A Physiological Education: Audience Constitution and the Construction of Gender in Sex in Education

Skinner explores the reliance on reproductive physiology to identify limits on women's education as explored in the book Sex in Education, or, a Fair Chance for the Girls by Edward H. Clarke. Clarke's medical-scientific construction of gender is examined alongside of his constitution of his audience as committed to scientific epistemology in order to explore some of the ways gender construction is embedded in and reinforced by audience constitution. The reliance on reproductive physiology by Clarke to identify limits on women's education is seen to align with his invitations to readers to see themselves as inclined to make decisions based on scientific facts and theories. An analysis of some of the texts written in response to the book is also mentioned.