Chapter Two Genes and gender
Abstract
Whatever nature does or does not determine in the psycho-sexual differentiation of females and males, many people today believe that innate genetic qualities of individuals are extremely important in shaping gender-differentiated behaviour. This draws attention to the central conceptual distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. ‘Sex’ refers to the biological division into female and male; ‘gender’ to the parallel and socially unequal division into femininity and masculinity.
Most remarkably, the first question is not ‘What makes a female?’ but ‘What makes a male?’. In most other fields, the issue is framed as one of women’s differences from men: women are seen as a ‘problem’, a special group, a disadvantaged minority, and so forth. In the biological field, our vision has to shift. In the first place, of the 46 chromosomes coding the genetic inheritance a child receives from its parents, only two relate directly to its sex. Secondly, men have only themselves to blame for creating a second sex. All female ova contain one of the sex chromosomes, the X chromosome, and the original battle of the sexes takes place in the discharge of paternal sperm, which are divided into those bearing the X (female-determining) and those bearing the Y (male-determining) chromosome. The Y chromosome has been described as an incomplete X, one fifth of its size: “the shape of a comma, the merest remnant, a sad-looking affair” (Montagu, 1968, p 73).
The development of the fertilised ovum is basically female. Until about seven weeks of pre-natal life, the internal and external genitalia look the same in both ‘sexes’.
Abstract
Whatever nature does or does not determine in the psycho-sexual differentiation of females and males, many people today believe that innate genetic qualities of individuals are extremely important in shaping gender-differentiated behaviour. This draws attention to the central conceptual distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. ‘Sex’ refers to the biological division into female and male; ‘gender’ to the parallel and socially unequal division into femininity and masculinity.
Most remarkably, the first question is not ‘What makes a female?’ but ‘What makes a male?’. In most other fields, the issue is framed as one of women’s differences from men: women are seen as a ‘problem’, a special group, a disadvantaged minority, and so forth. In the biological field, our vision has to shift. In the first place, of the 46 chromosomes coding the genetic inheritance a child receives from its parents, only two relate directly to its sex. Secondly, men have only themselves to blame for creating a second sex. All female ova contain one of the sex chromosomes, the X chromosome, and the original battle of the sexes takes place in the discharge of paternal sperm, which are divided into those bearing the X (female-determining) and those bearing the Y (male-determining) chromosome. The Y chromosome has been described as an incomplete X, one fifth of its size: “the shape of a comma, the merest remnant, a sad-looking affair” (Montagu, 1968, p 73).
The development of the fertilised ovum is basically female. Until about seven weeks of pre-natal life, the internal and external genitalia look the same in both ‘sexes’.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Sources of extracts iv
- Foreword by Germaine Greer vi
- Preface ix
-
Sex and gender
- Introduction 2
- The difference between sex and gender 7
- Genes and gender 13
- A kind of person 21
- Childhood lessons 31
- Science, gender and women’s liberation 41
-
Housework and family life
- Introduction 54
- On studying housework 59
- Images of housework 63
- Work conditions 75
- Standards and routines 87
- Marriage and the division of labour 93
- Helping with baby 103
- Housework in history and culture 109
-
Childbirth, motherhood and medicine
- Introduction 118
- The agony and the ecstasy 123
- Lessons mothers learn 139
- Medical maternity cases 151
- Mistakes and mystiques of motherhood 179
-
Doing social science
- Introduction 184
- The invisible woman: sexism in sociology 189
- Reflections thirty years on 207
- On being interviewed 211
- Interviewing women: a contradiction in terms? 217
- Who’s afraid of the randomized controlled trial? Some dilemmas of the scientific method and ‘good’ research practice 233
- Paradigm wars: some thoughts on a personal and public trajectory 245
- General bibliography 251
- Bibliography of work by Ann Oakley 281
- Ann Oakley: further reading 285
- Index 295
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents iii
- Sources of extracts iv
- Foreword by Germaine Greer vi
- Preface ix
-
Sex and gender
- Introduction 2
- The difference between sex and gender 7
- Genes and gender 13
- A kind of person 21
- Childhood lessons 31
- Science, gender and women’s liberation 41
-
Housework and family life
- Introduction 54
- On studying housework 59
- Images of housework 63
- Work conditions 75
- Standards and routines 87
- Marriage and the division of labour 93
- Helping with baby 103
- Housework in history and culture 109
-
Childbirth, motherhood and medicine
- Introduction 118
- The agony and the ecstasy 123
- Lessons mothers learn 139
- Medical maternity cases 151
- Mistakes and mystiques of motherhood 179
-
Doing social science
- Introduction 184
- The invisible woman: sexism in sociology 189
- Reflections thirty years on 207
- On being interviewed 211
- Interviewing women: a contradiction in terms? 217
- Who’s afraid of the randomized controlled trial? Some dilemmas of the scientific method and ‘good’ research practice 233
- Paradigm wars: some thoughts on a personal and public trajectory 245
- General bibliography 251
- Bibliography of work by Ann Oakley 281
- Ann Oakley: further reading 285
- Index 295
