Scientific paper using 'gender' where they mean 'sex'

[OddBoots]

I'm just a student not a scientist but I read a lot of papers. I was very surprised this week to read through PubMed an abstract of a epigenetics paper that referred to gender-specific markers in embryos.

Would it be really petty of me to email the publishers? I have been mulling it for a couple of days and it has really surprised and concerned me that scientists would get it wrong.

[EhricLovesTheBhrothers]

Why not email them and ask for clarification? I would.

[MurielWoods]

It means the same thing though surely and 'gender-specific' flows more easily off the tongue whereas 'sex-specific' is a bit of a mouthful

Could you copy some of the content here so that we can see the context?

By all means contact the author of the paper though, I'm sure that they won't mind and will probably be more than happy to engage/discuss

[TheFallenMadonna]

I think it's in social sciences where there is a distinction between sex and gender. In biological sciences, they seem to be used interchangeably.

[scaevola]

I would email and ask.

If it's the correct usage, they'll explain why.

If, as seems likely from your OP, it's not, then they need to know that it undermines their paper.

[TheFallenMadonna]

I really don't think it undermines their paper.

[YonicScrewdriver]

For embryos, I'm slightly surprised but it's pretty common to use gender when people mean (biological) sex in order that you don't think they mean (intercourse) sex.

I wish the usage wasn't interchangeable though.

[TheFallenMadonna]

In the sciences, sex does mean gender.

[TheFallenMadonna]

You'd need a big shift! Just did a quick google scholar search for gender specific markers, and there are LOADS of hits.

[NotCitrus]

In developmental biology, gender is used relating to chromosomes etc, and sex-specific to the process of having sex or the sexual organs, but not exclusively.

[AliceAnneB]

I've written medical journal papers for the last 15 years and I've always used gender/sex interchangeably. Even the validated health questionnaires ask for gender not sex . It's not a distinction that would make a jot of difference to most medical publications.

[squishysquashy]

IIRC 10 years ago when I was a copy editor for a few life sciences journals my 'style sheet' included changing gender to sex. I did work for a very highly regarded publishing house though

[NotCitrus]

To add - the take from the lab next to mine where they worked on sex, was that there's at least 15 different sexes in mice and humans, so obviously brain-gender will be complex, but that's not our subject.

[AliceAnneB]

I always use gender/sex in a differentiated way when I'm speaking but for medical writing I don't. I think these things need to be discussed and agreed before people just start changing them. The medical text books still say use gender. From my point of view, differentiating between gender/sex in an article that is focusing on spinal instrumentation isn't that big a deal. No one reading the article is left wondering how the patients identify their sexual orientation. It's irrelevant. They just need the factual demographic info.

[AliceAnneB]

The one that does always bother me is race. Everywhere else in the world you choose (white/black/Asian etc.) but in the UK the choices are (white British/white other/black etc). Since when did nationality become a race?! None of the other races have a British option. You can't be Black British. Only white British. How that one persists is beyond me!

[Jackieharris]

Yes, it shows how bad things have got that even scientists don't know their sex from their gender!

Alice- I've often seen 'black British' on equal opps forms

[YonicScrewdriver]

Jackie, it doesn't seem like that's the case here. NotCitrus has specified how the words can be used to signify two different things in biological science.

[cadno]

Buffyneverbreaks

Used to be a microbiologist myself and those big fast spinning machines used to terrify me - always threatening to bounce all over the room. The university I trained at was very much into antibiotic resistance at the molecular level, I seem to recall that for example the F-plasmid, it was called a sex-plasmid (not a gender-plasmid) with individual lady (F-) bugs becoming gentleman (F+) bugs once they got infected/inseminated (take your pick). Don't recall any discussion on ecofeminism tho.

[almondcakes]

Alice, national origins has been part of 'race' since at least 1963. Countries using race exclusively in the sense of black or Asian are the exception, not the rule.

I don't really care if some people doing various kinds of Science use sex and gender to mean the same thing. The meaning of words changes depending on the context.

[TheFallenMadonna]

I am a Science and Psychology teacher, interested in this from two perspectives I suppose. I am generally pretty implacably a "sex" person when talking about biology. My psychology study came after the Science. Not sure if I was so implacable before...

Does anyone know the history behind the usage? Pretty sure when I was at school I only talked about gender wrt nouns, but it was a long time ago...

[ozymandiusking]

The word gender is correct. Why do you thik it isn't?