Definition of word gender

Gender includes the social, psychological, cultural and behavioral aspects of being a man, woman, or other gender identity.^[1][2] Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender expression.^[3][4][5] Most cultures use a gender binary, in which gender is divided into two categories, and people are considered part of one or the other (boys/men and girls/women);^[6][7][8] those who are outside these groups may fall under the umbrella term non-binary. Some societies have specific genders besides «man» and «woman», such as the hijras of South Asia; these are often referred to as third genders (and fourth genders, etc.). Most scholars agree that gender is a central characteristic for social organization.^[9]

In the mid-20th century, a terminological distinction in modern English (known as the sex and gender distinction) between biological sex and gender began to develop in the academic areas of psychology, sexology, and feminism. Before the mid-20th century, it was uncommon to use the word gender to refer to anything but grammatical categories.^[3][1] In the 1970s, feminist theory embraced the concept of a distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender. Most contemporary social scientists,^[10][12] behavioral scientists and biologists,^[13] many legal systems and government bodies,^[14] and intergovernmental agencies such as the WHO,^[15] make a distinction between gender and sex.

The social sciences have a branch devoted to gender studies. Other sciences, such as psychology, sociology, sexology and neuroscience, are also interested in the subject. The social sciences sometimes approach gender as a social construct, and gender studies particularly do, while research in the natural sciences investigates whether biological differences in females and males influence the development of gender in humans; both inform the debate about how far biological differences influence the formation of gender identity and gendered behavior. Biopsychosocial approaches to gender include biological, psychological, and social/cultural aspects.^[16][17]

Etymology and usage

Derivation

The modern English word gender comes from the Middle English gender, gendre, a loanword from Anglo-Norman and Middle French gendre. This, in turn, came from Latin genus. Both words mean «kind», «type», or «sort». They derive ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *ǵénh₁- ‘to beget’,^[18] which is also the source of kin, kind, king, and many other English words, with cognates widely attested in many Indo-European languages.^[19] It appears in Modern French in the word genre (type, kind, also genre sexuel) and is related to the Greek root gen- (to produce), appearing in gene, genesis, and oxygen. The Oxford Etymological Dictionary of the English Language of 1882 defined gender as kind, breed, sex, derived from the Latin ablative case of genus, like genere natus, which refers to birth.^[20] The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED1, Volume 4, 1900) notes the original meaning of gender as «kind» had already become obsolete.

History of the concept

The concept of gender, in the modern sense, is a recent invention in human history.^[21] The ancient world had no basis of understanding gender as it has been understood in the humanities and social sciences for the past few decades.^[21] The term gender had been associated with grammar for most of history and only started to move towards it being a malleable cultural construct in the 1950s and 1960s.^[22]

Before the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role developed, it was uncommon to use the word gender to refer to anything but grammatical categories.^[3][1] For example, in a bibliography of 12,000 references on marriage and family from 1900 to 1964, the term gender does not even emerge once.^[3] Analysis of more than 30 million academic article titles from 1945 to 2001 showed that the uses of the term «gender», were much rarer than uses of «sex», was often used as a grammatical category early in this period. By the end of this period, uses of «gender» outnumbered uses of «sex» in the social sciences, arts, and humanities.^[1] It was in the 1970s that feminist scholars adopted the term gender as way of distinguishing «socially constructed» aspects of male–female differences (gender) from «biologically determined» aspects (sex).^[1]

In the last two decades of the 20th century, the use of gender in academia has increased greatly, outnumbering uses of sex in the social sciences. While the spread of the word in science publications can be attributed to the influence of feminism, its use as a synonym for sex is attributed to the failure to grasp the distinction made in feminist theory, and the distinction has sometimes become blurred with the theory itself; David Haig stated, «Among the reasons that working scientists have given me for choosing gender rather than sex in biological contexts are desires to signal sympathy with feminist goals, to use a more academic term, or to avoid the connotation of copulation.»^[1] In 1993, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) started to use gender instead of sex to avoid confusion with sexual intercourse.^[23] Later, in 2011, the FDA reversed its position and began using sex as the biological classification and gender as «a person’s self-representation as male or female, or how that person is responded to by social institutions based on the individual’s gender presentation.»^[24]

In legal cases alleging discrimination, a 2006 law review article by Meredith Render notes «as notions of gender and sexuality have evolved over the last few decades, legal theories concerning what it means to discriminate «because of sex» under Title VII have experienced a similar evolution».^[25]: 135 In a 1999 law review article proposing a legal definition of sex that «emphasizes gender self-identification,» Julie Greenberg writes, «Most legislation utilizes the word «sex,» yet courts, legislators, and administrative agencies often substitute the word «gender» for «sex» when they interpret these statutes.»^{[26]: 270, 274} In J.E.B. v. Alabama ex rel. T.B., a 1994 United States Supreme Court case addressing «whether the Equal Protection Clause forbids intentional discrimination on the basis of gender», the majority opinion noted that with regard to gender, «It is necessary only to acknowledge that ‘our Nation has had a long and unfortunate history of sex discrimination,’ id., at 684, 93 S.Ct., at 1769, a history which warrants the heightened scrutiny we afford all gender-based classifications today», and stated «When state actors exercise peremptory challenges in reliance on gender stereotypes, they ratify and reinforce prejudicial views of the relative abilities of men and women.»^[27]

As a grammatical category

The word was still widely used, however, in the specific sense of grammatical gender (the assignment of nouns to categories such as masculine, feminine and neuter). According to Aristotle, this concept was introduced by the Greek philosopher Protagoras.^{[28][page needed]}

In 1926, Henry Watson Fowler stated that the definition of the word pertained to this grammar-related meaning:

«Gender…is a grammatical term only. To talk of persons…of the masculine or feminine g[ender], meaning of the male or female sex, is either a jocularity (permissible or not according to context) or a blunder.»^[29]

As distinct from sex

In 1945, Madison Bentley defined gender as the «socialized obverse of sex».^[30][31] Simone de Beauvoir’s 1949 book The Second Sex has been interpreted as the beginning of the distinction between sex and gender in feminist theory,^[32][33] although this interpretation is contested.^{[by whom?][34]}

Sexologist John Money coined the term gender role,^[35][36] and was the first to use it in print in a scientific trade journal.^{[citation needed]} In a seminal 1955 paper he defined it as «all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself or herself as having the status of boy or man, girl or woman.»^[37]

The modern academic sense of the word, in the context of social roles of men and women, dates at least back to 1945,^[38] and was popularized and developed by the feminist movement from the 1970s onwards (see § Feminism theory and gender studies below), which theorizes that human nature is essentially epicene and social distinctions based on sex are arbitrarily constructed. In this context, matters pertaining to this theoretical process of social construction were labelled matters of gender.

The popular use of gender simply as an alternative to sex (as a biological category) is also widespread, although attempts are still made to preserve the distinction. The American Heritage Dictionary (2000) uses the following two sentences to illustrate the difference, noting that the distinction «is useful in principle, but it is by no means widely observed, and considerable variation in usage occurs at all levels.»^[39]

The effectiveness of the medication appears to depend on the sex (not gender) of the patient.
In peasant societies, gender (not sex) roles are likely to be more clearly defined.

Gender identity and gender roles

Gender identity refers to a personal identification with a particular gender and gender role in society. The term woman has historically been used interchangeably with reference to the female body, though more recently this usage has been viewed as controversial by some feminists.^[40]

There are qualitative analyses that explore and present the representations of gender; however, feminists challenge these dominant ideologies concerning gender roles and biological sex. One’s biological sex is directly tied to specific social roles and the expectations. Judith Butler considers the concept of being a woman to have more challenges, owing not only to society’s viewing women as a social category but also as a felt sense of self, a culturally conditioned or constructed subjective identity.^[41] Social identity refers to the common identification with a collectivity or social category that creates a common culture among participants concerned.^[42] According to social identity theory,^[43] an important component of the self-concept is derived from memberships in social groups and categories; this is demonstrated by group processes and how inter-group relationships impact significantly on individuals’ self perception and behaviors. The groups people belong to therefore provide members with the definition of who they are and how they should behave within their social sphere.^[44]

Categorizing males and females into social roles creates a problem for some individuals who feel they have to be at one end of a linear spectrum and must identify themselves as man or woman, rather than being allowed to choose a section in between.^[45] Globally, communities interpret biological differences between men and women to create a set of social expectations that define the behaviors that are «appropriate» for men and women and determine their different access to rights, resources, power in society and health behaviors.^[46] Although the specific nature and degree of these differences vary from one society to the next, they still tend to typically favor men, creating an imbalance in power and gender inequalities within most societies.^[47] Many cultures have different systems of norms and beliefs based on gender, but there is no universal standard to a masculine or feminine role across all cultures.^[48] Social roles of men and women in relation to each other is based on the cultural norms of that society, which lead to the creation of gender systems. The gender system is the basis of social patterns in many societies, which include the separation of sexes, and the primacy of masculine norms.^[47]

Philosopher Michel Foucault said that as sexual subjects, humans are the object of power, which is not an institution or structure, rather it is a signifier or name attributed to «complex strategical situation».^[49] Because of this, «power» is what determines individual attributes, behaviors, etc. and people are a part of an ontologically and epistemologically constructed set of names and labels. For example, being female characterizes one as a woman, and being a woman signifies one as weak, emotional, and irrational, and incapable of actions attributed to a «man». Butler said that gender and sex are more like verbs than nouns. She reasoned that her actions are limited because she is female. «I am not permitted to construct my gender and sex willy-nilly,» she said.^[41] «[This] is so because gender is politically and therefore socially controlled. Rather than ‘woman’ being something one is, it is something one does.»^[41] More recent criticisms of Judith Butler’s theories critique her writing for reinforcing the very conventional dichotomies of gender.^[50]

Social assignment and gender fluidity

According to gender theorist Kate Bornstein, gender can have ambiguity and fluidity.^[51] There are two^[52][53] contrasting ideas regarding the definition of gender, and the intersection of both of them is definable as below:

The World Health Organization defines gender as «the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed».^[54] The beliefs, values and attitude taken up and exhibited by them is as per the agreeable norms of the society and the personal opinions of the person is not taken into the primary consideration of assignment of gender and imposition of gender roles as per the assigned gender.^[2]

The assignment of gender involves taking into account the physiological and biological attributes assigned by nature followed by the imposition of the socially constructed conduct. Gender is a term used to exemplify the attributes that a society or culture constitutes as «masculine» or «feminine». Although a person’s sex as male or female stands as a biological fact that is identical in any culture, what that specific sex means in reference to a person’s gender role as a man or a woman in society varies cross-culturally according to what things are considered to be masculine or feminine.^[55] These roles are learned from various, intersecting sources such as parental influences, the socialization a child receives in school, and what is portrayed in the local media. Learning gender roles starts from birth and includes seemingly simple things like what color outfits a baby is clothed in or what toys they are given to play with. However, a person’s gender does not always align with what has been assigned at birth. Factors other than learned behaviors play a role in the development of gender.^[56]

Societal categories

Sexologist John Money coined the term gender role in 1955. The term gender role is defined as the actions or responses that may reveal their status as boy, man, girl or woman, respectively.^[57] Elements surrounding gender roles include clothing, speech patterns, movement, occupations, and other factors not limited to biological sex. In contrast to taxonomic approaches, some feminist philosophers have argued that gender «is a vast orchestration of subtle mediations between oneself and others», rather than a «private cause behind manifest behaviours».^[58]

Non-binary and third genders

Historically, most societies have recognized only two distinct, broad classes of gender roles, a binary of masculine and feminine, largely corresponding to the biological sexes of male and female.^[8][59][60] When a baby is born, society allocates the child to one gender or the other, on the basis of what their genitals resemble.^[55]

However, some societies have historically acknowledged and even honored people who fulfill a gender role that exists more in the middle of the continuum between the feminine and masculine polarity. For example, the Hawaiian māhū, who occupy «a place in the middle» between male and female,^[61][62] or the Ojibwe ikwekaazo, «men who choose to function as women»,^[63] or ininiikaazo, «women who function as men».^[63] In the language of the sociology of gender, some of these people may be considered third gender, especially by those in gender studies or anthropology. Contemporary Native American and FNIM people who fulfill these traditional roles in their communities may also participate in the modern, two-spirit community,^[64] however, these umbrella terms, neologisms, and ways of viewing gender are not necessarily the type of cultural constructs that more traditional members of these communities agree with.^[65]

The hijras of India and Pakistan are often cited as third gender.^[66][67] Another example may be the muxe (pronounced [ˈmuʃe]), found in the state of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico.^[68] The Bugis people of Sulawesi, Indonesia have a tradition that incorporates all the features above.^[69]

In addition to these traditionally recognized third genders, many cultures now recognize, to differing degrees, various non-binary gender identities. People who are non-binary (or genderqueer) have gender identities that are not exclusively masculine or feminine. They may identify as having an overlap of gender identities, having two or more genders, having no gender, having a fluctuating gender identity, or being third gender or other-gendered. Recognition of non-binary genders is still somewhat new to mainstream Western culture,^[70] and non-binary people may face increased risk of assault, harassment, and discrimination.^[71]

Measurement of gender identity

Two instruments incorporating the multidimensional nature of masculinity and femininity have dominated gender identity research: The Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ). Both instruments categorize individuals as either being sex typed (males report themselves as identifying primarily with masculine traits, females report themselves as identifying primarily with feminine traits), cross sex-typed (males report themselves as identifying primarily with feminine traits, females report themselves as identifying primarily with masculine traits), androgynous (either males or females who report themselves as high on both masculine and feminine traits) or undifferentiated (either males or females who report themselves as low on both masculine and feminine traits).^[72] Twenge (1997) noted that men are generally more masculine than women and women generally more feminine than men, but the association between biological sex and masculinity/femininity is waning.^[73]

Feminist theory and gender studies

Biologist and feminist academic Anne Fausto-Sterling rejects the discourse of biological versus social determinism and advocates a deeper analysis of how interactions between the biological being and the social environment influence individuals’ capacities.^[74]

The philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir applied existentialism to women’s experience of life: «One is not born a woman, one becomes one.»^[75] In context, this is a philosophical statement. However, it may be analyzed in terms of biology—a girl must pass puberty to become a woman—and sociology, as a great deal of mature relating in social contexts is learned rather than instinctive.^[76]

Within feminist theory, terminology for gender issues developed over the 1970s. In the 1974 edition of Masculine/Feminine or Human, the author uses «innate gender» and «learned sex roles»,^[77] but in the 1978 edition, the use of sex and gender is reversed.^[78]
By 1980, most feminist writings had agreed on using gender only for socioculturally adapted traits.

