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Sexing the baby: Part 1 – What do we really know about sex differentiation in the first three years of life?

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  • Fausto-Sterling, Anne
  • Coll, Cynthia Garcia
  • Lamarre, Meghan

Abstract

The most common paradigm used to analyze health differences between men and women, is to divide the body from the social environment. In such a model, the bodily contribution and the social contribution add up to 100%. A few health science researchers offer more sophisticated approaches. None, however, offer an intensive study of the first several years of life in order to offer a model which integrates biology and culture in a fashion that demonstrates the productive processes by which gender itself emerges. In this article, we identify the earliest known sex-related biological and behavioral differences in young infants, toddlers and their parents and indicate how these might relate to health and disease. We frame these differences using unifying concepts from the study of neuroplasticity and dynamic systems theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Fausto-Sterling, Anne & Coll, Cynthia Garcia & Lamarre, Meghan, 2012. "Sexing the baby: Part 1 – What do we really know about sex differentiation in the first three years of life?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(11), pages 1684-1692.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:74:y:2012:i:11:p:1684-1692
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.05.051
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bird, Chloe E. & Rieker, Patricia P., 1999. "Gender matters: an integrated model for understanding men's and women's health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(6), pages 745-755, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Blumenthal, Anne & Martin, Karin A., 2023. "Boys at Risk Beyond Male Fragility: The Gender Gap in Child Injury Deaths in the United States, 2000-2020," OSF Preprints pgehb, Center for Open Science.

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