Money and the Production of Gender

Abstract

John Money offered ``gender'' as a new conceptual realm of sex in the mid-1950s. He initially did so as part of a framework for understand-ing the phenomenon of human hermaphroditism. That framework was first and foremost a rationale for clinical practices designed to habilitate the intersexed into girlhood and boyhood, womanhood and manhood. It would become so much more. To contextualize Money's ideas I begin by tracing his early academic training; the professional context in which he first became interested in the subject of hermaphroditism; and some of the key theoretical influences on his work. His research stands within a long tradition in sexology and medical science but was also heavily influenced by the then-dominant paradigm of the social sciences. What began as a doctoral research project became a life's work for Money as he built his oeuvre over the next 50 years. Following the completion of his doctoral studies, Money was invited by the esteemed pediatric endocrinologist Lawson Wilkins to take up a position as codirector of a newly created research unit at the Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. Under the auspices of that unit Money continued his research, gathering increasing numbers of case reports and data with which to evidence his claims. It was in that context that Money identified a need for a single overarching term that would enable him to discuss the masculinity and femininity of the intersexed. The term he eventually settled on was gender.