In gender studies the term gender refers to proposed social and cultural constructions of masculinities and femininities. In this context, gender explicitly excludes reference to biological differences, to focus on cultural differences.^[79] This emerged from a number of different areas: in sociology during the 1950s; from the theories of the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan; and in the work of French psychoanalysts like Julia Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, and American feminists such as Judith Butler. Those who followed Butler came to regard gender roles as a practice, sometimes referred to as «performative».^[80]

Charles E. Hurst states that some people think sex will, «…automatically determine one’s gender demeanor and role (social) as well as one’s sexual orientation (sexual attractions and behavior).^[81] Gender sociologists believe that people have cultural origins and habits for dealing with gender. For example, Michael Schwalbe believes that humans must be taught how to act appropriately in their designated gender to fill the role properly, and that the way people behave as masculine or feminine interacts with social expectations. Schwalbe comments that humans «are the results of many people embracing and acting on similar ideas».^[82] People do this through everything from clothing and hairstyle to relationship and employment choices. Schwalbe believes that these distinctions are important, because society wants to identify and categorize people as soon as we see them. They need to place people into distinct categories to know how we should feel about them.

Hurst comments that in a society where we present our genders so distinctly, there can often be severe consequences for breaking these cultural norms. Many of these consequences are rooted in discrimination based on sexual orientation. Gays and lesbians are often discriminated against in our legal system because of societal prejudices.^[83][84][85] Hurst describes how this discrimination works against people for breaking gender norms, no matter what their sexual orientation is. He says that «courts often confuse sex, gender, and sexual orientation, and confuse them in a way that results in denying the rights not only of gays and lesbians, but also of those who do not present themselves or act in a manner traditionally expected of their sex».^[81] This prejudice plays out in our legal system when a person is judged differently because they do not present themselves as the «correct» gender.

Andrea Dworkin stated her «commitment to destroying male dominance and gender itself» while stating her belief in radical feminism.^[86]

Political scientist Mary Hawkesworth addresses gender and feminist theory, stating that since the 1970s the concept of gender has transformed and been used in significantly different ways within feminist scholarship. She notes that a transition occurred when several feminist scholars, such as Sandra Harding and Joan Scott, began to conceive of gender «as an analytic category within which humans think about and organize their social activity». Feminist scholars in Political Science began employing gender as an analytical category, which highlighted «social and political relations neglected by mainstream accounts». However, Hawkesworth states «feminist political science has not become a dominant paradigm within the discipline».^[87]

American political scientist Karen Beckwith addresses the concept of gender within political science arguing that a «common language of gender» exists and that it must be explicitly articulated in order to build upon it within the political science discipline. Beckwith describes two ways in which the political scientist may employ ‘gender’ when conducting empirical research: «gender as a category and as a process.» Employing gender as a category allows for political scientists «to delineate specific contexts where behaviours, actions, attitudes and preferences considered masculine or feminine result in particular» political outcomes. It may also demonstrate how gender differences, not necessarily corresponding precisely with sex, may «constrain or facilitate political» actors. Gender as a process has two central manifestations in political science research, firstly in determining «the differential effects of structures and policies upon men and women,» and secondly, the ways in which masculine and feminine political actors «actively work to produce favorable gendered outcomes».^[88]

With regard to gender studies, Jacquetta Newman states that although sex is determined biologically, the ways in which people express gender is not. Gendering is a socially constructed process based on culture, though often cultural expectations around women and men have a direct relationship to their biology. Because of this, Newman argues, many privilege sex as being a cause of oppression and ignore other issues like race, ability, poverty, etc. Current gender studies classes seek to move away from that and examine the intersectionality of these factors in determining people’s lives. She also points out that other non-Western cultures do not necessarily have the same views of gender and gender roles.^[89] Newman also debates the meaning of equality, which is often considered the goal of feminism; she believes that equality is a problematic term because it can mean many different things, such as people being treated identically, differently, or fairly based on their gender. Newman believes this is problematic because there is no unified definition as to what equality means or looks like, and that this can be significantly important in areas like public policy.^[90]

The World Health Organization states «As a social construct, gender varies from society to society and can change over time.»^[91] Sociologists generally regard gender as a social construct, and various researchers, including many feminists, consider sex to only be a matter of biology and something that is not about social or cultural construction. For instance, sexologist John Money suggests the distinction between biological sex and gender as a role.^[57] Moreover, Ann Oakley, a professor of sociology and social policy, says «the constancy of sex must be admitted, but so also must the variability of gender.»^[92] Thus, sex is regarded as a category studied in biology (natural sciences), while gender is studied in humanities and social sciences. Lynda Birke, a feminist biologist, maintains «‘biology’ is not seen as something which might change.»^[93] Therefore, it is stated that sex is something that does not change, while gender can change according to social structure.

However, there are scholars who argue that sex is also socially constructed. For example, gender studies writer Judith Butler states that «perhaps this construct called ‘sex’ is as culturally constructed as gender; indeed, perhaps it was always already gender, with the consequence that the distinction between sex and gender turns out to be no distinction at all.»^[94]

She continues:

It would make no sense, then, to define gender as the cultural interpretation of sex, if sex is itself a gender-centered category. Gender should not be conceived merely as the cultural inscription of meaning based on a given sex (a juridical conception); gender must also designate the very apparatus of production whereby the sexes themselves are established. […] This production of sex as the pre-discursive should be understood as the effect of the apparatus of cultural construction designated by gender.^[95]

Butler argues that «bodies only appear, only endure, only live within the productive constraints of certain highly gendered regulatory schemas,»^[96] and sex is «no longer as a bodily given on which the construct of gender is artificially imposed, but as a cultural norm which governs the materialization of bodies.»^[97]

With regard to history, Linda Nicholson, a professor of history and women’s studies, argues that the understanding of human bodies as sexually dimorphic was historically not recognised. She states that male and female genitals were considered inherently the same in Western society until the 18th century. At that time, female genitals were regarded as incomplete male genitals, and the difference between the two was conceived as a matter of degree. In other words, there was a belief in a gradation of physical forms, or a spectrum.^[98] Scholars such as Helen King, Joan Cadden, and Michael Stolberg have criticized this interpretation of history.^[99] Cadden notes that the «one-sex» model was disputed even in ancient and medieval medicine,^[100] and Stolberg points out that already in the sixteenth century, medicine had begun to move towards a two-sex model.^[101]

In addition, drawing from the empirical research of intersex children, Anne Fausto-Sterling, a professor of biology and gender studies, describes how the doctors address the issues of intersexuality. She starts her argument with an example of the birth of an intersexual individual and maintains «our conceptions of the nature of gender difference shape, even as they reflect, the ways we structure our social system and polity; they also shape and reflect our understanding of our physical bodies.»^[102] Then she adds how gender assumptions affects the scientific study of sex by presenting the research of intersexuals by John Money et al., and she concludes that «they never questioned the fundamental assumption that there are only two sexes, because their goal in studying intersexuals was to find out more about ‘normal’ development.»^[103] She also mentions the language the doctors use when they talk with the parents of the intersexuals. After describing how the doctors inform parents about the intersexuality, she asserts that because the doctors believe that the intersexuals are actually male or female, they tell the parents of the intersexuals that it will take a little bit more time for the doctors to determine whether the infant is a boy or a girl. That is to say, the doctors’ behavior is formulated by the cultural gender assumption that there are only two sexes. Lastly, she maintains that the differences in the ways in which the medical professionals in different regions treat intersexual people also give us a good example of how sex is socially constructed.^[104] In her Sexing the body: gender politics and the construction of sexuality, she introduces the following example:

A group of physicians from Saudi Arabia recently reported on several cases of XX intersex children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a genetically inherited malfunction of the enzymes that aid in making steroid hormones. […] In the United States and Europe, such children, because they have the potential to bear children later in life, are usually raised as girls. Saudi doctors trained in this European tradition recommended such a course of action to the Saudi parents of CAH XX children. A number of parents, however, refused to accept the recommendation that their child, initially identified as a son, be raised instead as a daughter. Nor would they accept feminizing surgery for their child. […] This was essentially an expression of local community attitudes with […] the preference for male offspring.^[105]

Thus it is evident that culture can play a part in assigning gender, particularly in relation to intersex children.^[104]

The article Adolescent Gender-Role Identity and Mental Health: Gender Intensification Revisited focuses on the work of Heather A. Priess, Sara M. Lindberg, and Janet Shibley Hyde on whether or not girls and boys diverge in their gender identities during adolescent years. The researchers based their work on ideas previously mentioned by Hill and Lynch in their gender intensification hypothesis in that signals and messages from parents determine and affect their children’s gender role identities. This hypothesis argues that parents affect their children’s gender role identities and that different interactions spent with either parents will affect gender intensification. Priess and among other’s study did not support the hypothesis of Hill and Lynch which stated «that as adolescents experience these and other socializing influences, they will become more stereotypical in their gender-role identities and gendered attitudes and behaviors.»^[106] However, the researchers did state that perhaps the hypothesis Hill and Lynch proposed was true in the past but is not true now due to changes in the population of teens in respect to their gender-role identities.

Authors of «Unpacking the Gender System: A Theoretical Perspective on Gender Beliefs and Social Relations», Cecilia Ridgeway and Shelley Correll, argue that gender is more than an identity or role but is something that is institutionalized through «social relational contexts.» Ridgeway and Correll define «social relational contexts» as «any situation in which individuals define themselves in relation to others in order to act.»^[107] They also point out that in addition to social relational contexts, cultural beliefs plays a role in the gender system. The coauthors argue that daily people are forced to acknowledge and interact with others in ways that are related to gender. Every day, individuals are interacting with each other and comply with society’s set standard of hegemonic beliefs, which includes gender roles. They state that society’s hegemonic cultural beliefs sets the rules which in turn create the setting for which social relational contexts are to take place. Ridgeway and Correll then shift their topic towards sex categorization. The authors define sex categorization as «the sociocognitive process by which we label another as male or female.»^[107]

The failure of an attempt to raise David Reimer from infancy through adolescence as a girl after his genitals were accidentally mutilated is cited as disproving the theory that gender identity is determined solely by parenting.^[108][109] Reimer’s case is used by organizations such as the Intersex Society of North America to caution against needlessly modifying the genitals of unconsenting minors.^[110][111] Between the 1960s and 2000, many other male newborns and infants were surgically and socially reassigned as females if they were born with malformed penises, or if they lost their penises in accidents. At the time, surgical reconstruction of the vagina was more advanced than reconstruction of the penis, leading many doctors and psychologists, including John Money who oversaw Reimer’s case, to recommend sex reassignment based on the idea that these patients would be happiest living as women with functioning genitalia.^[112] Available evidence indicates that in such instances, parents were deeply committed to raising these children as girls and in as gender-typical a manner as possible.^{[112]: 72–73} A 2005 review of these cases found that about half of natal males reassigned female lived as women in adulthood, including those who knew their medical history, suggesting that gender assignment and related social factors has a major, though not determinative, influence on eventual gender identity.^[111]

