The problem with sex/gender and nature/nurture

Abstract

For a good century and a half, scientists, social scientists and politicians have appealed to biological difference to explain social inequality between men and women, people of African descent and Caucasians, members of different economic classes and people of different religions. In turn, a wide variety of scholars writing over a long period of time have critiqued these scientific claims (Russett 1989; Fausto-Sterling 2000). In the mid-1980s, I drew a composite picture gleaned from the writings of contemporary biological and social scientists: these writers claimed that women are naturally better mothers, while men are genetically predisposed to be aggressive, hasty and fickle. They may rape to pass on their genes. Women’s lack of aggressive drive and native ability ensures that they will always earn less, thus guaranteeing equal pay discriminates against men (Fausto-Sterling 1992).

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