- How, and why, should considerations of gender and sex be pragmatically incorporated into medicine.
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Abstract:
- The rise of feminist epistemology has brought attention to the longstanding exclusion of women from scientific, and thus medical, consideration. To counteract this, the field of Gender-Specific Medicine (GSM) has been developed to highlight pertinent, gendered health differences and to ensure they are factored into patient care. Despite agreeing that andronormativity is detrimental to good medical practice, recent literature has warned against the over-simplified nature of GSM. This criticism is based on the latter’s reliance upon gender essentialist assumptions and has the potential to reinforce a binary, unscientific view of gender and sex. Drawing upon the work of Helen Longino and John Dupre, I will argue that it is vital to reject andronormative medicine and further that this necessary change can only be suitably achieved by a broader adherence to a pragmatic, pluralistic view of sex and gender. The latter involves a rejection of biological and gender essentialism, and an appreciation of both the socio-cultural construction of such understanding as well as their constrictive nature.
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