In 2015, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a webinar series on gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, etc.^[113][114] In the first lecture Dr. Sherer explains that parents’ influence (through punishment and reward of behavior) can influence gender expression but not gender identity.^[115] She cites a Smithsonian article that shows a photo of a 3 year old President Franklin D. Roosevelt with long hair, wearing a dress.^[116][117] Children as old as 6 wore gender neutral clothing, consisting of white dresses, until the 1940s.^[116] In 1927, Time magazine printed a chart showing sex-appropriate colors, which consisted of pink for boys and blue for girls.^[116] Dr. Sherer argued that kids will modify their gender expression to seek reward from their parents and society but this will not affect their gender identity (their internal sense of self).^[118]

Biological factors and views

Some gendered behavior is influenced by prenatal and early life androgen exposure. This includes, for example, gender normative play, self-identification with a gender, and tendency to engage in aggressive behavior.^[119] Males of most mammals, including humans, exhibit more rough and tumble play behavior, which is influenced by maternal testosterone levels. These levels may also influence sexuality, with non-heterosexual persons exhibiting sex atypical behavior in childhood.^[120]

The biology of gender became the subject of an expanding number of studies over the course of the late 20th century. One of the earliest areas of interest was what became known as «gender identity disorder» (GID) and which is now also described as gender dysphoria. Studies in this, and related areas, inform the following summary of the subject by John Money. He stated:

The term «gender role» appeared in print first in 1955. The term gender identity was used in a press release, 21 November 1966, to announce the new clinic for transsexuals at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. It was disseminated in the media worldwide, and soon entered the vernacular. The definitions of gender and gender identity vary on a doctrinal basis. In popularized and scientifically debased usage, sex is what you are biologically; gender is what you become socially; gender identity is your own sense or conviction of maleness or femaleness; and gender role is the cultural stereotype of what is masculine and feminine. Causality with respect to gender identity disorder is sub-divisible into genetic, prenatal hormonal, postnatal social, and post-pubertal hormonal determinants, but there is, as yet, no comprehensive and detailed theory of causality. Gender coding in the brain is bipolar. In gender identity disorder, there is discordance between the natal sex of one’s external genitalia and the brain coding of one’s gender as masculine or feminine.^[121]

Although causation from the biological—genetic and hormonal—to the behavioral has been broadly demonstrated and accepted, Money is careful to also note that understanding of the causal chains from biology to behavior in sex and gender issues is very far from complete.^[122]

There are studies concerning women who have a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which leads to the overproduction of the masculine sex hormone, androgen. These women usually have ordinary female appearances (though nearly all girls with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) have corrective surgery performed on their genitals). However, despite taking hormone-balancing medication given to them at birth, these females are statistically more likely to be interested in activities traditionally linked to males than female activities. Psychology professor and CAH researcher Dr. Sheri Berenbaum attributes these differences to an exposure of higher levels of male sex hormones in utero.^[123]

Non-human animals

In non-human animal research, gender is commonly used to refer to the biological sex of the animals.^[1] According to biologist Michael J. Ryan, gender identity is a concept exclusively applied to humans.^[124] Also, in a letter Ellen Ketterson writes, «[w]hen asked, my colleagues in the Department of Gender Studies agreed that the term gender could be properly applied only to humans, because it involves one’s self-concept as man or woman. Sex is a biological concept; gender is a human social and cultural concept.»^[125] However, Poiani (2010) notes that the question of whether behavioural similarities across species can be associated with gender identity or not is «an issue of no easy resolution»,^[126] and suggests that mental states, such as gender identity, are more accessible in humans than other species due to their capacity for language.^[127] Polani suggests that the potential number of species with members possessing a gender identity must be limited due to the requirement for self-consciousness.^[128]

Jacques Balthazart suggests that «there is no animal model for studying sexual identity. It is impossible to ask an animal, whatever its species, to what sex it belongs.»^[129] He notes that «this would imply that the animal is aware of its own body and sex, which is far from proved», despite recent research demonstrating sophisticated cognitive skills among non-human primates and other species.^[130] Hird (2006) has also stated that whether or not non-human animals consider themselves to be feminine or masculine is a «difficult, if not impossible, question to answer», as this would require «judgements about what constitutes femininity or masculinity in any given species». Nonetheless, she asserts that «non-human animals do experience femininity and masculinity to the extent that any given species’ behaviour is gender segregated.»^[131]

Despite this, Poiani and Dixson emphasise the applicability of the concept of gender role to non-human animals^[126] such as rodents^[132] throughout their book.^[133] The concept of gender role has also been applied to non-human primates such as rhesus monkeys.^[134][135]

Gender studies

Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study and academic field devoted to gender, gender identity and gendered representation as central categories of analysis. This field includes Women’s studies (concerning women, feminity, their gender roles and politics, and feminism), Men’s studies (concerning men, masculinity, their gender roles, and politics), and LGBT studies.^[136]
Sometimes Gender studies is offered together with Study of Sexuality.
These disciplines study gender and sexuality in the fields of literature and language, history, political science, sociology, anthropology, cinema and media studies, human development, law, and medicine.^[137]
It also analyses race, ethnicity, location, nationality, and disability.^[138][139]

Psychology and sociology

Many of the more complicated human behaviors are influenced by both innate factors and by environmental ones, which include everything from genes, gene expression, and body chemistry, through diet and social pressures. A large area of research in behavioral psychology collates evidence in an effort to discover correlations between behavior and various possible antecedents such as genetics, gene regulation, access to food and vitamins, culture, gender, hormones, physical and social development, and physical and social environments.^[140]

A core research area within sociology is the way human behavior operates on itself, in other words, how the behavior of one group or individual influences the behavior of other groups or individuals. Starting in the late 20th century, the feminist movement has contributed extensive study of gender and theories about it, notably within sociology but not restricted to it.^[141]

Social theorists have sought to determine the specific nature of gender in relation to biological sex and sexuality,^[142][143] with the result being that culturally established gender and sex have become interchangeable identifications that signify the allocation of a specific ‘biological’ sex within a categorical gender.^[143] The second wave feminist view that gender is socially constructed and hegemonic in all societies, remains current in some literary theoretical circles, Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz publishing new perspectives as recently as 2008.^[144]

As the child grows, «…society provides a string of prescriptions, templates, or models of behaviors appropriate to the one sex or the other,»^[145] which socialises the child into belonging to a culturally specific gender.^[146] There is huge incentive for a child to concede to their socialisation with gender shaping the individual’s opportunities for education, work, family, sexuality, reproduction, authority,^[147] and to make an impact on the production of culture and knowledge.^[148] Adults who do not perform these ascribed roles are perceived from this perspective as deviant and improperly socialized.^[149]

Some believe society is constructed in a way that splits gender into a dichotomy via social organisations that constantly invent and reproduce cultural images of gender. Joan Acker believed gendering occurs in at least five different interacting social processes:^[150]

• The construction of divisions along the lines of gender, such as those produced by labor, power, family, the state, even allowed behaviors and locations in physical space
• The construction of symbols and images such as language, ideology, dress and the media, that explain, express and reinforce, or sometimes oppose, those divisions
• Interactions between men and women, women and women and men and men that involve any form of dominance and submission. Conversational theorists, for example, have studied the way that interruptions, turn taking and the setting of topics re-create gender inequality in the flow of ordinary talk
• The way that the preceding three processes help to produce gendered components of individual identity, i.e., the way they create and maintain an image of a gendered self
• Gender is implicated in the fundamental, ongoing processes of creating and conceptualising social structures.

Looking at gender through a Foucauldian lens, gender is transfigured into a vehicle for the social division of power. Gender difference is merely a construct of society used to enforce the distinctions made between what is assumed to be female and male, and allow for the domination of masculinity over femininity through the attribution of specific gender-related characteristics.^[151] «The idea that men and women are more different from one another than either is from anything else, must come from something other than nature… far from being an expression of natural differences, exclusive gender identity is the suppression of natural similarities.»^[152]

Gender conventions play a large role in attributing masculine and feminine characteristics to a fundamental biological sex.^[153] Socio-cultural codes and conventions, the rules by which society functions, and which are both a creation of society as well as a constituting element of it, determine the allocation of these specific traits to the sexes. These traits provide the foundations for the creation of hegemonic gender difference. It follows then, that gender can be assumed as the acquisition and internalisation of social norms. Individuals are therefore socialized through their receipt of society’s expectations of ‘acceptable’ gender attributes that are flaunted within institutions such as the family, the state and the media. Such a notion of ‘gender’ then becomes naturalized into a person’s sense of self or identity, effectively imposing a gendered social category upon a sexed body.^[152]

The conception that people are gendered rather than sexed also coincides with Judith Butler’s theories of gender performativity. Butler argues that gender is not an expression of what one is, but rather something that one does.^[154] It follows then, that if gender is acted out in a repetitive manner it is in fact re-creating and effectively embedding itself within the social consciousness. Contemporary sociological reference to male and female gender roles typically uses masculinities and femininities in the plural rather than singular, suggesting diversity both within cultures as well as across them.

The difference between the sociological and popular definitions of gender involve a different dichotomy and focus. For example, the sociological approach to «gender» (social roles: female versus male) focuses on the difference in (economic/power) position between a male CEO (disregarding the fact that he is heterosexual or homosexual) to female workers in his employ (disregarding whether they are straight or gay). However the popular sexual self-conception approach (self-conception: gay versus straight) focuses on the different self-conceptions and social conceptions of those who are gay/straight, in comparison with those who are straight (disregarding what might be vastly differing economic and power positions between female and male groups in each category). There is then, in relation to definition of and approaches to «gender», a tension between historic feminist sociology and contemporary homosexual sociology.^[155]

According to Alex Iantaffi, Meg-John Barker, and others, gender is biopsychosocial. This is because it is derived from biological, psychological, and social factors,^[156][16] with all three factors feeding back into each other to form a person’s gender.^[16]

Biological factors such as sex chromosomes, hormones, and anatomy play a significant role in the development of gender. Hormones such as testosterone and estrogen also play a crucial role in shaping gender identity and expression. Anatomy, including genitalia and reproductive organs, can also influence one’s gender identity and expression.^[157]

Psychological factors such as cognition, personality, and self-concept also contribute to gender development. Gender identity emerges around the age of two to three years. Gender expression, which refers to the outward manifestation of gender, is influenced by cultural norms, personal preferences, and individual differences in personality.^[158]

Social factors such as culture, socialization, and institutional practices shape gender identity and expression.

In some English literature, there is also a trichotomy between biological sex, psychological gender, and social gender role. This framework first appeared in a feminist paper on transsexualism in 1978.^[1][159]

Legal status

A person’s sex as male or female has legal significance—sex is indicated on government documents, and laws provide differently for men and women. Many pension systems have different retirement ages for men or women. Marriage is usually only available to opposite-sex couples; in some countries and jurisdictions there are same-sex marriage laws.

The question then arises as to what legally determines whether someone is female or male. In most cases this can appear obvious, but the matter is complicated for intersex or transgender people. Different jurisdictions have adopted different answers to this question. Almost all countries permit changes of legal gender status in cases of intersexualism, when the gender assignment made at birth is determined upon further investigation to be biologically inaccurate—technically, however, this is not a change of status per se. Rather, it is recognition of a status deemed to exist but unknown from birth. Increasingly, jurisdictions also provide a procedure for changes of legal gender for transgender people.

Gender assignment, when there are indications that genital sex might not be decisive in a particular case, is normally not defined by a single definition, but by a combination of conditions, including chromosomes and gonads. Thus, for example, in many jurisdictions a person with XY chromosomes but female gonads could be recognized as female at birth.

Transgender people

The ability to change legal gender for transgender people in particular has given rise to the phenomena in some jurisdictions of the same person having different genders for the purposes of different areas of the law. For example, in Australia prior to the Re Kevin decisions, transsexual people could be recognized as having the genders they identified with under many areas of the law, including social security law, but not for the law of marriage. Thus, for a period, it was possible for the same person to have two different genders under Australian law.

It is also possible in federal systems for the same person to have one gender under state or provincial law and a different gender under federal law.

