Even though I’ve been teaching biology for decades, there’s always something new to learn. I like that, and I’m happy to change my opinion when I come across new information.
That said, I was quite surprised when I read a recent article quoting Denver high school biology teacher Sam Long, who claimed that “it’s not women that produce eggs: It’s ovaries that produce eggs.”
That’s a new one for me. I remember learning that women are the only people in the world capable of producing eggs and, thus, bearing children.
But perhaps Long was just trying to be precise, I thought.
No, that can’t be it, because even in precise scientific terms, ovaries don’t produce eggs. Ovaries are complex organs with a lot of different cell types doing a lot of different things. They have an outer epithelial cell layer, several layers of connective tissues, and a complex neurovascular network. But they do not produce eggs or, as we biologists call them, ova.
Eggs actually develop from a special population of cells singled out by their genes in an early embryo. These cells migrate toward and “colonize” the structures destined to become ovaries. An ovary is just a nurturing container. Then, these cells develop into oogonia (sometimes called “female gamete mother cells”). After that, they’ll have to go through a couple of more stages before becoming a viable egg. That’s the specific answer.
So, maybe Long’s claim was just unnecessarily ambiguous. But if I remove an ovary and put it in a Petri dish, it doesn’t release any eggs. That’s because an ovary only works when it’s inside a larger, biological system.
We used to call that a “woman.”
The ovary needs a woman’s system to harvest energy, and that larger system needs some kind of circulatory system, nervous system, endocrine system, and so on (all of which have to be working together) to keep the eggs alive. Without the entire system, the individual parts are useless.
Think of a toaster: If I take the heating coil out of a toaster and lay it on a piece of bread, I’ll never get toast. The coil has to be hooked up to a larger, properly functioning system (the toaster) that’s attached to an energy source (an electrical outlet). That’s the only way you get toast. So, it’d be silly to say, “Toasters don’t produce toast. Heating coils produce toast.”
Women (I mean, people with ovaries) start producing immature eggs when they’re embryos. Just before birth, each embryonic ovary contains about 2 million immature eggs. No new eggs are added after birth. So, people with ovaries develop all the eggs they’ll ever have before they’re born. That means to keep the developing eggs alive, the ovary has to be growing inside a human being (we used to call her “mother”) who is growing inside another human being (we used to call her “grandmother”).
It may take a village to raise a child, but it takes two people and an ovary to produce an egg. Biology is complicated.
I next clicked the “Gender-Inclusive Biology” website link in the original article about Long’s comments to learn what I could. I started with the “Teaching Guides.”
First, I learned that it was wrong to teach that “women produce eggs” because “all people, cis & trans, experience different bodies, reproduction, and families.” Frankly, I didn’t see the connection. Then, I learned that I can’t teach that “the mother carries the fetus for nine months” because “many organisms thrive in stable families where a male-female relationship is only one of many options.” I didn’t see the connection there, either.
Then, I got to the part that said I shouldn’t be using the phrase “male reproductive organs” at all. Instead, I have to say, “Penis and testicles.” In other words, I need to eliminate the words “male/man” and “female/woman” and pretend that I don’t know that “male reproductive organs” also include the seminiferous tubules, epididymis, seminal vesicles, vas deferens, prostate, bulbourethral glands, and urethra.
Interestingly, the website says I’m supposed to list the internal female organs (say: “vulva, vagina, uterus, and ovaries”), but only the external male parts (say: “penis and testicles”)? Is that sexist?
Well, I think I’ve finally got it figured out. I’m going to give it a try.
Women don’t produce eggs, ovaries do. Men don’t cry, lacrimal glands do. People don’t see, eyes do. Toasters don’t produce toast, heating coils do.
And please remember, if you disagree with anything I’ve said, I didn’t type this. My fingers did.
Frederick Prete, Ph.D., is a biological psychologist, teacher, and writer. He writes the Substack newsletter “Everything Is Biology.”
