt, made
of scraps without any overarching design but with an aesthetic appeal deriv-
ing from its rhythms and lively diversity.

METAPHORS FOR SCIENCE

To put my quilting metaphor into perspective, it’s necessary to look at the
metaphors commonly used to describe science. The geneticist T. S. Painter
once remarked that “research is much like deer hunting. You have to be in the
right place at the right time to see your prey and, of course, you must carry a
loaded gun and know how to use it” (quoted in Keller, 1985, p. 123). This
rather disturbing metaphor is related to many others used to describe scien-
tific inquiry: science is a voyage of exploration and discovery; it is wresting
secrets from nature, conquering the unknown. What all these metaphors have
in common is a masculine connotation; they grow out of men’s rather than
women’s experiences. These metaphors have had a powerful effect on how
science is done, but a feminist view of science brings with it a need for new
metaphors with less aggressive and alienating connotations that will reduce
the gap between science and other parts of our culture.

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 Flannery / QUILTING 631

Science can be defined as a body of knowledge, “a system of generaliza-

tions, theories, and concepts which form the explanatory framework of the
observed phenomena” (Mayr, 1982, p. 839). But, it is more than this; science
also includes the methods used to attain that knowledge: the exploration of
the natural world by observation, testing, critical investigation. Science is
thus both a body of knowledge and the means of acquiring that knowledge.
Most of what is written about science, both for the scientist and the layperson,
focuses on scientific knowledge rather than on the process by which that
knowledge is acquired. Science is presented as a system of theories plus the
facts used to support them.
Scientific inquiry, on the other hand, comes to be known largely through
the metaphors that are used to describe it as a process of discovery, explora-
tion, penetrating, conquering, hunting. This is important to consider because,
as Mary Tiles (1996) has pointed out, the content of scientific knowledge can-
not be completely separated from the means used to acquire that knowledge;
the approach taken influences what knowledge is developed. By approach-
ing the natural world as a hunter, explorer, or conqueror, the scientist is wrest-
ing knowledge from nature rather than having a conversation with it and, like
most conquerors, is likely to miss the nuisances of context, the subtleties that
become apparent through intimate conversation rather than through
conquest.

QUILTS AND QUILT METAPHORS

As to the quilt side of the metaphor, quilts are an important element in
American culture, although their cultural value has only been extensively
explored in the past 30 years. Since Jonathan Holstein’s “Abstract Design in
American Quilts” exhibition in 1971 at the Whitney Museum of American Art
(Holstein, 1972), quilts have become more highly valued as art works
(Mainardi, 1988), and the quilt documentation projects begun in a number of
states for the 1976 American bicentennial focused attention on quilts not only
as art but as women’s art (Atkins, 1994). At the same time, the women’s move-
ment was developing. This trend, coupled with renewed interest in quilts, led
to their being used metaphorically in a number of contexts. Lucille Clifton’s
(1991) poem is just one of many using the image of quilts to signify family
history, relationships between women, and the value of community (Bower,
1994).
Quilts have figured prominently in fiction as well. How to Make an Ameri-
can Quilt (Otto, 1991) is the most obvious example; it is a patchwork of stories
about a sewing group in which quilting bonds the women together. As
Clifton’s (1991) work indicates, African American writers have been particu-
larly attracted to the quilt metaphor in part because quilts are such an impor-
tant element in African American women’s experiences, particularly in the

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632 QUALITATIVE INQUIRY / October 2001