Intersex people

For intersex people, who according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, «do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies»,^[160] access to any form of identification document with a gender marker may be an issue.^[161] For other intersex people, there may be issues in securing the same rights as other individuals assigned male or female; other intersex people may seek non-binary gender recognition.^[162]

Non-binary and third genders

Some countries now legally recognize non-binary or third genders, including Canada, Germany,^[163] Australia, New Zealand, India and Pakistan. In the United States, Oregon was the first state to legally recognize non-binary gender in 2017,^[164] and was followed by California and the District of Columbia.^[165][166]

Gender and society

Languages

• Grammatical gender is a property of some languages in which every noun is assigned a gender, often with no direct relation to its meaning. For example, the word for «girl» is muchacha (grammatically feminine) in Spanish,^[163] Mädchen (grammatically neuter) in German,^[163] and cailín (grammatically masculine) in Irish.
• The term «grammatical gender» is often applied to more complex noun class systems. This is especially true when a noun class system includes masculine and feminine as well as some other non-gender features like animate, edible, manufactured, and so forth. An example of the latter is found in the Dyirbal language. Other gender systems exist with no distinction between masculine and feminine; examples include a distinction between animate and inanimate things, which is common to, amongst others, Ojibwe, Basque and Hittite; and systems distinguishing between people (whether human or divine) and everything else, which are found in the Dravidian languages and Sumerian.
• A sample of the World Atlas of Language Structures by Greville G Corbett found that fewer than half of the 258 languages sampled have any system of grammatical gender.^[167] Of the remaining languages that feature grammatical gender, over half have more than the minimum requirement of two genders.^[167] Grammatical gender may be based on biological sex (which is the most common basis for grammatical gender), animacy, or other features, and may be based on a combination of these classes.^[168] One of the four genders of the Dyirbal language consists mainly of fruit and vegetables.^[169] Languages of the Niger-Congo language family can have as many as twenty genders, including plants, places, and shapes.^[170]
• Many languages include terms that are used asymmetrically in reference to men and women. Concern that current language may be biased in favor of men has led some authors in recent times to argue for the use of a more gender-neutral vocabulary in English and other languages.
• Several languages attest the use of different vocabulary by men and women, to differing degrees. See, for instance, Gender differences in Japanese. The oldest documented language, Sumerian, records a distinctive sub-language only used by female speakers. Conversely, many Indigenous Australian languages have distinctive registers with a limited lexicon used by men in the presence of their mothers-in-law (see Avoidance speech). As well, quite a few sign languages have a gendered distinction due to boarding schools segregated by gender, such as Irish Sign Language.
• Several languages such as Persian^[163] or Hungarian are gender-neutral. In Persian the same word is used in reference to men and women. Verbs, adjectives and nouns are not gendered. (See Gender-neutrality in genderless languages).
• Several languages employ different ways to refer to people where there are three or more genders, such as Navajo or Ojibwe.

Science

Historically, science has been portrayed as a masculine pursuit in which women have faced significant barriers to participate.^[171] Even after universities began admitting women in the 19th century, women were still largely relegated to certain scientific fields, such as home science, nursing, and child psychology.^[172] Women were also typically given tedious, low-paying jobs and denied opportunities for career advancement.^[172] This was often justified by the stereotype that women were naturally more suited to jobs that required concentration, patience, and dexterity, rather than creativity, leadership, or intellect.^[172] Although these stereotypes have been dispelled in modern times, women are still underrepresented in prestigious «hard science» fields such as physics, and are less likely to hold high-ranking positions,^[173] a situation global initiatives such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 are trying to rectify.^[174]

Religion

This topic includes internal and external religious issues such as gender of God and deities creation myths about human gender, roles and rights (for instance, leadership roles especially ordination of women, sex segregation, gender equality, marriage, abortion, homosexuality).

According to Kati Niemelä of the Church Research Institute, women are universally more religious than men. They believe that the difference in religiosity between genders is due to biological differences, for instance usually people seeking security in life are more religious, and as men are considered to be greater risk takers than women, they are less religious. Although religious fanaticism is more often seen in men than women.^[175]

In Taoism, yin and yang are considered feminine and masculine, respectively. The Taijitu and concept of the Zhou period reach into family and gender relations. Yin is female and yang is male. They fit together as two parts of a whole.
The male principle was equated with the sun: active, bright, and shining; the female principle corresponds to the moon: passive, shaded, and reflective. Male toughness was balanced by female gentleness, male action and initiative by female endurance and need for completion, and male leadership by female supportiveness.^[176]

In Judaism, God is traditionally described in the masculine, but in the mystical tradition of the Kabbalah, the Shekhinah represents the feminine aspect of God’s essence.^[177] However, Judaism traditionally holds that God is completely non-corporeal, and thus neither male nor female. Conceptions of the gender of God notwithstanding, traditional Judaism places a strong emphasis on individuals following Judaism’s traditional gender roles, though many modern denominations of Judaism strive for greater egalitarianism. As well, traditional Jewish culture dictates that there are six genders.

In Christianity, God is traditionally described in masculine terms and the Church has historically been described in feminine terms. On the other hand, Christian theology in many churches distinguishes between the masculine images used of God (Father, King, God the Son) and the reality they signify, which transcends gender, embodies all the virtues of both men and women perfectly, which may be seen through the doctrine of Imago Dei. In the New Testament, Jesus at several times mentions the Holy Spirit with the masculine pronoun i.e. John 15:26 among other verses. Hence, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit (i.e. Trinity) are all mentioned with the masculine pronoun; though the exact meaning of the masculinity of the Christian triune God is contended.

In Hinduism, one of the several forms of the Hindu God Shiva, is Ardhanarishwar (literally half-female God). Here Shiva manifests himself so that the left half is Female and the right half is Male. The left represents Shakti (energy, power) in the form of Goddess Parvati (otherwise his consort) and the right half Shiva. Whereas Parvati is the cause of arousal of Kama (desires), Shiva is the killer. Shiva is pervaded by the power of Parvati and Parvati is pervaded by the power of Shiva.^[178]

While the stone images may seem to represent a half-male and half-female God, the true symbolic representation is of a being the whole of which is Shiva and the whole of which is Shakti at the same time. It is a 3-D representation of only shakti from one angle and only Shiva from the other. Shiva and Shakti are hence the same being representing a collective of Jnana (knowledge) and Kriya (activity).

Adi Shankaracharya, the founder of non-dualistic philosophy (Advaita–»not two») in Hindu thought says in his «Saundaryalahari»—Shivah Shaktayaa yukto yadi bhavati shaktah prabhavitum na che devum devona khalu kushalah spanditam api » i.e., It is only when Shiva is united with Shakti that He acquires the capability of becoming the Lord of the Universe. In the absence of Shakti, He is not even able to stir. In fact, the term «Shiva» originated from «Shva,» which implies a dead body. It is only through his inherent shakti that Shiva realizes his true nature.

This mythology projects the inherent view in ancient Hinduism, that each human carries within himself both female and male components, which are forces rather than sexes, and it is the harmony between the creative and the annihilative, the strong and the soft, the proactive and the passive, that makes a true person. Such thought, leave alone entail gender equality, in fact obliterates any material distinction between the male and female altogether. This may explain why in ancient India we find evidence of homosexuality, bisexuality, androgyny, multiple sex partners and open representation of sexual pleasures in artworks like the Khajuraho temples, being accepted within prevalent social frameworks.^[179]

Poverty

Gender inequality is most common in women dealing with poverty. Many women must shoulder all the responsibility of the household because they must take care of the family. Oftentimes this may include tasks such as tilling land, grinding grain, carrying water and cooking.^[180] Also, women are more likely to earn low incomes because of gender discrimination, as men are more likely to receive higher pay, have more opportunities, and have overall more political and social capital then women.^[181] Approximately 75% of world’s women are unable to obtain bank loans because they have unstable jobs.^[180] It shows that there are many women in the world’s population but only a few represent world’s wealth. In many countries, the financial sector largely neglects women even though they play an important role in the economy, as Nena Stoiljkovic pointed out in D+C Development and Cooperation.^[182] In 1978 Diana M. Pearce coined the term feminization of poverty to describe the problem of women having higher rates of poverty.^[183] Women are more vulnerable to chronic poverty because of gender inequalities in the distribution of income, property ownership, credit, and control over earned income.^[184] Resource allocation is typically gender-biased within households, and continue on a higher level regarding state institutions.^[184]

Gender and Development (GAD) is a holistic approach to give aid to countries where gender inequality has a great effect of not improving the social and economic development. It is a program focused on the gender development of women to empower them and decrease the level of inequality between men and women.^[185]

The largest discrimination study of the transgender community, conducted in 2013, found that the transgender community is four times more likely to live in extreme poverty (income of less than $10,000 a year) than people who are cisgender.^[186][187]

General strain theory

According to general strain theory, studies suggest that gender differences between individuals can lead to externalized anger that may result in violent outbursts.^[188] These violent actions related to gender inequality can be measured by comparing violent neighborhoods to non-violent neighborhoods.^[188] By noticing the independent variables (neighborhood violence) and the dependent variable (individual violence), it’s possible to analyze gender roles.^[189] The strain in the general strain theory is the removal of a positive stimulus and or the introduction of a negative stimulus, which would create a negative effect (strain) within individual, which is either inner-directed (depression/guilt) or outer-directed (anger/frustration), which depends on whether the individual blames themselves or their environment.^[190] Studies reveal that even though males and females are equally likely to react to a strain with anger, the origin of the anger and their means of coping with it can vary drastically.^[190]

Males are likely to put the blame on others for adversity and therefore externalize feelings of anger.^[188] Females typically internalize their angers and tend to blame themselves instead.^[188] Female internalized anger is accompanied by feelings of guilt, fear, anxiety and depression.^[189] Women view anger as a sign that they’ve somehow lost control, and thus worry that this anger may lead them to harm others and/or damage relationships. On the other end of the spectrum, men are less concerned with damaging relationships and more focused on using anger as a means of affirming their masculinity.^[189] According to the general strain theory, men would more likely engage in aggressive behavior directed towards others due to externalized anger whereas women would direct their anger towards themselves rather than others.^[190]

Economic development

Gender, and particularly the role of women is widely recognized as vitally important to international development issues.^[191] This often means a focus on gender-equality, ensuring participation, but includes an understanding of the different roles and expectation of the genders within the community.^[192]

Climate change

Gender is a topic of increasing concern within climate change policy and science.^[193] Generally, gender approaches to climate change address gender-differentiated consequences of climate change, as well as unequal adaptation capacities and gendered contribution to climate change. Furthermore, the intersection of climate change and gender raises questions regarding the complex and intersecting power relations arising from it. These differences, however, are mostly not due to biological or physical differences, but are formed by the social, institutional and legal context. Subsequently, vulnerability is less an intrinsic feature of women and girls but rather a product of their marginalization.^[194]
Roehr^[195] notes that, while the United Nations officially committed to gender mainstreaming, in practice gender equality is not reached in the context of climate change policies. This is reflected in the fact that discourses of and negotiations over climate change are mostly dominated by men.^{[196][197][198]}
Some feminist scholars hold that the debate on climate change is not only dominated by men but also primarily shaped in ‘masculine’ principles, which limits discussions about climate change to a perspective that focuses on technical solutions.^[197] This perception of climate change hides subjectivity and power relations that actually condition climate-change policy and science, leading to a phenomenon that Tuana^[197] terms ‘epistemic injustice’.
Similarly, MacGregor^[196] attests that by framing climate change as an issue of ‘hard’ natural scientific conduct and natural security, it is kept within the traditional domains of hegemonic masculinity.^[196][198]

Gender roles and stereotypes have slowly started to change in society within the past few decades. These changes occur mostly in communication, but more specifically during social interactions.^[199] The ways in which people communicate and socialize have also started to change due to advancements in technology.^[117] One of the biggest reasons for this change is the growth of social media.

Over the past few years, the use of social media globally has started to rise.^[118] This rise can be attributed to the abundance of technology available for use among youth. Recent studies suggest that men and women value and use technology differently.^{[117][118][200]} Forbes published an article in 2010 that reported 57% of Facebook users are women, which was attributed to the fact that women are more active on social media. On average women have 8% more friends and account for 62% of posts that are shared via Facebook.^[201] Another study in 2010 found that in most Western cultures, women spend more time sending text messages compared to men as well as spending more time on social networking sites as a way to communicate with friends and family.^[202] Hayat, Lesser and Samuel-Azran (2017) have further shown that while men write more posts in social networking sites, women commented on other people’s posts more often. They further showed that women’s posts enjoyed higher popularity than men’s posts.

