Backround:
Anne
Fausto-Sterling was born on July 30th, 1944, in Queens, New York. In
1965, she received her Bachelors of Arts degree in Zoology at the University of
Wisconsin. She then went to receive her PhD in developmental genetics, at Brown
University, in 1970. She continues to reside in Providence, Rhode Island today,
and has been working at Brown University since she’s received her PhD. Fausto-Sterling
is married to a woman by the name of Paula Vogel, whom is a Yale Professor and
Pulitzer-winning Playwright.
Professional Life:
Fausto-Sterling
is currently 69 years old and has been a part of Brown University’s faculty for
her entire professional life. At Brown she is the Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of
Biology and Gender Studies. As well as serving Browns faculty for over thirty
five years, Fausto-Sterling travels as a professor and visits many institutes
across the U.S. and abroad to discuss in various subjects. These departments
consist of Biology, Medical Science, Gender Studies, and Science Studies.
The
Dynamic Systems Theory is her main focus today. This theory focuses on the
study of human development. She wants to use this theory to prove that the body
acquires its nervous, muscular, and emotional responses due to its relations
with its physical, emotional, and cultural experiences. These gender
differences in behavior come into play in early childhood. Her main goal is to
find a theoretical breakthrough, which will banish the idea of nature/nurture,
by proving organisms are systems with their environment.
Karl
Marx work is highly admired by Fausto-Sterling, and she highly agrees with his
social and political views. She visits a lot of mentors in the fields of Women’s
Studies and Feminist Science. Some of
these mentors include Ruth Hubbard, a biochemist, critic of sociobiology, and
writer of The Politics of Women Biology, and
Peggy McIntosh, an American feminist and anti-racist activist.
In
1992, Fausto-Sterling had written and published a book Myths of Gender, followed by a second book called Sexing the Body, in 2000. She considered
her second book her greatest accomplishment. Along with these two books, she
has published well over 40 articles since 1971 dealing with her various fields
of interest. One of her famous articles was “The Five Sexes”, which was an
article discussing the idea of having five sexes instead of two.
Relevance to Class Material:
Our
class can receive a lot of valuable information from the research and work of
Fausto-Sterling. She is a huge participant in the field of sexology, dealing
with aspects of human sexuality, sexual development, sexual orientation, and
sexual relationships. She has done a lot
of extensive writings on biology of gender (biological causes of psychological gender
differences), gender identity (one’s own sense of being male or female), sexual
identity (ones sexual and romantic attraction), and gender roles (social and
behavioral norms). Her two books discussed before are used widely by feminists
today, and her paper on “The Five Sexes” was written with the idea to help
break the social silence we discussed in class about intersexuality.
Resources:
http://www.witi.com/center/witimuseum/womeninsciencet/1999/061699.shtml
Nicole Struble
Psychology of Women
Professor Hill
2/12/13
Nicole Struble
Psychology of Women
Professor Hill
2/12/13