South. Quilting was a way for these women not only to provide needed
income and bedclothes for their families but also to spend time in quiet com-
munion with themselves and others and to express themselves aesthetically
(hooks, 1990). In Beloved, Toni Morrison (1988) used the quilt as a metaphor
for how the past becomes reworked, reedited, over time, and in her story
“Everyday Use,” Alice Walker (1967) employed different attitudes toward the
preservation of quilts as a metaphor for different attitudes toward the preser-
vation of family history and identity.
But quilt metaphors have been used outside of literature as well. Elaine
Showalter (1991) argued that the patchwork quilt has replaced the melting
pot as the central metaphor for cultural identity in the United States. The
quilt has also been used to describe the place of women in society and has
come to be seen as an important metaphor for the women’s movement itself
(Torsney & Elsley, 1994). But, science is one area of culture where the quilt
metaphor has not been extensively explored. This is despite the fact that
many feminists have called for the development of new metaphors for the
process of scientific inquiry, metaphors that are less male oriented than those
that have influenced science for hundreds of years (Barr & Birke, 1998).

EXPLORATION OF THE METAPHOR

Scientific inquiry and quilting are two things that aren’t ordinarily associ-
ated with each other, and that’s just the point of a good metaphor; it takes you
aback, causes you to stop and think. If the subjects of a metaphor are too simi-
lar, as in “science is an experiment” or “a quilt is a blanket,” it is merely an
analogy. Good metaphors possess almost endless richness, with further
exploration yielding still more hidden treasures. Max Black’s (1955) interac-
tion view of metaphor helps explain why this is the case. In the metaphor “sci-
ence is a quilt,” “science” is the principal subject and “quilt” the subordinate
subject, according to Black’s analysis. He argued that something is learned
about the principal subject by comparing it to the subordinate one. The con-
notations or associated meanings of the subordinate subject are used to
describe the principal subject, and because there may be many such associ-
ated meanings, full exploration of the metaphor can greatly enrich under-
standing of the principal subject. But, although it emphasizes some character-
istics of its principal subject, a metaphor hides others because of what Black
called filtering: The only ideas passing through the filter are those that are
similar for the two subjects. Finally, his approach is called an interaction view
of metaphor because perceptions of both subjects in a metaphor are changed
by their juxtaposition; the subordinate subject is also seen in a different light
because of the emphasis on the characteristics it shares with the principal
subject.

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 Flannery / QUILTING 633

In the case of the metaphor of science as quilting, quilting can be seen as a

way to create order out of a multiplicity of pieces, just as science is discovering
the order that underlies the multiplicity of phenomena that confront us daily.
A research project often involves ideas and information that have been
around for years but that may be used in a new context in the present work.
Such a project is a patchwork of techniques and pieces of information that
may have been gathered at very different times and in very different contexts
but that happen to fit into the solution of the problem at hand. Scientists and
quilters both spend their time trying to fit pieces together to make a pleasing
whole, and often, this involves playing with the pieces, rearranging them to
make them fit and to allow them to be used most effectively.
A quilter doesn’t begin working on a quilt without some previous experi-
ence or planning any more than a scientist walks into a lab and begins mixing
solutions. Both quilting and science are crafts that must be learned, and the
best way to learn each is by doing, by being apprenticed to experts. Both
endeavors involve a great deal of what the chemist and philosopher Michael
Polanyi (1962) called tacit knowledge: learning that cannot be put into words,
that can only be acquired by doing. Someone can explain how to focus a
microscope, but you’ll never master this skill without doing it yourself
repeatedly until you’ve gotten a feel for it. In quilting, a feel for the fabric can
mean anything from knowing how different colors will look next to one
another to learning how much a particular fabric can be stretched to fit.
Although it is obvious that science is an intellectual pursuit, this seems less
true of quilting. But, as John Forrest and Deborah Blincoe (1995) indicated in
The Natural History of the Traditional Quilt, the design and construction of
blocks and their setting within a quilt can involve endless numbers of deci-
sions and can sometimes be described mathematically in terms of tiling or tes-
sellation. And, this is working within the narrow design parameters of exist-
ing quilt patterns, to say nothing of more creative exercises. Scientists also
often work within rather narrow design parameters; a researcher may use a
particular experimental design, a particular approach, over and over again to
attack different problems because this plan has been successful in the past. In
both worlds, there is a tension between creativity and conformity, with great
value placed on creativity, but always within a framework: for quilters, a pat-
tern or style, and for scientists, a paradigm, a way of thinking, a ruling theory
that shapes the way work is done within a field.
An important element in the work of quilting and science is bricolage or
tinkering. As one quilter noted, you have to do the best you can with what
you have. Historically, many quilts were made out of necessity from bits and
pieces of cloth from worn-out garments or scraps from other sewing projects.
And, although the days of homemade equipment are gone in most laborato-
ries, sometimes it is still necessary to construct an apparatus to fill a unique
need or as a prototype for a new instrument. Money is always tight in a