Social media is more than just the communication of words. With social media increasing in popularity, pictures have come to play a large role in how many people communicate. Research conducted in 2013 found that over 57% of pictures posted on social networking sites were sexual and were created to gain attention.^[203] Moreover, 58% of women and 45% of men don’t look into the camera, which creates an illusion of withdrawal.^[203] Other factors to be considered are the poses in pictures such as women lying down in subordinate positions or even touching themselves in childlike ways.^[203] Research has found that images shared online through social networking sites help establish personal self-reflections that individuals want to share with the world.^[203]

According to recent research, gender plays a strong role in structuring our social lives, especially since society assigns and creates «male» and «female» categories.^[204] Individuals in society might be able to learn the similarities between gender rather than the differences.^[205] Social media helps create more equality, because every individual is able to self-express however they like. Every individual also has the right to express their opinion, even though some might disagree, but it still gives each gender an equal amount of power to be heard.^[206]

Young adults in the U.S. frequently use social networking sites as a way to connect and communicate with one another, as well as to satisfy their curiosity.^[207] Adolescent girls generally use social networking sites as a tool to communicate with peers and reinforce existing relationships; boys on the other hand tend to use social networking sites as a tool to meet new friends and acquaintances.^[208] Furthermore, social networking sites have allowed individuals to truly express themselves, as they are able to create an identity and socialize with other individuals that can relate.^[209] Social networking sites have also given individuals access to create a space where they feel more comfortable about their sexuality.^[209] Recent research has indicated that social media is becoming a stronger part of younger individuals’ media culture, as more intimate stories are being told via social media and are being intertwined with gender, sexuality, and relationships.^[209]

Teens are avid internet and social media users in the United States. Research has found that almost all U.S. teens (95%) aged 12 through 17 are online, compared to only 78% of adults. Of these teens, 80% have profiles on social media sites, as compared to only 64% of the online population aged 30 and older. According to a study conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 11-to-18-year-olds spend on average over one and a half hours a day using a computer and 27 minutes per day visiting social network sites, i.e. the latter accounts for about one fourth of their daily computer use.^[210]

Teen girls and boys differ in what they post in their online profiles. Studies have shown that female users tend to post more «cute» pictures, while male participants were more likely to post pictures of themselves in activities. Women in the U.S. also tend to post more pictures of friends, while men tend to post more about sports and humorous links. The study also found that males would post more alcohol and sexual references.^[210] The roles were reversed however, when looking at a teenage dating site: women made sexual references significantly more often than males.

Boys share more personal information, such as their hometown and phone number, while girls are more conservative about the personal information they allow to go public on these social networking sites. Boys, meanwhile, are more likely to orient towards technology, sports, and humor in the information they post to their profile.^[211]

Social media goes beyond the role of helping individuals express themselves, as it has grown to help individuals create relationships, particularly romantic relationships. A large number of social media users have found it easier to create relationships in a less direct approach, compared to a traditional approach of awkwardly asking for someone’s number.^[212]

Social media plays a big role when it comes to communication between genders. Therefore, it’s important to understand how gender stereotypes develop during online interactions. Research in the 1990s suggested that different genders display certain traits, such as being active, attractive, dependent, dominant, independent, sentimental, sexy, and submissive, in online interaction.^[213] Even though these traits continue to be displayed through gender stereotypes, recent studies show that this isn’t necessarily the case any more.^[214]

See also

References

Bibliography

• Butler, Judith (1990). Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Thinking Gender’. New York & London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-38955-6.
• Butler, Judith (1993). Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of «Sex». New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-61015-5.
• Fausto-Sterling, Anne (2000). Sexing the body: gender politics and the construction of sexuality. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-07714-4.
• Hayat, T.; Lesser, O.; Samuel-Azran, T. (2017). «Gendered discourse patterns on online social networks:a social network analysis perspective». Computers in Human Behavior. 77: 132–159. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2017.08.041.

External links

• GenPORT: Your gateway to gender and science resources
• Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook

Definition of Gender

(noun) The attitudes, behaviors, norms, and roles that a society or culture associates with an individual’s sex, thus the social differences between female and male; the meanings attached to being feminine or masculine.

Examples of Gender

• fa’afafine
• muxe
• hijras
• non-binary (genderqueer)
• third gender
• two spirit

Gender Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: gen·der

Audio Pronunciation

International Phonetic Alphabet

• American English – /ˈdʒɛndər/
• British English – /ˈdʒɛndə/

Usage Notes

• Plural: genders
• The difference between gender and sex is an oft discussed topic in sociology. The two terms are often used interchangeably but they are not the same. The range of arguments, debates, points and counter-points have filled countless volumes and will likely fill countless more.
• Use woman or man, when referring to gender and female or male, when referring to sex.
• The simplest distinction between gender and sex is that gender is socially constructed and sex is biological. These are two simplified definitions of a complex continuum of social and cultural practices and embodied knowledge, but it is a starting point to learn more.
  • Distinction between ‘Sex’ and ‘Gender’: vcampus.uom.ac.mu
  • Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender: plato.stanford.edu
  • Sex and Gender are Different: Sexual Identity and Gender Identity are Different: hawaii.edu
  • Sex Difference vs. Gender Difference? Oh, I’m So Confused!: psychologytoday.com
  • What do we mean by “sex” and “gender”?: who.int
  • What is the difference between sex and gender?: med.monash.edu.au
• Gender expression is an outward display of gender, such as dress or manners.
• The term agender refers to a nonbinary gender status, in which an individual identifies as gender neutral or without gender. Agender is also called Gender Neutrois; gender neutral; and genderless.

Related Quotations

• “Doing gender means creating differences between girls and boys and women and men, differences that are not natural, essential, or biological. Once the differences have been constructed, they are used to reinforce the ‘essentialness’ of gender” (West and Zimmerman 1987:137).
• “‘Gender,’ in the important sense developed by feminists, refers to our ideas of femininity and masculinity. It has to do with the relations of power between and within the sexes. It is the result of how we raise boys and girls to be men and women” (Kaufman and Kimmel 2011:53).
• “Gender isn’t something we’re born with. It’s something we perform. And we learn about doing gender through friends, school, religion, and family. We are taught to ‘do’ our gender in many ways. Our parents might tell us to toughen up when we go out for sports. If we’re boys, our parents might not worry if we stay out late. If we’re girls, we might get in trouble for getting angry” (Tarrant 2009:6–7).
• “The family is by far the most significant agent of socialization. Although social change has increased family diversity and created more opportunities for children to be influenced by other social institutions, the family continues to play the pivotal role in primary socialization. The family is responsible for shaping a child’s personality, emerging identity, and self-esteem. Children gain their first values and attitudes from the family, including powerful messages about gender. Learned first in the family and then reinforced by other social institutions, gender is fundamental to the shaping of all social life. Gender messages dominate and are among the best predictors of a range of later attitudes and behaviors” (Lindsey 2016:78).
• “There is an ordering of versions of femininity and masculinity at the level of the whole society, in some ways analogous to the patterns of face-to-face relations with institution. the possibilities of variation, of course, are vastly greater. The sheer complexity of relationships involving millions of people guarantees that ethnic differences and generational differences as well as class patterns come into play. But in key aspects the organization of gender on the very large scale must be more skeletal and simplified than the human relationships in face-to-face milieux. The forms of femininity and masculinity constituted at this level are stylized and impoverished. Their interrelation is centred on the single structural fact, the global dominance of men over women” (Connell 1987:183).

Related Videos

Additional Information

• Sex and Gender Resources – Books, Journals, and Helpful Links
• Word origin of “gender” – Online Etymology Dictionary: etymonline.com
• Basow, Susan A. 1992. Gender: Stereotypes and Roles. 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Brooks/Cole.
• Borstein, Kate. 1994. Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us. New York: Routledge.
• Bradley, Harriet G. 2012. Gender. 2nd ed. New York: Wiley.
• Brod, Harry, and Michael Kaufman, eds. 1994. Theorizing Masculinity. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Butler, Judith. 2004. Undoing Gender. London: Routledge.
• Grusky, David B, ed. 2014. Social Stratification: Class, Race and Gender in Sociological Perspective. 4th ed. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
• Holmes, Mary. 2007. What is Gender? Sociological Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
• Kessler, Suzanne J., and Wendy McKenna. 1978. Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach.
• Kimmel, Michael, and Michael Messner. 2013. Men’s Lives. 9th ed. Boston: Pearson.
• Richardson, Laurel. 1988. The Dynamics of Sex and Gender: A Sociological Perspective. New York: Harper & Row.
• Rosenblum, Karen Elaine, and Toni-Michelle Travis. 2016. The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and Disability. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.
• Williams, Christine L., and Arlene Stein. 2002. Sexuality and Gender: A Blackwell Reader in Sociology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Related Terms

• ascribed status
• discrimination
• gender
• role
• sex
• status
• stereotype

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References

Connell, R. W. 1987. Gender and Power: Society, the Person, and Sexual Politics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Tarrant, Shira. 2009. Men and Feminism. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press.

Kaufman, Michael, and Michael S. Kimmel. 2011. The Guy’s Guide to Feminism. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press.

Works Consulted

Abercrombie, Nicholas, Stephen Hill, and Bryan Turner. 2006. The Penguin Dictionary of Sociology. 5th ed. London: Penguin.

Agger, Ben. 2004. The Virtual Self: A Contemporary Sociology. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. 5th ed. 2011. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Andersen, Margaret L., and Howard Francis Taylor. 2011. Sociology: The Essentials. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Bilton, Tony, Kevin Bonnett, Pip Jones, David Skinner, Michelle Stanworth, and Andrew Webster. 1996. Introductory Sociology. 3rd ed. London: Macmillan.

Brinkerhoff, David, Lynn White, Suzanne Ortega, and Rose Weitz. 2011. Essentials of Sociology. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Bruce, Steve, and Steven Yearley. 2006. The SAGE Dictionary of Sociology. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Brym, Robert J., and John Lie. 2007. Sociology: Your Compass for a New World. 3rd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Collins English Dictionary: Complete and Unabridged. 6th ed. 2003. Glasgow, Scotland: Collins.

Delaney, Tim, and Tim Madigan. 2015. The Sociology of Sports: An Introduction. 2nd ed. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.

Ferrante, Joan. 2011a. Seeing Sociology: An Introduction. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Ferrante, Joan. 2011b. Sociology: A Global Perspective. 7th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Ferris, Kerry, and Jill Stein. 2010. The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology. 2nd ed. New York: Norton.

Giddens, Anthony, and Philip W. Sutton. 2014. Essential Concepts in Sociology. Cambridge: Polity.

Griffiths, Heather, Nathan Keirns, Eric Strayer, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Gail Scaramuzzo, Tommy Sadler, Sally Vyain, Jeff Bry, Faye Jones. 2016. Introduction to Sociology 2e. Houston, TX: OpenStax.

Henslin, James M. 2012. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach. 10th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Hughes, Michael, and Carolyn J. Kroehler. 2011. Sociology: The Core. 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Kendall, Diana. 2011. Sociology in Our Times. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Kimmel, Michael S., and Amy Aronson. 2012. Sociology Now. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Kornblum, William. 2008. Sociology in a Changing World. 8th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Macionis, John. 2012. Sociology. 14th ed. Boston: Pearson.

Macionis, John, and Kenneth Plummer. 2012. Sociology: A Global Introduction. 4th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.

Macmillan. (N.d.) Macmillan Dictionary. (https://www.macmillandictionary.com/).

Marsh, Ian, and Mike Keating, eds. 2006. Sociology: Making Sense of Society. 3rd ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.

Merriam-Webster. (N.d.) Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/).

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Princeton University. 2010. WordNet. (https://wordnet.princeton.edu/).

Random House Webster’s College Dictionary. 1997. New York: Random House.

Ravelli, Bruce, and Michelle Webber. 2016. Exploring Sociology: A Canadian Perspective. 3rd ed. Toronto: Pearson.

Scott, John, and Gordon Marshall. 2005. A Dictionary of Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.

Shepard, Jon M. 2010. Sociology. 11th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Shepard, Jon M., and Robert W. Greene. 2003. Sociology and You. New York: Glencoe.

Stewart, Paul, and Johan Zaaiman, eds. 2015. Sociology: A Concise South African Introduction. Cape Town: Juta.

Thompson, William E., and Joseph V. Hickey. 2012. Society in Focus: An Introduction to Sociology. 7th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Thorpe, Christopher, Chris Yuill, Mitchell Hobbs, Sarah Tomley, and Marcus Weeks. 2015. The Sociology Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained. London: Dorling Kindersley.

Tischler, Henry L. 2011. Introduction to Sociology. 10th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

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Cite the Definition of Gender

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “gender.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 13, 2023 (https://sociologydictionary.org/gender/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

gender. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/gender/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “gender.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 13, 2023. https://sociologydictionary.org/gender/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“gender.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 13 Apr. 2023. <https://sociologydictionary.org/gender/>.

Gender traditionally refers to the differences between men and women. More recently, it has also referred to an individual’s self perception of being male or female. Within the academic fields of cultural studies, gender studies, and the social sciences «gender» is used interchangeably both regarding «sex,» and «identity,» and is often used to described a gender role.

Gender roles traditionally were often divided into distinct feminine and masculine roles until the late twentieth century, when many jobs in both industrial and information-age societies could be performed by both males and females. In many modern societies gender no longer determines the work or household functions that an individual can perform, allowing greater equality for all people to compete in the workplace and earn a livable wage.

In recent years, many societies have recognized same sex marriages in which partners may or may not identify with specific gender roles. This can be important for legal purposes related to health benefits and estate inheritance for committed partnerships. However, biologically, it is only biological females who are capable of bearing children. Thus there is continued confusion about sex and gender roles related to marriage and sexual love in the structure of families. Rather than describing a loving partnership between individuals as marriage, marriage as a social institution was traditionally related to raising children and establishing stable, peaceful, and happy societies. This can be confusing as it is often unclear whether laws concerning marriage are for the purpose of human partnerships or child-raising social institutions.

