Anthropologist Profiles Infographic

Gender Studies

Through the lens of the four subfields of anthropology

Created by Riley Taylor ANT2000

Margaret Mead

Mead was a cultural anthropolist who prioritized social issues, including differences in gender and sexual conditioning. Particularly, her research of adolescent girls in Samoa demonstrated differences in gender upbringing (Britannica).

Elizabeth Brumfiel

Brumfiel was an archaeologist who explored gender roles within past civilizations. Her work investigating the Aztec state demonstrated that women's roles must be investigated in a contextual manner, and observed through more than gender ideology of the dominant group (American Ethnologist).

Heather Shattuck-Heidorn

Shattuck-Heidorn is a biological anthropologist who studies sex differences in health and genetics. Some of her recent works discuss sex disparities in health outcomes and mortality during COVID-19 (Harvard University).

Bonnie McElhinny

McElhinny is a linguistic anthropologist and professor of Gender Studies. She authored The Handbook of Language, Gender, and Sexuality- which details theories of gender within sociolinguistics and ethnographic methods within gender research (2014).