Sex, Gender and Brain. A Problem of Conceptualization
Sex, Gender and Brain. A Problem of Conceptualization
Prof. Daphna Joel keynote address at the international, interdisciplinary conference on sex, gender, and the brain “NeuroCultures – NeuroGenderings II” (2012) on how current psychological research reveals that sex differences in the brain are rarely dichotomous, and the same is true for sex differences in gender characteristics. In the few domains in which consistent sex-differences are found there is a considerable overlap between the distributions of the two sexes. Individuals possess a complicated array of masculine and feminine characteristics, and there is evidence that environmental factors can change the form of specific brain characteristics from the “male” form to the “female” form or vice versa. The result of these complex interactions of sex and environment is an intersex brain composed of a mosaic of male and female brain characteristics, rather than being all male or all female. The division of individuals into men and women and of brains into male brains and female brains adds little information
