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The Inquiry: What’s the Real Difference Between the Sexes?

People hold a giant transgender flag at a gay parade.

03/05/2018 GMT

What’s the Real Difference Between the Sexes?

BBC World Service - The Inquiry, What’s the Real Difference Between the Sexes?

What is there to learn about men and women from people who’ve lived as both?

People who have lived as both genders are in a unique position to comment on how differently men and women are treated. What can we learn?

In late December 2017, one of the world’s leading neurobiologists died of pancreatic cancer. His name was Ben Barres. He was an extraordinary scientist, advancing our understanding of how the brain works, in particular how certain cells in the brain may contribute to degenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

He had also lived the last 20 years of his life as a transgender man. He used his unique perspective of having ‘lived in the shoes of a woman and…the shoes of a man’ to become an outspoken opponent of gender bias.

As the voice of the transgender community continues to grow in influence, what can wider society learn from people who’ve been in this rare position of living life as both a perceived man and woman? What does their experience tell us about the nature of gender bias? And does it help us fix it?

(Photo: People hold a giant transgender flag at a gay parade. Credit: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)

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