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634 QUALITATIVE INQUIRY / October 2001

research lab. No matter how well funded it is, there is always something that’s
needed but not available, so scientists, too, must do the best they can with
what they have. Yet, bricolage, in both science and quilting, implies more than
just making the best of a bad situation. It implies a creativity that although
perhaps born out of necessity nonetheless results in a very positive outcome.
Being forced to use unlikely materials or ideas in new ways often leads to par-
ticularly elegant results. As Denzin and Lincoln (2000) noted in the context of
qualitative research, bricolage also has the connotation of putting together
many elements to form a well-constructed, quilt-like whole.
The work that goes into quilting and scientific inquiry is frequently ardu-
ous, tedious, and frustrating; problems and mistakes occur all along the way.
The seam ripper is on every list of essential tools for the quilter, and the Nobel
Prize–winning biologist Peter Medawar (1982) estimated that 80% of the
research he did was absolutely fruitless, led nowhere, and was never pub-
lished. It may take years to finish a research project or a quilt, and either can
entail countless hours of mindless work: preparing tissue cultures, weighing
animals, filling test tubes; or cutting fabric, sewing pieces together, making
endless quilting stitches.
There are, of course, ways around some of the drudgery. Many lab tests are
now automated, and the sewing machine makes ambitious quilting projects
much easier. But, despite the allures of technology, a machine-sewn quilt is
hardly the same as a hand-sewn one. Likewise, some researchers see great
value in routine laboratory jobs. Barbara McClintock argued that she did all
her own work, from planting corn to preparing microscope slides, because
this was the only way she could get to know the plant material intimately
enough to understand it (Keller, 1983). The botanist Agnes Arber also saw
great value in doing routine laboratory work herself rather than relegating it
to an assistant: Performing these often mindless tasks gave her an opportu-
nity while alone to mull over the scientific problems at hand (Stearn, 1960).
Arber’s thoughts on silent work relate to those of the quilter Radka
Donnell (1990). In her book on quilts as women’s art, Donnell discussed the
importance of silence and touch in the process of making quilts and in the
appreciation of quilts. Although a great deal of attention is given to quilting as
a communal activity, most quilting—at least the preparation of the quilt top—
is done by a single quilter working alone (Mainardi, 1978). For many women,
sewing provides time for quiet reflection; it is one of the few peaceful parts of
the day (hooks, 1990). Much scientific work is also done in silence, or is better
done in silence: looking through a microscope, observing animal behavior,
preparing specimens for analysis, transferring tissue samples. That silence is
useful; it makes focusing on the task at hand easier, and if the work is particu-
larly routine, it leaves bits of the mind free for thinking about the research and
the steps ahead.
Like silence, touch is another aspect of experience to which we tend to give
little attention. Touch is important in quilting: the feel of the fabric, of the nee-

