Apr 25, 2014 12:47 PM EDT By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

The University of Wisconsin-Madison announced last week that it will be offering a post-doctorate in "Feminist biology" in an attempt to uncover and reverse gender bias in biology, Campus Reform reported.

The schools' Department of Gender and Women's Studies is offering the program because it believes biological science is "rife with sexism" and should be changed to reflect feminist thinking.  Feminist biology aims to develop new theory and methods in biology that reflects feminist approaches.

The two-year program is the first in the nation. It will focus on conducting scientific research from a feminist viewpoint, according to Janet Hyde, director of the campus Center for Research on Gender & Women, said in a statement.

Hyde said a feminist biology program is necessary because "sexism among male scientists' sometimes makes them incapable of accurate research," Campus Reform reported.

"All human beings have gender stereotypes in their brain," Hyde told Campus Reform. "Gender stereotypes are pervasive ... people just don't see things or don't appreciate them or don't process them when they don't conform to stereotype notions."

She hopes the program will raise new questions and suggest novel solution.

"It means being able to detect gender bias in previous research and ... figuring out ways to move forward in research and theory that removes the gender bias," Hyde said.

She said feminist analysis in science has already revealed and challenged scientific errors resulting from gender bias on the part of scientists, including ways in which observer bias distorted the understanding of primate behavior. Due to their sexism, scientists' had once had an inaccurate understanding of the sexual behaviors in primates.

"Females of these species were portrayed as being passive or uninterested in sex, and that was reflective of gender stereotypes in humans," she said. "The females solicited sex all the time."

"Even on the cellular level, the biology of sex determination in the embryo was initially misunderstood because scientists assumed that the Y chromosome would have a leadership role," she said.

The first post-doctoral fellow, Caroline VanSickle, will begin the program in September.

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