The aim of this work is to discover the social representations of science among woman researchers working in predominantly female and male environments, at the State University of Maringá. It is qualitative case study, for which the principal data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed based on content and discourse analysis. It demonstrates that the woman researchers consider science as a form of special knowledge, relating it to a philosophical study, carried out by specialized people. The woman scientists who work in a predominantly male environment emphasize that science is made up of day-to-day realities, in a search for practical knowledge. Meanwhile, those who work in a predominantly female environment view science as a discipline in transformation, involving a connection between the social, the cultural and the political.