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 Flannery / QUILTING 635

dle piercing the layers of material, of the texture of a quilted surface. Touch
can also be significant in scientific inquiry, especially in biology, where there
are so many rich textures: the surface of a leaf, the fur of an animal, the hairs of
a caterpillar, the slime of a newt. There is also the touching and handling
involved in laboratory procedures such as dissecting a mouse, banding birds,
and setting up a complex apparatus. A lot of information comes to scientists
through their fingers, the kind of tacit knowledge that is impossible to verbal-
ize and that makes complex judgments much simpler and surer, although the
reasons for this may be difficult to put into words.
Experiencing the rewards of silence and touch are two of the joys of both
science and quilting. There is obviously exhilaration at the moment a discov-
ery is made or a quilt finally completed, but such moments are rare, so what
sustains the scientist and the quilter are the little pleasures of silent work, of
feeling textures, and also of executing a difficult procedure flawlessly, of com-
pleting one experiment or one square, of seeing some progress made, no mat-
ter how small. If it were not for the pleasures of the work itself, neither of these
enterprises would attract many participants; in both cases, the joy of doing is
seductive.

COMMUNAL ACTIVITIES
Another of the joys of these activities is the sense of community each
entails. Quilting has traditionally had a communal connotation, and this
aspect is frequently emphasized in quilting metaphors. In science, the notion
of the lone genius was rarely the case in the past but is even less likely today.
Often, several researchers in a lab explore various aspects of one problem, and
as with quilts, some of the best work is done in collaboration. Francis Crick
(1988) argued that his work habits and those of James Watson were comple-
mentary, and alone, neither of them could have discovered the correct DNA
structure. He added that their being members of the Cavendish Laboratory at
Cambridge University was also crucial to their work because conversations
in the lab often yielded interesting ideas and needed information.
But, it is not just through group work that science and quilting are commu-
nal. Many of the patterns that are used today have been employed by genera-
tions of quilters, so there is a quilting community that transcends time and
space. When old quilts are reworked, this larger community becomes more
tangible. Science is a body of knowledge created by the community of science
and validated by that community (Fleck, 1979). A discovery becomes science
only when results are presented to the scientific community (Ziman, 1968).
Just as the larger quilting community does, this community spans both space
and time, with later researchers reworking—ripping out or revising and
repairing—the theories of the past.

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636 QUALITATIVE INQUIRY / October 2001

The communal aspect of science and quilting points to the role of style in
both endeavors because individual style is usually influenced by community
practice and values. Amish-style quilts have a simple and stark beauty,
whereas Baltimore album quilts are filled with flowers (Warren & Eisenstat,
1996). African American strip quilts are often brightly colored and display an
interplay of offbeat patterns and multiple rhythms (Brown, 1990). It is not sur-
prising that in an endeavor as wide ranging as quilting, there are style differ-
ences, often along cultural lines. What may be more surprising is to use the
word style in relation to science. Yet, style is indeed evident in the work of sci-
entists, where researchers are known for the elegance and economy of their
thought or for how they design experiments. There are also larger questions
of style; some workers are more reductionist and others more holistic think-
ers, some are organicists and others mechanists, some theorists and others
experimentalists. Jonathan Harwood (1993) identified two thought styles
among German geneticists in the early 20th century and found these styles so
ingrained that individuals with distinct social and educational backgrounds
were attracted to one of the two groups, thus perpetuating the style differ-
ences. And, as in quilting, there are also national styles in doing science. In
“Sushi Science and Hamburger Science,” Tatsuo Motokawa (1989) contrasted
the research styles found in Japanese laboratories with those in the United
States.

THE PRODUCTS OF QUILTING AND SCIENCE

In this exploration of the science-quilt metaphor, I have been comparing
the process of quilting to the process of doing science, but there is also validity
to a different portion of the metaphor, to comparing products: the quilts
themselves to the products of science—published research. A quilt, almost by
definition, has three layers: the top, which is on view; the batting; and the
back. The batting and back layers, although ordinarily unseen, are essential to
the quilt’s look and durability. The same can be said of the scientific knowl-
edge and expertise that go into a research article. Although the knowledge
providing the foundation on which this new research builds may not be
explicitly stated, it is the relation of the research to this foundation that gives
the new work its significance.
Just as the backing hides a great deal about the construction of the quilt,
such as the rough edges where pieces were sewn together, a research article
hides as much as it reveals about the process of science. The order in which
experiments are presented is rarely the order in which they were done, and
often, data are “cleaned up” for publication, with the most anomalous results
omitted (Holton, 1978). In scientific research, as in qualitative inquiry, there is
the necessity of selecting from the results those that can be stitched together to
make the most compelling case and then deciding how to juxtapose elements,

