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Integrative and Comparative Biology Integrative and Comparative Biology, Volume 60, Number 3, Pp Integrative and Comparative Biology Integrative and Comparative Biology, volume 60, number 3, pp. 796–813 doi:10.1093/icb/icaa084 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology SYMPOSIUM ARTICLE It Takes Two to Tango: Including a Female Perspective in 2021 August 01 on user Bloomington - Libraries University Indiana by https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/60/3/796/5875606 from Downloaded Reproductive Biology Teri J. Orr,*,1 Mercedes Burns,† Kristen Hawkes ,‡ Kay E. Holekamp ,§ Kristin A. Hook,¶ Chloe C. Josefson,k Abigail A. Kimmitt ,# A. Kelsey Lewis,** Sara E. Lipshutz,†† Kathleen S. Lynch,‡‡ Laura K. Sirot,§§ Daniel J. Stadtmauer,¶¶ Nancy L. Staub,kk Mariana F. Wolfner## and Virginia Hayssen*** *Department of Biology, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, NM 88003, USA (TJO); †Department of Biological Sciences, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA (MB); ‡Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA (KH); §Department of Integrative Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA (KEH); ¶Department of Biology, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA (KAH); kDepartment of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA (CCJ); #Department of Biology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA (AAK); **Center for Research on Gender and Women & Department of Urology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA (AKL); ††Department of Biology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA (SEL); ‡‡Biological Sciences, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY 11549, USA (KSL); §§Department of Biology, The College of Wooster, Wooster, OH 44691, USA (LKS); ¶¶Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520, USA (DJS); kkBiology Department, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA 99258, USA (NLS); ##Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA (MFW); ***Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, MA 01063, USA (VH) Co-organizers are first and last author, remaining authors are alphabetical From the symposium “Reproduction: the female perspective from an integrative and comparative framework” presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, January 3–7, 2020 at Austin, Texas. 1E-mail: [email protected] Synopsis Like many scientific disciplines, the field of reproductive biology is subject to biases in terminology and research foci. For example, females are often described as coy and passive players in reproductive behaviors and are termed “promiscuous” if they engage in extra-pair copulations. Males on the other hand are viewed as actively holding territories and fighting with other males. Males are termed “multiply mating” if they mate with multiple females. Similarly, textbooks often illustrate meiosis as it occurs in males but not females. This edition of Integrative and Comparative Biology (ICB) includes a series of papers that focus on reproduction from the female perspective. These papers represent a subset of the work presented in our symposium and complementary sessions on female reproductive biology. In this round table discussion, we use a question and answer format to leverage the diverse perspectives and voices involved with the symposium in an exploration of theoretical, cultural, pedagogical, and scientific issues related to the study of female biology. We hope this dialog will provide a stepping-stone toward moving reproductive science and teaching to a more inclusive and objective framework. Introduction research questions have been investigated from a Although human pregnancy and lactation are well- female-passive, male-active framework, and often studied, within the broad research area of reproduc- studies have used male biology as the baseline tion across taxa, female biology has remained largely from which to investigate female biology. However, understudied and sometimes outright ignored. Often evolutionary pressures driven by natural and sexual Advance Access publication July 23, 2020 ß The Author(s) 2020. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. All rights reserved. For permissions please email: [email protected]. Female perspective, a round table discussion 797 selection are just as capable of influencing female currently discussing it in the context of reproductive traits as they are male traits, including aspects of biology, it is important for us to understand and neurobiology, physiology, behavior, morphology, consider the female perspective within the scientific and ecology, all of which are critical for individual community as a whole. survival and reproductive success, regardless of bio- C.C.J.: To me, the female perspective encompasses logical sex. The preceding set of manuscripts in this the above definitions and focuses on understanding volume makes strides by synthesizing new develop- females relative to themselves, rather than under- 2021 August 01 on user Bloomington - Libraries University Indiana by https://academic.oup.com/icb/article/60/3/796/5875606 from Downloaded ments, by refining language to remove bias, and by standing females relative to their male conspecifics. considering and using experimental designs to en- We do not need to explain our results from inves- hance our understanding of female reproductive tigations in females within the same framework as biology. males. Understanding female physiology is interest- Here we address numerous questions that came ing in itself, without necessarily having to be related up during our symposium. These are grouped by back to males as a reference point. Small semantic theme. We start with theoretical issues of perspec- difference, but the change in emphasis (in my opin- tive, then move to cultural influences on how studies ion) affords the opportunity to shift from testing have been done. We conclude by discussing peda- hypotheses largely based on males to hypotheses in- gogical issues around the female perspective and by formed by female reproductive biology. highlighting the exciting research advances that may L.K.S.: As an evolutionary and behavioral biolo- occur when the biases of traditional assumptions are gist, I think of the female perspective as considering removed. and evaluating alternative hypotheses for how female Reproductive biology, like many other scientific phenotypic traits have evolved, in the style of earlier fields, lags behind changes in our social and cultural leaders in this field including Jeanne Altmann, Kay climate. This lag is evident in conceptual paradigms, Holekamp, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, and Barb Smuts. in pedagogy, in language, in peer review, and in re- search foci. We use an informal question–answer format to discuss these topics and to help make Why the female perspective? What are some of the researchers cognizant of potential theoretical, linguis- issues? tic, and research issues. We hope this dialogue con- Key issues arise when the female perspective is not tinues and promotes future insights into poorly taken. We explore these issues by drawing examples understood or poorly investigated aspects of female from anatomy, behavior, physiology, neurobiology, biology. and immunology. V.H.: Historically the formal study (and teaching) Theoretical: what, why, examples, of reproductive biology has been the purview of implications men. Women doubtless shared information about their bodies as well as about pregnancy and lactation, Many theoretical issues surround the study of female but this knowledge was not codified in any formal reproduction both at present and historically. First, manner. Thus, formal knowledge of reproduction we define what we mean when we refer to the female was generally presented from the male perspective. perspective. We then address the many ways taking This bias persists in current terminology, concepts, this perspective may change both how we conduct and theoretical frameworks. For instance, “In de- science as well as the conclusions we reach. We con- scribing meiosis, the process by which diploid cells clude by emphasizing that studying both sexes is are converted into haploid cells, every introductory important. biology textbook that I have ever seen describes the process that occurs in males but omits any descrip- What is the female perspective? tion or even mention of meiosis in females” Here are four different views of the female perspective. (Gorelick 2012, 623). You can do your own test by searching Google images for “meiosis” and seeing T.J.O.: The female perspective is the stance taken by what proportion of images show polar bodies (a researchers when the female is placed as the focal characteristic of female meiosis). Try a search for and active sex for a given inquiry. “female meiosis” and you will find that a number K.A.H.: The female perspective is a means for cor- of images also include spermatogenesis. recting an inherent bias in our literature and in our A.A.K.: Despite “calls to action,” in the last decade language as scientists that assumes females are sec- suggesting that more studies include both sexes and/ ondary and males are primary. Although we are or emphasize mechanisms of female reproduction 798 T. J. Orr et al. (Ball and Ketterson 2008; Caro 2012; Shansky 2019), sexual selection: female jacanas face stronger compe- a sex-bias favoring males in the field persists, as tition for mating opportunities than males, a pattern demonstrated by a literature investigation across
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