On the Making of Sex Hormones: Research Materials and the Production of Knowledge

Abstract

Studies of the creation of networks in science have rarely focused on the role of research materials in establishing relations between actors. This paper considers the question of how scientists' changing needs for research materials in the study of sex hormones, which emerged as a new field of the life sciences at the turn of the century, shaped both the character of the relations between the actors in endocrinological research, and the strategic position of each actor. The accessibility of research materials not only shaped the social organization, but also affected the cognitive development, of sex endocrinology. In this process, gender bias in science was reinforced and metamorphosed.