Figure 1.

Comparison of “Essentialist” vs. “Social Context” models of experimental design in sex/gender research. (Shaded section): the essentialist model that is often implicit in NI sex/gender research: female-male differences appear to be directly traceable to initial genetic differences between female and male individuals. (Unshaded section): the social context model where social context variables interact with individual biologies (contingency) and create feedback loops with research design and practices (entanglement): results of particular studies are understood as contingent and entangled “snapshots”.