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Androgen effects on women's gendered behaviour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2008

J. Richard Udry
Affiliation:
Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Naomi M. Morris
Affiliation:
Community Health Sciences, University of Illinois, Chicago, USA
Judith Kovenock
Affiliation:
Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Summary

Test of the applicability of the hormonal theory of sex-dimorphic behaviour to adult women is achieved in this study by assembling measures of prenatal and adult androgen exposure, and a broad measure of gendered behaviour on a sample of white women aged 27–30. Androgen exposure in the second (and no other) trimester of fetal life, combined with and in interaction with adult androgens, masculinises women's behaviour and explains a substantial proportion of the within-sex variance in women's adult gendered behaviour.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1995, Cambridge University Press

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