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Radboud University Press

The Easy Difference: Sex in Behavioral Ecology

  • Rose Trappes (author)
Chapter of: Purple Brains: Feminisms at the Limits of Philosophy

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Metadata
TitleThe Easy Difference: Sex in Behavioral Ecology
ContributorRose Trappes (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.54195/HSOV8373_CH07
Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
PublisherRadboud University Press
Published on2024-05-16
Long abstractRose Trappes, in “The Easy Difference: Sex in Behavioral Ecology,” questions the way “sex” features in behavioral ecological research as a standard explanatory variable. Researchers often use sex to explain variation in a trait or phenomenon that they are studying. This practice is widespread, partly because sex is often easy to identify and often explains some variation, thus making it easier to discover and test other causal patterns of interest. Yet, sex also frequently fails to explain variation. Using a couple of recent examples, it is shown how the pervasiveness of sex as an explanatory variable is partly due to the structure of scientific research, including the use of data from large longitudinal studies, and generalization from previous studies. Researchers should more carefully assess and justify the relevance of sex to each new study, to avoid overgeneralization and the perpetuation of assumptions about sexual difference and its importance in biology.
Keywords
  • feminist theory
  • feminist philosophy
  • gender theory
  • race
  • racism
  • sexism and misogyny
  • oppresssion and resistance
  • the environment
  • climate change
  • neuropsychology
  • brain theories
Contributors

Rose Trappes

(author)

Rose Trappes is a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Exeter, UK. Rose works in the philosophy of science and feminist philosophy. Broadly situated in the ontology and epistemology of biology, Rose’s work covers topics such as individuality and individualized research methods, ecological niches, sex differences and sex-based explanations, data-intensive ecology, and open science. Some of her recent publications are “Defining the Niche for Niche Construction: Evolutionary and Ecological Niches” (2021), “Individual Differences, Uniqueness, and Individuality in Behavioral Ecology” (2022), and “How Tracking Technology is Transforming Animal Ecology: Epistemic Values, Interdisciplinarity, and Technology-Driven Scientific Change” (2023).