Sex and Gender: Toward Transforming Scientific Practice

This open access book provides an interdisciplinary perspective on the study of sex and gender and suggests directions for future research in multiple fields. Sex and gender are understood, measured, and applied in different ways across society and science. To foster interdisciplinary dialogue and to promote informed applications in research, policy, medicine, and public health, the Ernst Strüngmann Forum convened scholars from diverse fields to examine a widely held assumption that sex and gender are conceptually separate. Synthesizing the interdisciplinary perspectives that emerged from this discourse, this volume explores the entanglement of sex and gender, suggesting that they are co-constituted in ways that have not been fully understood. This entanglement is examined from multiple perspectives, research challenges are explored, and ways to move forward are proposed to advance basic and developmental systems biology, human biomedical and clinical research as well as policy and practice. The book should be of interest to policymakers as well as researchers working in anthropology, behavioral neuroendocrinology, cellular and molecular neuroscience, clinical psychology, epidemiology, and feminist, gender, and transgender studies.