Gender Verification and the Making of the Female Body in Sport

This book critically explores the history of gender verification in international sport, to show how culture, politics, and science come together to produce "femaleness" and, consequently, the female body as we know it.

Sonja Erikainen is a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests cluster around social, historical and ethical issues concerning biomedicine and gender. Her publications cover areas including digital health, new and emerging biotechnologies, and gender identity as well as gender and sports.

1. Introduction: Gender Verification, Sex Difference and the Body; 2. Sex Instability from the 1920s to the 1950s; 3. Pure and Polluted Bodies in Cold War Sports; 4. Sex Screening and Diagnosis in the Olympics; 5. Gender Fraud and Masquerade in the 1970s and 80s; 6. Gendered Suspicions at the Turn of the Millennia; 7. The Testosterone Debate - from Hyperandrogenic Females to Biological Males; 8. The Past, Present and Future of Gender Verification and Sex Categories in Sport.