Gender Projects
Gender ProjectsGender biases are prevalent in today�s scientific world, although they are not always seen by society. To increase awareness on gender biases, Suzanne Kessler and Emily Martin write two independent articles on how gender stereotypes permeate the scientific community. Suzanne Kessler�s article looks at how society sees gender as either male or female. While, Emily Martin looks at how scientific writings include hidden gender stereotypes.
In Suzanne Kessler's, "The Medical Construction of Gender", she claims that gender is culturally constructed. To illustrate this, she brings up case studies of intersexed infants. She defines an intersexed child as a person born with genitals that are neither clearly male nor clearly female. First to ground this issue, Kessler points out that it is very hard to diagnose an intersexed infant. She states that if a doctor sees the male genitalia than he or she assumes that the infant is male, otherwise it is female. Another ground for her claim is how a physician determines if the intersex child should be transformed to a male or a female. The doctors try to choose the sex of the child, such that there is minimal transformation. She suggests that the criteria for choosing the sex is based on the �way her/his genitals look or could be made to look�. (13) Both of these grounds show how society wants to define these intersexed children as either male or female. This strict societal definition is why Kessler claims that gender is culturally constructed.
Kessler also grounds her argument by the fact that doctors tell the parents not to disclose a gender for their newborn. She claims that this will keep the doors open for the decision of the new gender of the baby. If society knows the gender of the baby before it is determined, society will treat the baby differently depending on its sex. The author states that the overall goal of the physicians in charge of an intersex infant is to reconstruct genitals so that they �look normal and function normally once the patient reaches adulthood" (19). The physicians� definition of �normal� is how our culture has defined �normal�. Therefore gender is indeed defined by culture as stated in Kessler�s claim.
Another article which deals with the issue of gender relations is �The Egg and The Sperm� by Emily Martin. She claims that the scientific descriptions of egg and the sperm are stereotypical. The stereotypes imply that female biological processes are less worthy than their male counterparts. To prove this point she quotes many current scientific articles as well as textbooks. For example she finds scientific authors who describe the female egg as �large and passive� and inversely the male sperm as �strong� and �efficiently powered� (489). These quotes create the impression that the sperm is masculine just like a male and the egg is feminine...
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