LIFESTYLE (Fox News) Published May 19, 2023
Stevens proved that male and female identity were determined by chromosomes.
A pioneering cytogeneticist and researcher at Bryn Mawr College, outside Philadelphia, Stevens discovered in 1905 that sex is determined by hereditary traits passed through chromosomes….
Females are born with a pair of XX chromosomes, inheriting an X from both the mother and father. Males are born with XY chromosomes; the X is from the mother, the Y from the father.
Stevens further discovered that the determinant X or Y chromosome was passed through the father.
Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes. One pair, known as the sex chromosomes, determines male or female gender.
It’s settled science today. But her work revolutionized the burgeoning field of genetics at the turn of the 20th century.