Etymology and usage

The word gender comes from the Middle English gendre, a loanword from Norman-conquest-era Middle French. This, in turn, came from Latin genus. Both words mean «kind,» «type,» or «sort.» They derive ultimately from a widely attested Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root g^en-.^[1]

In English, both «sex» and «gender» are used in contexts where they cannot be substituted—»sexual intercourse,» «safe sex,» «sex worker,» or on the other hand, «grammatical gender.» Other languages, like German or Dutch, use the same word, Geschlecht or Geslacht, to refer not only to biological sex, but social differences and grammatical gender as well, making a distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ difficult. In some contexts, German has adopted the English loanword Gender to achieve this distinction. Sometimes Geschlechtsidentität is used for «gender» (although it literally means «gender identity») and Geschlecht for «sex.»

Biological concept of gender

Gender can refer to the biological condition of being male or female, or less commonly intersex or «third sex» as applied to humans, or hermaphroditic, as applied to non-human animals and plants.

The biology of gender is scientific analysis of the physical basis for behavioral differences between men and women. It is more specific than sexual dimorphism, which covers physical and behavioral differences between males and females of any sexually reproducing species, or sexual differentiation, where physical and behavioral differences between men and women are described.

Biological research of gender has explored such areas as: Intersex physicalities, gender identity, gender roles, and sexual preference. Late twentieth century study focused on hormonal aspects of the biology of gender. With the successful mapping of the human genome, early twenty-first century research started making progress in understanding the effects of gene regulation on the human brain.

It has long been known that there are correlations between the biological sex of animals and their behavior.^[2] It has also long been known that human behavior is influenced by the brain.

The late twentieth century saw an explosion in technology capable of aiding gender research. Extensive advances were made in understanding sexual dimorphism in animals, such as the effects of sex hormones on rats. The early twenty-first century producing results concerning genetically programmed sexual dimorphism in rat brains, prior even to the influence of hormones on development. «Genes on the sex chromosomes can directly influence sexual dimorphism in cognition and behavior, independent of the action of sex steroids.»^[3]

Differences between genders

The brains of many animals, including humans, are significantly different for males and females of the species.^[4] Both genes and hormones affect the formation of many animal brains before «birth» (or hatching), and also behavior of adult individuals. Hormones significantly affect human brain formation, and also brain development at puberty. Both kinds of brain difference affect male and female behavior.

Although men have a larger brain size, even when adjusted for body mass, there is no definite indication that men are more intelligent than women. In contrast, women have a higher density of neurons in certain parts of the brain. Difference is seen in the ability to perform certain tasks. On average, women are superior on various measures of verbal ability, while men have specific abilities on measures of mathematical and spatial ability.

Richard J. Haier and colleagues at the universities of New Mexico and California (Irvine) found, using brain mapping, that men have more than six times the amount of gray matter related to general intelligence than women, and women have nearly ten times the amount of white matter related to intelligence than men.^[5] «These findings suggest that human evolution has created two different types of brains designed for equally intelligent behavior,» according to Haier. Gray matter is used for information processing, while white matter consists of the connections between processing centers.

It has also been demonstrated that brain processing responds to the external environment. Learning, both of ideas and behaviors, appears to be coded in brain processes. It also appears that in several simplified cases this coding operates differently, but in some ways equivalently, in the brains of men and women. «Even when men and women do the same chores equally well, they may use different brain circuits to get the same result.»^[6] For example, both men and women learn and use language; however, bio-chemically, they appear to process it differently. Differences in male and female use of language are likely reflections both of biological preferences and aptitudes and of learned patterns.

Biological influences on gender are present in the act of sexual intercourse itself, along with the resulting pregnancy in which women must carry the unborn child for nine months. Following the birth of the child, mothers also have the physical connection of breast-feeding. These are seen as the roots of one difference in attitudes and actions by gender. These roots grow to take the form of different child rearing roles and can be seen as an influence on the concept of gender overall.

Since the 1950s, the term «gender» has been increasingly used to distinguish a social role (gender role) and/or personal identity (gender identity) distinct from biological sex. Sexologist John Money wrote in 1955, «[t]he term gender role is used to signify all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself or herself as having the status of boy or man, girl or woman, respectively. It includes, but is not restricted to, sexuality in the sense of eroticism.»^[7] Elements of such a role include clothing, speech patterns, movement and other factors not solely limited to biological sex.

Many societies categorize all individuals as either male or female—however, this is not universal. Some societies recognize a third gender;^[8] for instance, the Two-Spirit people of some indigenous American peoples, and hijras of India and Pakistan;^[9] or even a fourth^[10] or fifth.^[11] Such categories may be an intermediate state between male and female, a state of sexlessness, or a distinct gender not dependent on male and female gender roles. In some cultures, such gender identities are referred to as «non-binary.» Joan Roughgarden argued that in some non-human animal species, there can also be said to be more than two genders, in that there might be multiple templates for behavior available to individual organisms with a given biological sex.^[12]

Some gender associations are changing as society changes, yet much controversy exists over the extent to which gender roles are simply stereotypes, arbitrary social constructions, or natural innate differences.

There has been significant debate over to what extent gender is a social construct and to what extent it is a biological construct. One point of view in the debate is social constructionism, which suggests that gender is entirely a social construct. Contrary to social constructionism is essentialism, which suggests that it is entirely a biological construct. Other opinions on the subject lie somewhere in between.

Feminism and gender

Feminists take different views on gender, mainly in three camps. The first camp embraces gender roles, focusing on the biological differences between sexes and emphasizing the roles that result. This school takes the view that women are natural child caretakers as a result of their biological function of childbirth and breast-feeding. The second camp acknowledges that the sexes may have different natural strengths, but fights for equal treatment of both genders rather than only valuing the strengths traditionally found in males. The third camp of feminists argues that the concept of gender should be abolished as no one lives up to the prototype of either sex, therefore gender norms create unhealthy ideal genders impossible to meet by anyone.

Gender in law

Gender has had a diverse impact in law. Beginning from the birth of a child, one can look at the leave of absence offered to parents of new-born children. Traditionally women have been offered a much longer maternity leave than the father of the child is allowed to take as paternity leave. Similarly, if these parents were to be divorced, many legal systems have given priority for custody to the mothers. Also, divorced mothers have tended to receive more benefits in child support than divorced fathers.

From the point of view of the child, the education received by children has been divided into all girls or all boys schools in many cultures. Participation in sports has long been subject to gender bias. In this arena, males have a long history of being favored. It was not until the 1970s, when actions such as Title IX of the U.S. «Education Amendment» came about mandating equal funding for women’s sports, that women had equal opportunity to engage in sports.

For adults, there are many legal implications of one’s gender. A person’s sex as female or male has legal significance throughout one’s life—sex is indicated on government documents, and laws provide differently for women and men. For example, the prison to which criminals are sent, or the housing within any government run institution, varies by their perceived gender; many pension systems have different retirement ages for men and women, and usually marriage is only available to opposite-gender couples.

The question then arises as to what legally determines whether someone is male or female. In most cases, this can appear obvious, but the matter is complicated for intersexual or transgender people. Different jurisdictions have adopted different answers to this question. Almost all countries permit changes of legal gender status in cases of intersexualism, when the gender assignment made at birth is determined upon further investigation to be biologically inaccurate—technically, however, this is not a change of status per se. Rather, it is recognition of a status which was deemed to exist unknown from birth. Increasingly, jurisdictions also provide a procedure for changes of legal gender for transgender people.

Gender assignment, when there are any indications that genital sex might not be decisive in a particular case, is normally not defined by any single definition, but by a combination of conditions, including chromosomes and gonads. Thus, for example, in many jurisdictions a person with XY chromosomes but female gonads could be recognized as female at birth.

The ability to change legal gender for transgender people in particular has given rise to the phenomena in some jurisdictions of the same person having different genders for the purposes of different areas of the law. For example, in Australia prior to the Re Kevin decisions, a transsexual person could be recognized as the gender they identified with under many areas of the law, such as social security law, but not for the law of marriage. Thus, for a period it was possible for the same person to have two different genders under Australian law. It is also possible in federal systems for the same person to have one gender under state law and a different gender under federal law (if the state recognizes gender transitions, but the federal government does not).

Gender in religion

In Taoism, yin and yang are considered feminine and masculine, respectively.

In Christianity, God is described in masculine terms; however, the Church has historically been described in feminine terms.

Of one of the several forms of the Hindu God, Shiva, is Ardhanarishwar (literally half-female God). Here Shiva manifests himself so that the left half is Female and the right half is Male. The left represents Shakti (energy, power) in the form of Goddess Parvati (otherwise his consort) and the right half Shiva. Whereas Parvati is the cause of arousal of Kama (desires), Shiva is the killer. Shiva is pervaded by the power of Parvati and Parvati is pervaded by the power of Shiva.

While the stone images may seem to represent a half-male and half-female God, the true symbolic representation is of a being the whole of which is Shiva and the whole of which is Shakti at the same time. It is a 3-D representation of only shakti from one angle and only Shiva from the other. Shiva and Shakti are hence the same being representing a collective of Jnana (knowledge) and Kriya (activity).

Adi Shankaracharya, the founder of non-dualistic philosophy (Advaita–»not two») in Hindu thought says in his «Saundaryalahari»—Shivah Shaktayaa yukto yadi bhavati shaktah prabhavitum na che devum devona khalu kushalah spanditam api It is only when Shiva is united with Shakti that He acquires the capability of becoming the Lord of the Universe. In the absence of Shakti, He is not even able to stir. In fact, the term «Shiva» originated from «Shva,» which implies a dead body. It is only through his inherent shakti that Shiva realizes his true nature.

This mythology projects the inherent view in ancient Hinduism, that each human carries within himself both male and female components, which are forces rather than sexes, and it is the harmony between the creative and the annihilative, the strong and the soft, the proactive and the passive, that makes a true person. Such thought obliterates any material distinction between the male and female altogether. This may explain why in ancient India evidence is found of homosexuality, bisexuality, androgyny, multiple sex partners, and open representation of sexual pleasures in artworks like the Khajuraho temples, being accepted within prevalent social frameworks.^[13]

Gender in other contexts

The word «gender» is used in several contexts to describe binary differences, more or less loosely associated by analogy with various actual or perceived differences between men and women.

Language

Natural languages often make gender distinctions. These may be of various kinds:

• Grammatical gender, a property of some languages in which every noun is assigned a gender, often with no direct relation to its meaning. For example, Spanish muchacha (grammatically feminine), German Mädchen (grammatically neuter), and Irish cailín (grammatically masculine) all mean «girl.» The terms «masculine» and «feminine» are generally preferred to «male» and «female» in reference to grammatical gender.
• The traditional use of different vocabulary by men and women. For instance, there are differences in spoken Japanese depending on whether the speaker is male or female.
• The asymmetrical use of terms that refer to males and females. Concern that current language may be biased in favor of males has led some authors in recent times to argue for the use of more Gender-neutral language in English and other languages.

Connectors and fasteners

In electrical and mechanical trades and manufacturing, and in electronics, each of a pair of mating connectors or fasteners (such as nuts and bolts) is conventionally assigned the designation «male» or «female.» The assignment is by direct analogy with animal genitalia; the part bearing one or more protrusions, or which fits inside the other, being designated male and the part containing the corresponding indentations or fitting outside the other being female.

Music

In western music theory, keys, chords, and scales are often described as having «major» or «minor» tonality, sometimes related to «masculine» and «feminine.» By analogy, the «major» scales are masculine (clear, open, extroverted), while the minor scales are given feminine qualities (dark, soft, introverted). Reflecting this connection to gender, German uses the word Tongeschlecht («Tone gender») for tonality, and the words Dur (from Latin durus, hard) for major and moll (from Latin mollis, soft) for minor.

Notes

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Baron-Cohen, Simon. The Essential Difference: The Truth about the Male and Female Brain. Basic Books, 2003. ISBN 046500556X.
• Brizendine, Louann. The Female Brain. New York: Morgan Road Books, 2006. ISBN 0767920100.
• Brown, Donald E. Human Universals. Temple University Press, 1991. ISBN 0877228418.
• Chafetz, J. S. Masculine/feminine or human? An Overview of the Sociology of Sex Roles. Itasca, IL: F. E. Peacock, 1978. ISBN 0875812317.
• Darwin, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: John Murray, 1859.
• Herdt, Gilbert (ed.). Third Sex Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History. Zone Books, 1996. ISBN 0942299825.
• Kimura, Doreen. Sex and Cognition. MIT Press, 2000. ISBN 0262611640.
• Moir, Anne, and David Jessel. Brain Sex: The Real Difference Between Men and Women. Delta, 1992. ISBN 0385311834.
• Nanda, Serena. Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India. Wadsworth Publishing, 1998. ISBN 0534509037.
• Pinker, Steven. The Blank Slate: A Modern Denial of Human Nature. London: Penguin Books, 2002. ISBN 0142003344.
• Reddy, Gayatri. With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India. University Of Chicago Press, 2005. ISBN 0226707563.
• Roscoe, Will. Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America. Palgrave Macmillan, 2000. ISBN 0312224796.
• Roughgarden, Joan. Evolution’s Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People. University of California Press, 2004. ISBN 0520240735.