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 Flannery / QUILTING 637

as in a quilt, so they are most rhetorically effective. By compelling and effective, I

mean creating a case that is aesthetically as well as intellectually satisfying.
Although a particular piece of research can be seen as a quilt, with the
product being a single article that announces a discovery, comparing a science
like biology, for example, to a quilt creates a different and richer metaphor.
The best comparison would be to a quilt that has remained in a family for gen-
erations and has been repaired and reworked many times, occasionally with
whole sections ripped out and remade. Over time, the quilt may take on a
very different look, become more textured and rich. No one person could cre-
ate such a quilt, nor could one group of people make it; the only way to gener-
ate such richness is with a large community of quilters working over time and
space.
A further progression can be made, with all of science being considered as
a quilt. This may seem an unsatisfactory metaphor because science is such a
massive endeavor, but there is some resemblance between it and the AIDS
quilt, now so large that it will probably never be shown in its entirety in one
place again. The very unwieldiness of the AIDS quilt is useful in illustrating
the massiveness of science and the difficulty for one individual to deal with it:
The quilt of science is just too large for the human mind to grasp, just as there
is no building large enough to house the AIDS quilt if it is spread out.

METAPHORS FOR SCIENCE: A HISTORY

Marina Benjamin (1993) noted that

science is tightly bound to the popular hallmarks of masculinity—objectivity,

rationality, truth, progress, exploration, and power. Indeed, it is no less bound to
aspects of masculinity, particularly of male sexuality, that many men today
regard as less than flattering; unclothing, conquering, dominating, penetrating,
and even raping have served as the most prevalent metaphors for scientific
inquiry. (p. 8)

One of the things that makes these metaphors so powerful is that they are
interconnected; they all relate to ideas of domination and control. In this net-
work, the metaphors reinforce one another, making this view of science seem
inevitable and incontrovertible. But, feminist analyses of science have called
this inevitability into question.
Carolyn Merchant (1980) argued that it was during the development of
modern science from the 15th to 17th centuries that there was a change in how
nature was perceived and a change in the metaphors used to describe “her.”
Previously, active power in the universe was associated with the alive, nur-
turing mother earth, but later, activity was associated with masculinity and
passivity with womanliness. Francis Bacon was instrumental in this shift. He
developed the metaphor of science as wresting secrets from a passive, femi-

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638 QUALITATIVE INQUIRY / October 2001

nine nature (Keller, 1985). This brought a move from nature as the central
force in the world to nature as something to be subdued and manipulated. In
the past 30 years, feminists including Merchant have made this masculinist
turn in science apparent. They have argued that modern science has been
shaped by men in ways not conducive to women’s participation, thus limit-
ing the scientific enterprise. The emphasis on analysis, reductionism, and an
often sterile form of objectivity distances the scientist from the object of study,
making it more difficult for science to deal with large, complex phenomena.

