Sex Itself examines the interaction between cultural gender norms and genetic theories of sex from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present postgenomic age. Analyzing the history of human sex chromosomes as gendered objects of scientific knowledge, Sex Itself shows how the X and Y chromosomes came to anchor a conception of sex as a biologically fixed and unalterable binary. Gender has helped to shape the questions that are asked, the theories and models proposed, the research practices employed, and the descriptive language used in the field of sex chromosome research. Using metho ... More

Sex Itself examines the interaction between cultural gender norms and genetic theories of sex from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present postgenomic age. Analyzing the history of human sex chromosomes as gendered objects of scientific knowledge, Sex Itself shows how the X and Y chromosomes came to anchor a conception of sex as a biologically fixed and unalterable binary. Gender has helped to shape the questions that are asked, the theories and models proposed, the research practices employed, and the descriptive language used in the field of sex chromosome research. Using methods from history, philosophy, and gender studies of science, the book demonstrates this through a series of historical case studies. The book’s concluding chapters draw on the history of human sex chromosome research to open a conversation about the methods and models of sex difference research in a genomic age. Methodologically and theoretically, the book engages debates in feminist science studies over how to model and analyze gender bias in science. Advancing a framework for gender studies of science that the author calls “modeling gender in science,” the book argues for an approach that goes beyond a focus on bias to ask what work gender does in a particular area of scientific research and to consider the constructive role of gender conceptions in the knowledge work of science.