External links

All links retrieved December 21, 2020.

• Kritz, Francesca Lunzer. ‘Not Feeling Each Other’s Pain: Men and Women Hurt Differently—and Some of The Difference May Really Be in Their Heads’. The Washington Post, December 19, 2006. Page HE01.
• Pinker vs. Spelke. ‘The Science of Gender and Science’. Edge (The Third Culture) May 16, 2005. (multimedia record of public debate)
• Children’s Gender Beliefs: A Review of Past Research Exploring A Variety of Variables
• Gender and health WHO
• Sex and gender: What is the difference? Medical News Today
• What’s the Difference Between Sex and Gender? Healthline

Gender is defined by behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits. Gender is a complex combination of elements that are assigned certain meanings by society, such as an individual’s identity, expression, and presentation, as well as the roles and norms associated with those genders. Definitions of gender vary among different cultures and among individuals. Gender is a complex and highly personal experience for all people.

• Gender identity’: How a person thinks of their own gender within themselves. In nearly all circumstances, this is what is meant when discussing gender’. Gender identity is a personal choice and cannot be dictated by others.

• Gender expression/presentation: The way a person chooses to present themselves to others in order to communicate their gender. Gender expression does not have to reflect one’s gender identity.

• Sex: The way the person’s physical body reflects characteristics associated with gender or identity. Sex and gender identity are often conflated, but are separate in that sex is physical whereas gender is psychological.

• Relationship to gender roles: The way a person views the roles that society expects them to play based on their gender.

• Dysphoria: Discomfort when regarding gender roles, one’s sex, one’s gender expression, one’s gender identity, or a desire to change any aspects of one’s gender. (transition).

Gender is not related or the same as sexual orientation, except in that societal gender roles might include the expectation of sexual attraction to a particular gender.

As humans are a sexually dimorphic species, societies tend to be largely influenced by a gender binary, which assumes that all people can be categorized via their sexual characteristics as either male or female. However, there are many people who do not identify with their assigned sex, or consider their gender to be outside of the binary.

Because gender is a personal experience which cannot be shared directly, many find it challenging to imagine that others experience gender differently to the way they do, which often leads to gender-based discrimination.

The word gender, originating from the Latin genus (sort, kind) has gained several meanings over the centuries and especially during the past decades. Significant debate exists between ideological groups that wish to highlight the importance of one particular definition of the word.

The words feminine and masculine are usually associated with concepts of gender, as opposed to the words female and male which more commonly relate to sex, though all of these words and concepts are frequently conflated by the general public.

Original definitions

Grammatical gender

Older and mostly non-political definitions of gender include grammatical gender, which is merely the division of certain words in some languages among two or more categories to highlight a (presumed) gender of the object, or lack thereof. This gendering of words is sometimes applied rather nonsensically, such as in German and French, where all sorts of inanimate objects from furniture all the way to planets are accorded a gender, whereas some truly sex-specific words can surprisingly have a neutral gender, such as mädchen, the German word for «girl», which is accorded a neutral gender despite the words «woman», «boy» and «man» being gendered in accordance with the human sex they correspond to. References to grammatical gender seem to date back to the 14th century.

The words feminine and masculine are often used to refer to grammatical genders, although terms such as female pronouns and male pronouns are also commonly used to refer to grammatical constructs.

Synonym to sex

Another old and mostly non-political definition of gender is as a synonym to sex, i.e. the categorization of an organism with respect to its role in binary reproduction. This use of the word is popular presumably because of the vulgar connotations the word «sex» might be perceived to have. The use of «gender» as a synonym for «sex» seems to date back all the way to the 15th century, and can be found even in academic texts which clearly deal with a strictly biology-based reproductive categorization of organisms.

Similar to the use of gender to mean sex, the words «feminine» and «masculine» are also sometimes used as close approximations of «female» and «male». In biology, it is not uncommon to hear terms such as «feminization» or «masculinization» when referring to anatomic developments associated with the female and male sexes. As another example, the euphemism feminine hygiene products is often used to refer to menstrual hygiene products, even though they clearly relate to the female sex.

Recent changes

In the 1950s, psychologist John Money began introducing alternative definitions of gender in his texts, in particular terms such as gender role and gender identity. This might be the origin of the understanding of gender as a social construct, although Money’s theories are not necessarily compatible with contemporary interpretations of this concept.

What is meant with gender as a social construct is the realization that words such as «woman» and «man» (also «girl» and «boy») do not merely induce thoughts of just any human that happens to be anatomically female or male. Rather, upon hearing these words (or their translation to one’s native language), one is likely to imagine a person who not only belongs to a certain anatomic sex category, but also fulfills certain expectations with regard to clothing, speech, behavior, and so on. For instance, upon hearing «woman», one is more likely to think of a person with long hair and perhaps a dress, even though both of these «gender markers» have no relation to female anatomy. (Male humans can also grow long hair, and wear dresses.) These gender markers/expectations differ from culture to culture and across history, and include many aspects with no relation to sexual anatomy. As such, they are understood to constitute a social construct of gender, that is separate from the anatomical facts of being female or male.

Onwards from the point of recognizing gender as a social construct, at least two competing theories regarding the deeper nature of gender have evolved: gender as a tool of sex-based oppression, and gender as an innate identity.

In relation to these developments, the words «feminine» and «masculine» have likewise taken on meanings that more strongly emphasize the stereotyping aspect of the social construct of gender. Femininity might refer to a personal style that includes long hair, dresses, the color pink, softer expressions, etc., whereas masculinity might refer to an opposite personal style.

Gender as a tool of oppression

According to feminist theory, in particular second-wave radical feminism, the social construct of gender is more or less synonymous with sex-based roles and stereotypes imposed forcefully on women, which serve to keep intact their inferior position in a male-supremacist society. The personality traits associated with women are believed to be outright myths, or self-fulfilling prophecies that are established through the years-long socialization of female children into the role of a «proper girl» and later a woman. These personality traits ascribed to women and girls might include some positive aspects such as grace and kindness, but combined with the expectation of passivity and docileness they easily lead to a personality that makes it easy for men to exploit women’s labor and bodies.

The feminist realization of gender as a social construct actually dates back to before John Money’s use of the word in his works. In her 1949 book The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir famously spoke of how one is not born, but becomes a woman. (Volume II, Part One, Chapter 1) In the book, she elaborates on the ways in which societal forces lead persons born to the female sex to become «women» in the way society expects it. Although de Beauvoir might not have explicitly mentioned a «separation between sex and gender» as is commonly heard in feminist circles nowadays, or otherwise used the word «gender» in the way described here, her analysis nevertheless seems to cover the same concept.

Andrea Dworkin, in her book Our Blood, writes the following about the «system of gender polarity»:

“… I have made this distinction between truth and reality in order to enable me to say something very simple: that while the system of gender polarity is real, it is not true. It is not true that there are two sexes which are discrete and opposite, which are polar, which unite naturally and self-evidently into a har­monious whole. It is not true that the male embodies both positive and neutral human qualities and potentialities in con­trast to the female who is female, according to Aristotle and all of male culture, “by virtue of a certain lack of qualities.” And once we do not accept the notion that men are positive and women are negative, we are essentially rejecting the no­tion that there are men and women at all. In other words, the system based on this polar model of existence is absolutely real; but the model itself is not true. We are living imprisoned inside a pernicious delusion, a delusion on which all reality as we know it is predicated.

In my view, those of us who are women inside this system of reality will never be free until the delusion of sexual polarity is destroyed and until the system of reality based on it is eradi­cated entirely from human society and from human memory. This is the notion of cultural transformation at the heart of feminism. This is the revolutionary possibility inherent in the feminist struggle. …”

A naive reading of both de Beauvoir and Dworkin can lead to a confusion where one is led to believe that their writings are in line with contemporary «gender identity» theory. Dworkin for instance writes that «it is not true that there are two sexes which are discrete and opposite». It’s possible to give multiple interpretations to the clause «… which are discrete and opposite.» Was she denying binary reproductive sex? Or was she merely countering the notion women and men are completely different, discrete, opposite creatures, way beyond their reproductive features? Both authors make extensive mention of female anatomy in relation to experiences of female oppression. For instance, in the very same chapter from which the aforementioned quote is taken, Dworkin speaks of IUDs for female birth control, and of the clitoris as the source of female sexual pleasure. As such, the compatibility of her theory with contemporary gender identity theory is rather questionable. In none of Dworkin’s or de Beauvoir’s works is there a mention of a male-born person being or becoming a woman.

Gender as innate identity

(This section needs elaboration.)

Most transgender activists use gender to refer to a supposedly essential, inherent identity of human beings, which determines whether they are a «woman» or a «man» (or something else) without any relation to their reproductive capabilities.

Theories around this notion are often associated with queer theory which in turn is based on post-structuralist philosophy. Writings based on these ideologies tend to be rather difficult to understand (sometimes arguably in an attempt of the authors to sound more sophisticated than they are), and often have no completely clear conclusions. This might be why even among transgender activists, there seems to be no consensus on some questions one might think are of central importance, such as: is gender identity inborn and immutable, or is it a personal choice? If it’s immutable, why do some people change their minds several times, and how can it be tested for objectively? If there are any objective measures of gender identity, what are they, if not an identification with sexist stereotypes of femininity or masculinity? For instance, is gender dysphoria a necessary condition for being considered «truly» transgender? If it’s rather based on purely subjective notions, how can it have an effect on objective, material systems of oppression that affect people starting from birth? If deciding that one has a «female gender identity» means that one has really always been a girl/woman, does that mean one never benefited from male privilege, even after living 40+ years as a man? If a «female gender identity» already makes a person female, does that mean bodily changes are truly unnecessary? Does this mean that a tall, broad-shouldered person with a full beard, a deep voice, coarse body hair, and intact male genitals can nevertheless be considered a female person? Does this person then have a right to access female-only facilities and services without restriction?

The unwillingness or inability of transgender activists to answer such questions (or alternatively, the absurd answers they provide in attempts to be consistent with their own core ideology) has led many feminists to feel disillusioned with the transgender movement and begin to see it as being incompatible with feminism. The observation that women who begin to raise critical voices are often met with overt hostility and shunning has further worsened the situation. By now, many feminist groups and organizations have begun to see «gender identity» as a misogynist belief system, which should be openly challenged.

Recommended reading

• Sex and Gender — A Beginner’s Guide by Rebecca Reilly-Cooper
• Bill C-16 misunderstands what gender is and how it harms women under patriarchy by Meghan Murphy
• Defending the ‘TERF’: Gender as political by C. K. Egbert

Gen·der — Noun
The range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, femininity and masculinity. Depending on the context, these characteristics may include biological sex, sex-based social structures (i.e., gender roles), or gender identity (the personal sense of one’s own gender).

If you trace the etymology of the word to its Latin roots, gender simply means “type”. The Norman French term gendre was in use in the 12th century to describe “the quality of being male or female.”

Many people attribute the term to psychologist John Money, who proposed using “gender” in 1955 to differentiate mental sex from physical sex. However, Money was not the first to do so. Cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead used the term in 1949 in her book Male and Female to distinguish gendered behaviors and roles from biological sex. The American Journal of Psychology (vol. 63, no. 2, 1950, pp. 312) described the book thusly:

A book, moreover, which gives beyond its premise; for it informs the reader upon ‘gender’ as well as upon ‘sex,’ upon masculine and feminine roles as well as upon male and female and their reproductive functions.

Margaret Mead moves from the specific delineation to the more general comparison of male and female in several communities, finally coming to an analysis of sex-patterns in our own midst and for our own time.

Cog @CognitiveSoc

@KatyMontgomerie Magnus Hirschfield was writing about Third Genders and transitioning between sex and gender in the late 1800s.

This book of his, entitled «What do people need to know about the Third Gender?» was written in 1901.

This stuff isn’t new, it was just sidelined.

Darkly Dai (Now with added werewolf) @Darkly_Dave

When ever people try to say trans people are a recent phenomenon or trend I think of this photo from Magnus Hirschfield’s institut für sexualwissenschaft (1919-1933 germany), that’s him in the glasses with the big ‘tache, everyone else in this photo is trans, it’s from the 1920s.

Human Sex (the adjective, not the verb) is broken down into three categories:

• Genotype: The genetically-defined chromosomal kareotype of an organism (XX, XY, and all variants thereof)
• Phenotype: The observable primary and secondary sexual characteristics (genitals, fat and muscle distribution, bone structure, etc.)
• Gender: The unobservable sexual characteristics, the internal mental model of a person’s own sex, and the way that they express it.