IMPLICATIONS OF THE QUILT METAPHOR

The quilt metaphor can be useful in dealing with the difficulties created by
the dominant metaphors used to describe science. The significance of the
quilt metaphor is that unlike so many others used to characterize science, it is
a metaphor with many feminine connotations. Although there are men who
quilt, it has been and still is an almost exclusively female pursuit. Examining
the ideas associated with the quilting metaphor could completely change the
face of science, converting it into an activity with a more comfortable and
familiar feel for women.
Lakoff and Johnson (1980) contended that the associated ideas of a meta-
phor, the connotations of the subordinate subject, or what they called its
entailments, can provide a coherent structure of thought and can make sense
of experience in new ways. Effective metaphors, they argued, have the power
to make experience coherent, even to the point of defining reality. The quilt-
ing metaphor would define the reality of science in very different ways than
dominance, pursuit, or exploration metaphors do. It would stress the collegi-
ality of scientific inquiry, the complex nature of the pieces—of information,
equipment, and expertise—that are put together, and the craft involved in so
much scientific investigation. Perhaps most importantly, it would stress the
closeness of the relationship between the scientist and the object of study. It
would emphasize the tactile and visual nature of that relationship and thus
not ignore the aesthetic aspect of scientific inquiry, as metaphors of domina-
tion and control do.
In writing of Barbara McClintock’s work, Keller (1983) argued that meta-
phors of engagement and identification can assist our understanding of the
world by emphasizing the need for connection to the object of research. Else-
where, Keller (1985) strongly criticized the idea that objective separation is
the only way to objective knowledge and suggested instead the idea of
“dynamic objectivity,” which embraces rather than ignores subjectivity. It is
such an embrace that Bruno Latour (1993) explored in We Have Never Been
Modern, in which he questioned an ontology that separates subject and object,
a separation he saw as never having been complete; thus, we have never been
truly “modern.” Although some of the conclusions Latour made based on

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this observation can be questioned (Elam, 1999), his basic premise is worthy
of attention. As Donna Haraway (1991) observed in discussing the concept of
situated knowledge, objectivity is “about particular and specific embodi-
ment, and definitely not about the false vision promising transcendence of all
limits and responsibility” (p. 190). The quilt metaphor is particularly power-
ful in this light because there is so much personal engagement involved in this
craft, embodying ideas as well as emotions. It is difficult to separate the quilt
as object from its emotional entailments, and the same is often true in scien-
tific inquiry, despite disclaimers to the contrary.
Hilary Rose (1983) saw the union of the physical, intellectual, and emo-
tional (what she called “hand, brain, and heart”) as characteristic of women’s
approaches to science. A “craft” approach was common for all engaged in sci-
ence in earlier ages, but in the 20th century, it was replaced by an “industrial”
or assembly line approach, with the head of a laboratory designing the experi-
ments but rarely executing them. The linking of hand, brain, and heart is very
different from the distanced objectivity that is a major characteristic of more
positivist views of science. This linkage means that emotions are valued
rather than suppressed in doing science.
In general, feminist approaches to science stress a more holistic and less
reductionist view of science, studying nature in its complexity rather than
fragmenting it, advocating an interplay between reduction and holism,
favoring an epistemology that asks questions about process and relationship
(Namenwirth, 1986). Here, too, the quilting metaphor is useful because a quilt
can only be fully appreciated as a whole, yet in constructing the quilt, atten-
tion must also be paid to each square, each stitch, each step in the process.
Also, many feminist critiques of science are closely allied to constructivist
epistemologies (Keller & Longino, 1996), and quilting, as a constructed arti-
fact, emphasizes “making” more than do the metaphors of discovery that
imply that knowledge about the world is there to be uncovered rather than to
be constructed.
To make a quilt is a slow process, involving bringing together many pieces
of fabric, aesthetic decisions, types of expertise, and ideas from other quilters.
The quilting metaphor stresses that scientific inquiry is a slow, painstaking
process, a building process, rather than something that happens in a
moment. It is not like a discovery occurring with an “aha,” a sense of finding a
holy grail, what Hilary Rose (1994) described as a “deeply masculine activity”
(p. 202). Yes, such things happen, but as the oft-cited quote of Louis Pasteur
reminds us, “In the field of experimentation, chance favors only the prepared
mind” (quoted in Dubos, 1960, p. 101). This preparation may require years of
work, the slow buildup of a store of information and tacit knowledge.
Carol Gilligan (1982) contended that women might prefer a different voice
from that ordinarily heard in science, one that emphasizes warmth, connec-
tion, caring, and context, all of which are entailments of the quilting meta-
phor. Radka Donnell (1990) saw a quilt as a “good object,” one that carries

