Which Feminist/Womanist thinkers talk about biology?

I have degrees: BSc in Biochem; PhD in Clinical; Immunol and currently MSc in Bioinormatics. Transwomen are men.

https://reneejg.net/2017/02/a-call-to-feminists-to-remember-the-history-and-sex-based-nature-of-womens-oppression/

However, this article really backs up what she says, that feminists have always incorporated biology. I suppose the political and theory side of things becomes more dominant in most written theory.

Op I wonder if you mean that usually feminists focus on the gender role given to them rather that actual biology?

I agree that's well written candid! great stuff!

As I read it I remembered that there's quite a bit of actual biology and neurology/ neuroscience in Gina Rippon's book the gendered brain. It's premise is that yes there are clear biological sex neurological differences but also that the brain is so plastic that a gendered world creates a gendered brain. I also wonder if Cordelia Fine might cover any of this.

But as I type I'm not 100% sure this is what you mean or not?!

There's also this article which is a tough read:

I do not think that any feminist has ever denied or minimised the basis of female oppression being rooted in their reproductive function [ie: their biology]!

The issue is that it is men who assume power and control [dominance] over us and assume entitlement to our bodies because of that reproductive function [biology].

I think all you do here is express your misunderstanding of the history of feminism.

@candidpeel well written!

This is a really good listen

Hi Ida

I think this is a really important topic and question, but one we find hard to talk about (as your biology of fatherhood thread shows).

I'd love to know what to read on this.

I think i might write something! .... this is what I've started with

The new battle between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ highlights the need for feminism to be reconciled with biology. Arguments for equality that rest on the foundational idea that everything we label ‘gender’ is a socialised, while ‘sex’ is purely a matter of physical anatomy are vulnerable both to the extremism of gender identity ideology, but also to the problem that it just isn’t true.

We now understand that there is no such clean split between biology and society. Human bodies, human behaviour and human societies evolved together. We are cultural by nature. Human beings are remarkably flexible animals, with men and women able to take many interchangeable roles, but this cognitive flexibility comes through human infants having long childhoods in which they are socialised and dependent on parental investment. The cost and risk of parental investment in is not the same for women and for men, and patterns of human morpology (such as hidden ovulation, and menopause) are clearly related to social roles and relations between parents. Small innate differences in behavioural tendencies between men and women (such as in risk taking, status seeking and parental commitment) are amplified through social structures into outcomes which are unequal and unjust (although not ‘unnatural’). Biology is not destiny, but it turns out biology is important.

People rightly fear that biology will be used as lazy justification for inequality and oppression. But trying to stick with the ‘blank slate’ idea that gender is all social conditioning leaves feminism with theories that are disconnected from the driving forces of biology. We should not fall for the naturalistic fallacy, that natural explanations can be used as moral justifications (‘natural is good’) any more than we should fall into the trap of believing that men in dresses are women

Sorry - I should have said I don't know the answer, but I hope that someone else can answer it.

Yes, me too. I mean, I think feminist have always acknowledged biology but, as you say, the emphasis in the past was different. Like, the idea that you can choose not to be a mother is pretty awesome, actually, or even just choosing to limit the number of children. So I can see why feminist ran with it. Even just getting women up into leadership positions. It was worth playing down motherhood for a bit, I guess.