After earning her Ph.D. she joined the faculty of Brown, where she was appointed Nancy Duke Lewis Professor of Biology and Gender Studies.

[12] Reviewing Myths of Gender in the Los Angeles Times, Elaine Kendall writes that "Her most dramatic and valuable chapters concentrate upon the lingering educational misapprehensions operating to keep women away from the 'hard' sciences and out of such lucrative fields as engineering, sidetracking them instead into lower-paying careers in the humanities or the 'nurturant' professions.

"[13] Publishers Weekly describes Fausto-Sterling's work as "insightful", stating that Sexing the Body "offers profound challenges to scientific research, the creation of social policy and the future of feminist and gender theory.

[15] French anthropologist Priscille Touraille called Fausto-Sterling an isolated case which has failed to create a consensus or controversy among biologists.

"[20] In a later paper titled "The Five Sexes, Revisited", Fausto-Sterling wrote that she now agreed with Kessler's objections to the five-sex theory.