ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses life history of Anne Fausto-Sterling, a feminist thinker, whose critiques of the biological basis of sex and gender have made her one of the most influential feminist scientists of her generation. She earned her undergraduate degree in zoology from the University of Wisconsin and her Ph.D. from Brown in developmental genetics. In Myths of Gender, Fausto-Sterling took up the vexed question of the ways in which ideas about sex and gender difference have been constructed through biological studies. Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality employs her standard method of carefully exposing the bias in the scientific studies of sexuality, which include the problematic use of mice/rodents in studies of the hormonal basis of human sexual behaviors and the history of the role of hormones in human sexual development. Throughout her work as a practicing scientist and feminist, Fausto-Sterling has addressed "three major thematic dichotomies: male/female, 'real'/constructed, nature/nurture".
