Is it nature or nurture? Yes! In this lecture I offer a different perspective on the nature/nurture debate, using striking and often amusing evidence for the influences of society on our biology. Ranging across the biological sciences — genetics, hormones, and neuroscience — I discuss the newest research on society-biology interactions, paying special attention to the implications for understanding gender differences and similarities. The article closes with an argument that embracing these developments can enhance rather than harm ongoing efforts to reduce social inequalities of all kinds.

1. The New
Science of
Sex Difference
Lisa Wade, PhD

5. Genes• Hormones • Brains

6. Genes• Hormones • Brains
Culture • Interaction • Structure

7. Genes

8. Genes
• Sex-linked
• Sex-limited
• Sex-influenced

9. Genes
• Sex-linked
• Sex-limited
• Sex-influenced

10. Genes
• Sex-linked
• Sex-limited
• Sex-influenced

11. Genes
• Sex-linked
• Sex-limited
• Sex-influenced

12. Genes
• Sex-linked
• Sex-limited
• Sex-influenced

13. Genes
• Sex-linked
• Sex-limited
• Sex-influenced

14. Genes
Blueprint?

16. Genes
“…the organism has choices… If a
problem is encountered, the thing has to
figure out a solution. Sometimes the
solution is fantastic, other times it is less
so… If we didn’t have extensive overlap
and redundancy in our genome, we
wouldn’t be here at all.”
- geneticist Mario Capecchi

17. Genes
• 5% = the story
• 95% = the storyteller

18. Genes
• 5% = the story
• 95% = the storyteller
“What is written in our genes… is a very
open-ended story.”
- sociomedicist Rebecca Jordan-Young

19. Genes
• 5% = the story
• 95% = the storyteller
“The sheer possibility of outcomes is
“transcalculational, a mathematical term
for mind boggling.”
- geneticist Richard Strohman

20. Genes
• 5% = the story
• 95% = the storyteller
Epigenetic tags: chemical changes to
DNA that tell genes what to do.

21. Genes
• 5% = the story
• 95% = the storyteller

23. Genes
GENES
ARE
AMAZING!

24. “…any living cell carries with it the
experience of a billion years of
experimentation by its ancestors. You
cannot expect to explain so wise an old
bird in a few simple words.”
- biologist Max Delbrück
Genes

25. Hormones
1) Messengers in our chemical
communication system.

26. Hormones
Male vs.
Female
Hormones

27. Hormones
• Organizational effects
• Activational effects

28. Hormones
• Organizational effects
• Activational effects

29. Hormones
• Organizational effects
• Activational effects

30. Hormones
• Organizational effects
• Activational effects

31. Hormones
1) Messengers in our chemical
communication system.
2) Mechanisms of social interaction.

32. Hormones
1) Messengers in our chemical
communication system.
2) Mechanisms of social interaction.

33. Hormones
1) Messengers in our chemical
communication system.
2) Mechanisms of social interaction.

34. Brains

35. Brains
• Small average sex differences in:
– brain anatomy
–composition
– function
– size
– tissue ratios

36. Brains
Brain
lateralization

37. Brains
• Brain plasticity: our brain’s ability to
respond to the environment.

39. Brains
• Functional plasticity: producing the same
outcome in different ways.

40. Brains
Brains might produce male- and female-typical
outcomes, but they may “just as
well do the exact opposite, that is, they
may prevent sex differences in overt
functions and behaviors by compensating
for sex differences in physiology.”
- neuroendocrinologist Geert De Vries

41. Brains
The difference between people w/ and
with/out training > than that between men +
women.

42. Brains
The Flynn
Effect

43. Brains
“The brain is basically a social organ.”
- sociologist David Franks

44. TAKE HOME POINTS

45. TAKE HOME POINTS
• We now know how social difference
and inequality become embodied.

46. TAKE HOME POINTS
• We now know how social difference
and inequality become embodied.
“Biology is, literally, the flesh and
blood of society.”
- Me

47. TAKE HOME POINTS
• We now know how social difference
and inequality become embodied.
• So we can make powerful arguments
against the naturalization of biological
states.

48. TAKE HOME POINTS
• We now know how social difference
and inequality become embodied.
• So we can make powerful arguments
against the naturalization of biological
states.
• We can better understand how
difference and inequality emerge,
persist, and are changed.

49. TAKE HOME POINTS
• We now know how social difference
and inequality become embodied.
• So we can make powerful arguments
against the naturalization of biological
states.
• We can better understand how
difference and inequality emerge,
persist, and are changed.
• Helps explain why sex differences
research has been so… anticlimatic.

50. TAKE HOME POINTS
• Now we can use biological research to
add urgency to feminist efforts…

51. TAKE HOME POINTS
• Now we can use biological research to
add urgency to feminist efforts…
• … by showing just how deep oppression
goes and how very unjust it is.

52. Lisa Wade, PhD
• lisa-wade.com
• t:@lisawade
• fb:/lisawadephd
Thanks!
Image credits to attackofthecute.com, theilovedogssite.com,
schizophrenia.com, ileeh, zastavki.com, + freshboo.com.