Sex Contextualism

This paper develops the conceptual framework of "sex contextualism" for the study of sex-related variables in biomedical research. Sex contextualism offers an alternative to binary sex essentialist approaches to the study of sex as a biological variable. Specifically, sex contextualism rec...

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Main Author: Sarah S. Richardson
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Michigan Publishing 2022-01-01
Series:Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ptpbio/article/id/2096/
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author Sarah S. Richardson
author_facet Sarah S. Richardson
author_sort Sarah S. Richardson
collection DOAJ
description This paper develops the conceptual framework of "sex contextualism" for the study of sex-related variables in biomedical research. Sex contextualism offers an alternative to binary sex essentialist approaches to the study of sex as a biological variable. Specifically, sex contextualism recognizes the pluralism and context-specificity of operationalizations of "sex" across experimental laboratory research. In light of recent policy mandates to consider sex as a biological variable, sex contextualism offers constructive guidance to biomedical researchers for attending to sex-related biological variation. As an alternative to and critique of biological binary sex essentialism, sex contextualism contributes to current debates in philosophy of biology, feminist science studies, and social ontology on the construction of categories of gender/sex differences in scientific research.
format Article
id doaj-art-277853afdf3e48caa2a7e9de6c4316de
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issn 2475-3025
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publishDate 2022-01-01
publisher Michigan Publishing
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series Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology
spelling doaj-art-277853afdf3e48caa2a7e9de6c4316de2025-08-20T02:43:42ZengMichigan PublishingPhilosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology2475-30252022-01-0114010.3998/ptpbio.2096Sex ContextualismSarah S. Richardson0Harvard UniversityThis paper develops the conceptual framework of "sex contextualism" for the study of sex-related variables in biomedical research. Sex contextualism offers an alternative to binary sex essentialist approaches to the study of sex as a biological variable. Specifically, sex contextualism recognizes the pluralism and context-specificity of operationalizations of "sex" across experimental laboratory research. In light of recent policy mandates to consider sex as a biological variable, sex contextualism offers constructive guidance to biomedical researchers for attending to sex-related biological variation. As an alternative to and critique of biological binary sex essentialism, sex contextualism contributes to current debates in philosophy of biology, feminist science studies, and social ontology on the construction of categories of gender/sex differences in scientific research.https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ptpbio/article/id/2096/sexsex essentialismgenderpreclinical researchSABV
spellingShingle Sarah S. Richardson
Sex Contextualism
Philosophy, Theory, and Practice in Biology
sex
sex essentialism
gender
preclinical research
SABV
title Sex Contextualism
title_full Sex Contextualism
title_fullStr Sex Contextualism
title_full_unstemmed Sex Contextualism
title_short Sex Contextualism
title_sort sex contextualism
topic sex
sex essentialism
gender
preclinical research
SABV
url https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ptpbio/article/id/2096/
work_keys_str_mv AT sarahsrichardson sexcontextualism