LOTS of activity this month on sex and gender that suggests we’re beginning to head in the right direction. Heading in the right direction to me means three things:
1. Taking both sex and gender seriously including as they relate to one another.
2. Learning from the history so that we can be smart about both going forward.
3. Being able to talk sex and gender openly and respectfully.
As always, I’m using 'sex' to mean our male and female biology and 'gender' to mean gender expectations, expression, and identity.
Here are a few of the recent developments with links in comments:
On May 2, the editorial board of Nature magazine / Nature Portfolio announced an ongoing series of articles designed to support scientists who are interested in or already doing research on sex and gender but are either being warned away from the field by their colleagues or afraid to publish their findings. I recommend the whole set, including the editorial itself, as it provides not just a powerful case for the work but also useful guidance for anyone – not only in science – who’s interested in learning how to engage in a smart, respectful way.
The New England Journal of Medicine / NEJM Group published a perspective piece today, part one in a two-part series, on the history of its contributions to the subordination and marginalization of women in the field of medicine and as biomedical research subjects. The second piece will focus on its equally problematic history with sexual minorities. Like the Nature series, it argues that the way forward is not to stop doing work on sex and gender but rather to do it with due attention to the ways it’s been misused in the past.
My book On Sex and Gender published in the U.S. on May 21. The core of Chapter 5 - Sex Just Is (Like Age) - focuses where the Nature and the NEJM pieces are, on the misogynistic history of medicine and biomedical research and on the promise of the new science. Featuring as examples recent developments in cardiology, neurobiology, and immunology, it shows how we finally have the tools and the commitment to get sex and gender right in this arena in ways that will inure to everyone’s benefit. Here's a page from that chapter introducing this discussion.
Communications in IT, Author
3wpatently false ideology. For an agency tasked with genomic research this post is contrary to every researcher gone before. End it NOW.