Final answer:
The statement is False. Gender studies within anthropology emerged later, primarily in the 1970s and 1980s, challenging biases and expanding research to include women's experiences and perspectives.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that gender studies has been an important subfield of anthropology since the beginning of American anthropology in the early twentieth century is False.
While anthropology has always involved the study of cultures and their social dynamics, the focus on gender and feminist perspectives within anthropology emerged much later, primarily in the 1970s and 1980s. Prior to that, anthropological research predominantly focused on men and male activities, ignoring or downplaying the roles and experiences of women in different cultures.
Feminist anthropologists played a critical role in challenging these biases and expanding anthropological research to include women's experiences, perspectives, and contributions. They sought to correct the ethnographic record by focusing on the voices and practices of women across cultures, and to understand gender roles in societies on their own terms rather than through the lens of the researcher's own cultural biases.