Any of these three aspects can fall into a position on a range of values. Your elementary school health class probably taught you that genotype is binary, either female (XX) or male (XY), when the reality is that there are a dozen other permutations that can occur within human beings.

Likewise, many people believe that phenotype is also binary, but biology has recognized for hundreds of years that, when you plot out all sexual characteristics across a population, you actually end up with a bimodal distribution where the majority of the population falls within a percentile of two groups. This means that some people will, simply by nature of how life works, fall outside of the typical two piles. Many people fall in the middle, with characteristics of both sexes.

Gender, however, is a lot more… esoteric. There are a lot of different ways in which people have attempted to illustrate the gender spectrum, but none have quite thoroughly captured it because the spectrum is itself a very abstract concept.

The short of it is: some people are very male, some people are very female. Some people feel no gender at all, some people feel both. Some are smack in the middle, some land along the edges. Some people oscillate all over the spectrum in unpredictable ways, changing like the wind. Only an individual can identify their own gender; no one else can dictate it for them.

Gender is part social construct, part learned behaviors, and part biological processes which form very early in a person’s life.

Present evidence seems to suggest that a person’s gender is established during gestation while the cerebral cortex of the brain is forming (more about that in the Causes of Gender Dysphoria section). This mental model then informs, at a subconscious level, what aspects of the gender spectrum a person will lean towards. It affects behavior, perceptions of the world, the way we experience attraction (separate from sexual orientation and hormonal influences) and how we bond with other people.

Gender also affects the expectations that the brain has for the environment it resides in (your body), and when that environment does not meet those expectations, the brain sends up warning alarms in the form of depression, depersonalization, derealization, and dissociation. These are the brain’s subconscious ways of informing us that something is very wrong.

Hab·i·tus — Noun
Socially ingrained habits, skills, and dispositions. The way a person perceives and reacts to the world.

On the social side, gender involves our habitus: our presentation, our mannerisms and behaviors, how we communicate, how we react, what our expectations are from life, and the roles that we fulfill as we walk through life. The author Susan Stryker described habitus it in her book Transgender History:

A lot of habitus involves manipulating our secondary sex characteristics to communicate to others our own sense of who we feel we are—whether we sway our hips, talk with our hands, bulk up at the gym, grow out our hair, wearclothing with a neckline that emphasizes our cleavage, shave our armpits, allow stubble to be visible on our faces, or speak with a rising or falling inflection at the end of sentences. Often these ways of moving and styling have become so internalized that we think of them as natural even though—given that they are all things we’ve learned through observation and practice—they can be better understood as culturally acquired “second nature.”

Indeed, these are all cultural factors: things which have developed within the population over time. Regardless of being essentially “made up”, they are still strongly gendered and a person tends to connect to the gendered habitus of their internal self without even realizing they are doing it. When we are denied access to those social aspects, this results in discomfort with one’s social position in life.

John Money’s experiments attempted to confirm his belief that gender is entirely a social construct, and that any child can be raised to believe themselves to be whatever they were taught to be. His experiment was a massive failure (see the Biochemical Dysphoria section). Gender does not change; every human is the same gender at 40 that they were at 4. What changes is our own personal understanding of our gender as we mature as individuals.

These negative symptoms (depression, derealization, social discomfort) are the symptoms of Gender Dysphoria.

What Gender is not is sexual orientation. We describe orientation using terms relative to one’s gender (homosexual/heterosexual/bisexual, etc), but gender itself does not affect sexuality and sexuality has no role in gender.

What does it mean to be Non-binary?

Non-binary can basically be simplified as a lack of exclusive affinity to male or female. This may be a lack of affinity to either identity (agender), a total affinity to both (bi-gender/), a balanced affinity to both (androgyne), an affinity that changes from day to day (genderfluid), a partial affinity (demigender), or even an affinity to the entire gender spectrum at once (pangender).

It could be an affinity to some aspects of a gender but not others. For example, a demigirl could be someone assigned female at birth who only feels a partial connection to womanhood and femininity, or may be a male-assigned individual who is taking hormone therapy to relieve physical dysphoria, and has a female phenotype, but does not experience a strong connection to the social aspects of womanhood.

In generalist terms, this book will be describing gender in a sense of binary identities (male/female) vs non-binary identities, but this is purely for the sake of writing simplicity. Please know that the depth of gender experience and expression is far, far more complicated than this simple breakdown.

What do we mean by gender?

A grammatical category, often designated as male, female, or neuter, used in the classification of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and, in some languages, verbs that may be arbitrary or based on characteristics such as sex or animacy and that determines agreement with or selection of modifiers, referents, or grammatical forms. noun

The fact of being classified as belonging to such a category. noun

Either of the two divisions, designated female and male, by which most organisms are classified on the basis of their reproductive organs and functions; sex. noun

One’s identity as female or male or as neither entirely female nor entirely male. noun

Females or males considered as a group. noun

To engender. transitive verb

Kind; sort; class; genus. noun

Sex, male or female. noun

In grammar, a formal distinction in words, apparently founded on and in part expressing differences of sexual character, as male and female, or as male, female, or of neither sex (neuter). noun

To beget; procreate; generate; engender.

Hence To give rise to; bring out or forth.

To copulate; breed.

A Javanese musical instrument of the xylophone class. noun

To beget; to engender. transitive verb

Kind; sort. noun

Sex, male or female. noun

A classification of nouns, primarily according to sex; and secondarily according to some fancied or imputed quality associated with sex. noun

To copulate; to breed. intransitive verb

Class; kind.

(grammar) A division of nouns and pronouns (and sometimes of other parts of speech) into masculine or feminine, and sometimes other categories like neuter or common, and animate or inanimate.

(now sometimes proscribed) Sex (a category such as «male» or «female» into which sexually-reproducing organisms are divided on the basis of their reproductive roles in their species).

Identification as a man, a woman or something else, and association with a (social) role or set of behavioral and cultural traits, clothing, etc; a category to which a person belongs on this basis. (Compare gender role, gender identity.)

(hardware) The quality which distinguishes connectors, which may be male (fitting into another connector) and female (having another connector fit into it), or genderless/androgynous (capable of fitting together with another connector of the same type).

You probably meant sex Urban Dictionary

A scam that bathrooms created to scam society
there are only two genders:
tree with two stumps and wet floor sign Urban Dictionary

A societal construct that is, in actuality, about as useless and restrictive as race. Urban Dictionary

Your mode of self-reflection or ID dealing with how you see yourself (or don’t see yourself) in terms of your sex. Urban Dictionary

Gender is not a social construct, gender is biological just like sex, however, they are not the same thing and should not be used interchangeably. Gender is between your ears, not your legs.
Everyone has a gender and a sex, but they don’t always match each other, this is why some people wish to alter their bodies or change the way they present themselves to society. Contrary to popular belief, there are more than just two genders. Some people don’t identify as male or female, some people identify as both. Gender is not always black and white, there are gray areas too.
Sex isn’t always black and white either, there are men who have XXY chromosomes, and women with internal testes. There are species that can literally change sex in a heartbeat, such as clownfish. Urban Dictionary

Often confused with sex: gender is used typically with reference to social or cultural differences rather than biological ones.
this includes male, female, agender and so on.. Urban Dictionary

Gender can mean two different things.
1. Biological gender. This refers to your biological sex, such as female or male. Some are intersex, which means that their bodies can’t quite be completely categorized as male or female.
2. Gender identity. This refers to one’s own self image regarding gender based on the social structures of society and sometimes body dysphoria (the state of being significantly uncomfortable with your biological gender, not to be confused with body dysmorphia). Gender identity can be male, female, bigender, non-binary, et cetera. For some people their gender identity can align with their biological gender at birth, and for some others it might not. The view on gender varies between different societies and cultures. Urban Dictionary

How one defines themselves with clothes, pronouns, how they carry themselves, etc (i.e. male, female, androgynous, etc). Different from sex- ex: a person may be born female (sex) but identify as male (gender), though for many, sex and gender are synonymous. Urban Dictionary

A property of nouns and pronouns.
A noun can have one of three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter. Gender is never male or female; that is sex.
The gender of a noun may have little or no relation to the sex of its bearer. For example, in German, the word for dog is der Hund, which has masculine gender. A dog may be male or female, but the word for dog has masculine gender.
Radical feminists, effeminate men, and extremely ignorant people use the word to mean sex. They also ignorantly believe that the pronoun HE, when used to refer to someone of unknown sex, is offensive. Instead, they ignorantly and incorrectly use the word THEY to refer to a single person of unknown sex. Notice that French, German, Spanish, and other people have no trouble at all distinguishing sex and gender. A German is never offended by the word ER used to refer to someone of unknown sex, even though ER also means HE. That’s because Germans are intelligent enough to know the difference between gender and sex, and that gender may have little to do with sex.
Even well-meaning organizations ask for you gender on applications now, but only out of ignorance. They surely want to know if you are male or female, not whether you enjoy eating butt or prancing on floats in parades. Urban Dictionary

Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for its individuals. It is often considered a state of being, a mode of life.
When used to categorize individuals, it can be described as:
— social roles based on two distinct biological sexes (man and woman)
— personal identification based on the reiteration and repetition of the norms through which one is constituted by society and self-awareness (includes feminine, masculine, transgender, non-binary and gender-nonconforming) Urban Dictionary

gender

In many other languages, especially the Romance languages (such as French, Spanish, and Italian), a large number of nouns are coded as being either feminine or masculine.

This used to be the case in Old English as well, but in modern English only certain nouns that describe a person who performs an action are inflected for gender. This is usually achieved by changing the end of the word to a feminine suffix, such as “-ess,” “-ine,” and “-trix.” Words are less commonly changed to specifically reflect masculine gender, but the few that do use the suffixes “-er” or “-or.”

Continue reading…

gen·der

 (jĕn′dər)

n.

1. Grammar

a. A grammatical category, often designated as male, female, or neuter, used in the classification of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and, in some languages, verbs that may be arbitrary or based on characteristics such as sex or animacy and that determines agreement with or selection of modifiers, referents, or grammatical forms.

b. The fact of being classified as belonging to such a category: agreement in gender, number, and case.

2.

a. Either of the two divisions, designated female and male, by which most organisms are classified on the basis of their reproductive organs and functions; sex.

b. One’s identity as female or male or as neither entirely female nor entirely male.

c. Females or males considered as a group: Students lined up with the genders in different lines.

tr.v. gen·dered, gen·der·ing, gen·ders Archaic

To engender.

---

[Middle English gendre, from Old French, kind, gender, from Latin genus, gener-; see genə- in Indo-European roots.]

---

gen′der·less adj.

Usage Note: Some people maintain that the word sex should be reserved for reference to the biological aspects of being male or female or to sexual activity, and that the word gender should be used only to refer to sociocultural roles. Accordingly, one would say The effectiveness of the treatment appears to depend on the sex of the patient and In society, gender roles are clearly defined. In some situations this distinction avoids ambiguity, as in gender research, which is clear in a way that sex research is not. The distinction can be problematic, however. Linguistically, there isn’t any real difference between gender bias and sex bias, and it may seem contrived to insist that sex is incorrect in this instance.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

gender

(ˈdʒɛndə)

n

1. (Grammar) a set of two or more grammatical categories into which the nouns of certain languages are divided, sometimes but not necessarily corresponding to the sex of the referent when animate. See also natural gender

2. (Grammar) any of the categories, such as masculine, feminine, neuter, or common, within such a set

3. informal the state of being male, female, or neuter

4. informal all the members of one sex: the female gender.

[C14: from Old French gendre, from Latin genus kind]

ˈgenderless adj

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

gen•der¹

(ˈdʒɛn dər)

n.

1.

a. a set of grammatical categories applied to nouns, shown by the form of the noun itself or the choice of words that modify, replace, or refer to it, often correlated in part with sex or animateness, as in the choice of he to replace the man,she to replace the woman, or it to replace the table, but sometimes based on arbitrary assignment without regard to the referent of the noun, as in French le livre (masculine) “the book” or German das Mädchen (neuter) “the girl.”

b. one of the categories in such a set, as masculine, feminine, neuter, or common.

c. membership of a word or grammatical form in such a category.

2.

a. sex: the feminine gender.

b. the societal or behavioral aspects of sexual identity: gender studies.

3. Archaic. kind, sort, or class.

[1300–50; < Middle French gen(d)re < Latin gener-, s. of genus kind, sort; compare genus]

gen′der•less, adj.

usage.: The use of gender in the sense “sex” (The author’s gender should be irrelevant.) is over 600 years old. Although some people feel that gender should be reserved for grammatical category only, the “sex” sense of gender is now extremely common; sex itself is becoming increasingly rare except when referring to copulation.

gen•der²

(ˈdʒɛn dər)
v.t., v.i.

1. Archaic. to engender.

2. Obs. to breed.

[1300–50; Middle English < Middle French gendrer < Latin generāre to beget; see generate]

Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

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