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640 QUALITATIVE INQUIRY / October 2001

with it implications of connection and caring. This could be a fitting counter

to something pointed out by several feminist writers: how “all that is kind
and gentle and loving” is expunged from science textbooks, where military
metaphors are common, and the language in general is emotionless and col-
orless (Barr & Birke, 1998). A form of scientific inquiry guided by feminine
metaphors would create an approach to science that involves working with
nature rather than forcing it to give up its secrets. It would be less coercive and
more a matter of listening to what nature has to say. Barbara McClintock’s
method of studying corn is probably the best documented example we have
of this approach, but it is hardly the only one (Keller, 1983). Haraway’s (1989)
study of female primatologists indicates the power of altered guiding meta-
phors to change research approaches and outcomes.
The quilting metaphor emphasizes the ideas of choice, design, and creativ-
ity, thus bringing science closer to art and contributing to what Sandra Har-
ding (1986) saw as part of the project of feminism: to reveal the relationship
between the worlds of art and science. It is obvious that quilts, particularly
today, are often judged on their aesthetic merits. It is less obvious that aesthet-
ics play a role in scientific judgments, yet this is frequently the case (Wechsler,
1978). Physicists are the scientists most willing to admit this. The quantum
physicist Paul Dirac (1963) went so far as to state that he was more interested
in a theory being beautiful than being true. In my own field of biology, aes-
thetic considerations also play a major role. Aesthetic qualities such as pat-
tern, order, rhythm, and symmetry are directly related to important biological
concepts (Flannery, 1992).

AN INCLUSIVE METAPHOR
Quilting as a metaphor for scientific inquiry is a culturally inclusive meta-
phor. As mentioned earlier, African American women have a very strong
quilting tradition, which is linked to their African heritage (Vlach, 1978) and
remains strong today (Mazloomi, 1998). Quilting is also an honored craft in
Japan, parts of Central and South America, and among American Indians, to
say nothing of the European quilting tradition, which played such a large role
in the development of quilting in North America as well as in Australia and
New Zealand (Rae, 1987; Wettre, 1995). Quilting is close to the center of expe-
rience for many groups for whom science is at the periphery of experience, so
this metaphor might play a role in attracting to science women who have tra-
ditionally been alienated from it. The metaphor could be one element in a
change toward making the scientific community more inclusive.
The quilting metaphor could have positive effects on people’s attitudes
toward science by presenting it as less threatening, more accessible, more aes-
thetically appealing, and more collegial. By portraying science as a craft as
much as an intellectual pursuit, the metaphor might make science seem more

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 Flannery / QUILTING 641

doable to many students who think it is only for geniuses. This metaphor
emphasizes that science involves trial and error, dealing with limitations,
hard work, and playing with the pieces of a puzzle until they fit: all very accu-
rate descriptions of what scientific inquiry is really like, but characteristics of
science that do not get much attention in traditional masculine metaphors.
Giving more attention and value to these aspects could make is easier for girls
and women to feel successful in science. As Valerie Walkerdine (1998) demon-
strated in Counting Girls Out: Girls and Mathematics, these are also the charac-
teristics of mathematical work in which girls may excel but that are deni-
grated in the classroom, where creativity rather than hard work is rewarded.
By relating scientific inquiry to an endeavor that many people find inter-
esting and comforting, the quilt metaphor may lead to a more positive atti-
tude toward science among those who may not think much about science at
all. Quilts are seen as attractive accessories and have connotations of warmth,
friendliness, and comfort, challenging the perception of scientific inquiry as a
cold, calculating, even menacing pursuit. Viewing science as quilting could
help bring about a rapprochement between the two cultures and make sci-
ence more accessible to nonscientists. But, is making science seem more warm
and cuddly counterproductive by creating a view of scientific inquiry that is
grossly inaccurate? I think it might be worth the risk to find out. If metaphors
have the power to define reality, then the metaphors that have ruled science
for several hundred years have created a reality that now must be amended if
science is to continue to attract the best minds.

