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שימו לב: לוח הבחינות יפורסם בתחילת חודש ספטמבר.

סילבוס ביולוגיה ומגדר Biology and Gender

(קורס מספר 06081139)

שיעור

פרופ` ג`ני קין

ביולוגיה ומגדר הקורס הוא מבוא לביקורת פמיניסטית על תחומי הביולוגיה שהם רלוונטייים לדיון הציבורי העכשווי על מגדר. בקורס נדון על דוגמאות מתחומי הגנטיקה, האבולוציה, הסוציוביולוגיה, האתולוגיה, מדעי המוח ונציג ניתוח של גישת הביולוגיה לנקבות ונקביות. הביקורת במדעי המוח גם מראה את השימוש בביקורת פמיניסטית ככלי לניתוח של יחסי כוח. נדון בהבדלים בין המינים במוח – האם קיימים הבדלים ואם כן מה הם? הקורס מותאם לסטודנטיות/ים בלי ידע בביולוגיה. דרישות הקורס – הגשת עבודה קצרה בסוף הסמסטר.


Course for Women’s Studies Program, Tel Aviv University
1 semester course, 2 hours/week
frontal lectures followed by discussion in the classroom
for students of all faculties, general BA and higher with no biological background.

This course is an introduction to feminist criticism of the fields of biology relevant to the current gender debate, dealing briefly with genetics, evolution, sociobiology, ethology, neuroscience and medicine, with discussion of the theme of gender differences in the brain. The course provides examples of both standpoint criticism and deep feminist social criticism. The course is intended for students with no background in biology. Course requirements are submission of a paper at the end of the semester.


1. Human Evolution
General theories of evolution and population biology, roles assigned to females, feminist critique of scenarios of human evolution. Bleier pp 15-46

2. התנהגות בעלי חיים- קבוצות חברתיותEthology and Sociobiology (animal behavior and social groups)
Basics of ethology, including sociobiology, and feminist critique of sociobiology. Example: analysis and critique of research on primate behavior, ranking systems, competition vs. cooperation.

3. Primate sexuality (chimpanzees and bonobos)
Studies of chimpanzees and bonobos are relevant for considering the sexuality of women but the pitfalls of biologistical considerations of human behavior must be considered. Brief description of the field of primatology; with its split into feminist and mainstream primatology and the consequences for modern primatological research. Hrdy,1983, 131-160

4. Women’s sexuality-1 (research on the female body)
Criticism of modern functional anatomical research on female reproductive organs; misconceptions and ignorance. Bleier 162-193

5. Women’s sexuality-2 (female sexual response and reproductive system)
Research on the human female sexual response - the history of the research and analysis of misconceptions in biology and medicine, effect of misconceptions on women's behavior.

6. Maternal instincts
Sociobiological analysis of mothering, of the pressures on both primate and human mothers and the decisions they had and have to make, of the effect of the environment and social networks and the evolutionary selection pressures on the child. Hrdy, 1999, pp. 3-54

7. Women and Medicine
Women in the medical system and the health services as patients, doctors and policy makers. The new gendered approach to general medicine. The medicalization of women's reproductive processes. Women and dealings with the medical profession.

8. Brain Research(the two hemispheres of the brain, lateralization)
The split-brain and hemispheric asymmetry. Sex differences in asymmetry, corpus callosum and lateralization of language - feminist critique of research. Fausto-Sterling 115-145

9. Embryonic development of the brain (the role of the sex hormones)
Sex hormones, sexual orientation, history and analysis of various theories on the differentiation of the brain in females and males. Fausto-Sterling 170-195

10. Are there sex differences in the brain and cognition
Size, lateralization, causes of differences, genetic, hormonal, environmental. Hormones and behavior, role of hormones in brain function. Critique Halpern 79-182

11. Neurobiology (research on the organization of the nervous system to create behavior)
Overview of the single neuron approach vs. neuronal populations and neural networks. Problems of reductionism. Holistic approaches to neuronal bases of behavior. The feminist discussion on "holistic" vs. "analytical' research. Deep feminist criticism of power relation sin scientific models.

12. A brief introduction to genetics.
Genetics and inheritance, how genes work; single gene traits, multiple gene traits; DNA and RNA, construction of proteins biological determinism and environmental pressures. Hubbard & Wald pp. 39-57; Additional reading B. Rothman:

13. General discussion
The gender debate: biological perspectives and the relevance of biology. Dangers of biological determinism

Reading list

1. Bleier, Ruth. 1984 Science and Gender: A critique of Biology and its Theories on Women. Pergamon Press, Oxford.
2. Fausto-Sterling, Anne. 2000 Sexing the Body. Basic Books, New York
3. Halpern, Diane F. 2000 3rd ed. Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities. Lawrence Erlbaum, NJ.
4. Hubbard, Ruth and Elijah Wald, 1993 Exploding the Gene Myth. Beacon Press, Boston.
5. Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer. 1983 The Woman that Never Evolved. Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge, Mass.
6. Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer. 1999 Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species. Ballantine Books
7. Van den Wijngaard, M. 1997 Reinventing the Sexes: The Biomedical Construction of Femininity and Masculinity. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
8. Wong Yut-Lin 1998 Integrating the Gender Perspective in Medical and Health Education and Research. Paper at the UN Expert Group Meeting on Women and Health: www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw/integrate.htm

Optional reading matter
1. Birke Lynda 2000 Feminism and the Biological Body. New Brunswick. NJ
2. Gowaty, P.A. 1996 Feminism and Evolutionary Biology; Boundaries, Intersections, Frontiers. Chapman and Hall, NY
3. . Lewontin, R. 1992 Biology as Ideology: The Doctrine of DNA HarperPerennial, New York
4. Lorber J. and Moore , L.J. 2002 Gender and the Social Construction of Illness (2nd edition), Altamira Press.
5. Rothman, Barbara K 1998 Genetic Maps and Human Imaginations: The Limits of Science in Understanding Who We Are. Norton Press, NY.
6. Schiebinger, L. 1999 Has Feminism Changed Science? Harvard Univ. Press, Boston USA. Whole text available at www.hup.harvard.edu/educators/pdf/schhax.pdf
7. Spanier, B. 1995 Im/partial Science: Gender Ideology and Molecular Biology, Indiana Univ. Press. Indiana.
8. http://zygote.swarthmore.edu/fert11a1.html The Importance of Feminist Critique for Contemporary Cell Biology. Hypatia 3 (Spring, 1988): 61 - 75. updated 1997



Course requirements
1. A paper of 10 pages to be written on a subject chosen by each student that is related to the material and the critical aim of the course, that is the paper should include a survey and feminist criticism of a biological subject or biological research or be a gender-based investigation of the intersection of biology and society/culture in a specific area. Each paper must include a bibliography of at least 5 references outside the given reading list. The mark for this paper is 100% of the course mark.

דרישות קדם:

הערות: סמ` ב`, 2 ש"ס

בחינות

  • סמסטר ב', מועד א': הגשה עד 14/7/10 ב-13:00 במזכירות החוג.
  • סמסטר ב', מועד ב': אין מועד ב'.

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