DIFFICULTIES WITH THIS METAPHOR

A metaphor serves to create a similarity between two subjects, not an iden-
tity. There are no perfect metaphors. Every metaphor has its limits, areas
where the characteristics of the subordinate subject do not describe the princi-
pal subject very well. One problem in comparing scientific inquiry to quilting
is that it might trivialize science. Admittedly, quilting has not made a major
contribution to world history, has not advanced the development of the tech-
nology that now looms so large in our lives, and is not a significant area of
human knowledge. The intellectual underpinnings of scientific inquiry are
obviously much more substantial; there is more to science than learning a
craft, and testing is more central to science than to quilting. Also, in emphasiz-
ing communal work, this metaphor hides the antagonisms that often arise in
highly competitive scientific fields.
There are also irreconcilable differences between the products of quilting
and science. Reworking and remaking the old is vital to science; the fabric of
science is undergoing constant repair, much more so than any quilt. Whole
sections of science may be ripped out and replaced by totally new paradigms;
the covering of old work is the norm in science, whereas in quilting, it is rarely

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642 QUALITATIVE INQUIRY / October 2001

done. Also, there are stricter limits to how pieces can be put together to solve a
scientific problem than a quilting problem. Although there may be several
ways in which a quilt’s blocks can be arranged to create a pleasing pattern,
there may be only one way that the pieces of a scientific puzzle fit together,
only one pattern that fits the data.
But, problems of incongruity arise with any metaphor. The metaphor of
seeing science as wresting knowledge from nature also has problems: a con-
notation of hostility, little regard for skill, no attention to collegiality. The idea
of unclothing nature not only has sexual overtones but also suggests violation
and an illicit act, hardly a positive way of describing the process of trying to
understand nature. The beauty of the quilting metaphor is that it serves as a
different kind of filter and can help us reconceptualize science in new and
interesting ways. But, because this metaphor involves such a predominantly
female domain, it may seem to have gone too far in the other direction, again
creating too narrow a view of science. This swing of the pendulum can be use-
ful, however. If men feel uncomfortable with this metaphor and cannot relate
to its association of ideas, perhaps this will give them some sense of what
women’s relationship to science has felt like for centuries. This metaphor
could also highlight the power of metaphors to shape attitudes and to create
limits on perceptions.

CONCLUSION
The quilt is not a perfect metaphor for science, but it is a very good one. It is
one that may assist in the reconstruction of scientific inquiry to be more inclu-
sive, responsive, and human. Research would be more a reflective conversa-
tion with nature than a hunting expedition. Although I am not arguing that
the quilt metaphor should replace other metaphors, it is time for scientists to
accept a more diverse metaphorical foundation for their discipline. They
must come to realize that the experience of science is so rich that no one meta-
phor can define it, because each metaphor filters out too much of science’s
diversity to be its sole descriptor. Science can only benefit from the stretching
of its metaphorical borders, allowing new approaches and the framing of new
questions.
This broadening will also bring new attention to the whole issue of how
metaphors influence scientific inquiry. The fact that they do has been convinc-
ingly argued by a number of philosophers (Hesse, 1963; Turbayne, 1970) as
well as by feminist analysts of scientific inquiry, although this issue is still
neglected by most practitioners of science. More explicit attention to the
power of metaphors to both guide and impede inquiry can only make science
better able to effectively investigate the natural world.

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Maura C. Flannery is a professor of biology and director of the Center for

Teaching and Learning at St. John’s University in New York. The author of
Bitten by the Biology Bug (National Association of Biology Teachers, 1991)
and articles on biology education and the biological aesthetic, she was named as
a Carnegie Scholar for 2000-2001. She is currently investigating the use of
visual images by biologists and the role of aesthetics in biological inquiry.

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