ID:20259 Section: Society

Updated:Monday 13th October 2014

Gender Definition

(Wikipedia) - Gender For the grammatical concept, see Grammatical gender. For other meanings, see Gender (disambiguation).


Gender symbols. The pink signifies is the female Venus symbol. The blue represents the male Mars symbol.

Sexologist John Money introduced the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role in 1955. Before his work, it was uncommon to use the word gender to refer to anything but grammatical categories. However, Money''s meaning of the word did not become widespread until the 1970s, when feminist theory embraced the concept of a distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender. Today, the distinction is strictly followed in some contexts, especially the social sciences and documents written by the World Health Organization (WHO). However, in many other contexts, including some areas of social sciences, gender includes sex or replaces it. Although this change in the meaning of gender can be traced to the 1980s, a small acceleration of the process in the scientific literature was observed in 1993 when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) started to use gender instead of sex. 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." In non-human animal research, gender is also commonly used to refer to the physiology of the animals.

In the English literature, the trichotomy between biological sex, psychological gender, and social sex role first appeared in a feminist paper on transsexualism in 1978. Some cultures have specific gender-related social roles that can be considered distinct from male and female, such as the hijra of India and Pakistan.

The social sciences have a branch devoted to gender studies. Other sciences, such as sexology and neuroscience, are also interested in the subject. While the social sciences sometimes approach gender as a social construct, and gender studies particularly do, research in the natural sciences investigates whether biological differences in males and females influence the development of gender in humans; both inform debate about how far biological differences influence the formation of gender identity.

  • 1 Etymology and usage
    • 1.1 Analogous terms in other languages
  • 2 Gender identity and gender roles
    • 2.1 Social assignment and the idea of gender fluidity
    • 2.2 Social categories
    • 2.3 Measurement of gender identity
    • 2.4 Feminism theory and gender studies
    • 2.5 Social construction of sex hypotheses
  • 3 Biological factors and views
    • 3.1 Sexual reproduction
    • 3.2 Gender taxonomy
    • 3.3 Sexual/gender dimorphism
  • 4 Gender studies
  • 5 General studies
    • 5.1 Genes
    • 5.2 Brain
    • 5.3 Society and behaviors
  • 6 Legal status
    • 6.1 General
    • 6.2 Australian government policy on indeterminate gender
  • 7 Gender and society
    • 7.1 Gender and languages
    • 7.2 Gender and science gender
    • 7.3 Gender and religion
    • 7.4 Gender and poverty
    • 7.5 General strain theory
    • 7.6 Gender and economic development
  • 8 See also
    • 8.1 Books
    • 8.2 Lists
  • 9 References
  • 10 Bibliography
  • 11 External links

Etymology and usage

The modern English word gender comes from the Middle English gendre, a loanword from Norman-conquest-era Old 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 gen-, which is also the source of kin, kind, king, and many other English words. Most uses of derivatives of this root in Indo-European languages refer either directly to what pertains to birth (for example pre-gn-ant) or, by extension, to natural, innate qualities and their consequent social distinctions (for example gentry, generation, gentile, genocide, and eugenics). 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 first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED1, Volume 4, 1900) notes the original meaning of gender as "kind" had already become obsolete.

Gender (dʒe''ndəɹ), sb. Also 4 gendre. †1. Kind, sort, class; also, genus as opposed to species. The general gender: the common sort (of people). Obs. 13.. E.E.Allit. P. P. 434 Alle gendrez so ioyst wern ioyned wyth-inne. c 1384 CHAUSER H. Fame* 1. 18 To knowe of hir signifiaunce The gendres. 1398 TREVISA Barth. De P. K. VIII. xxix. (1495) 34I Byshynynge and lyghte ben dyuers as species and gendre, for suery shinyng is lyght, but not ayenwarde. 1602 SHAKES. Ham. IV. vii. 18 The great loue the generall gender beare him. 1604—Oth. I. iii. 326 Supplie it with one gender of Hearbes, or distract it with many. 1643 and so on.

The word was still widely attested, 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.

τὰ γένη τῶν ὀνομάτων ἄρρενα καὶ θήλεα καὶ σκεύη The classes (genē) of the nouns are males, females and things. The Technique of Rhetoric III v

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

" a grammatical term only. To talk of persons...of the masculine or feminine g, meaning of the male or female sex, is either a jocularity (permissible or not according to context) or a blunder."

However examples of the use of gender to refer to masculinity and femininity as types are found throughout the history of Modern English (from about the 14th century).

  • c. 1460: Has thou oght written there of the femynyn gendere?—Towneley Mystery Plays xxx 161 Act One.
  • 1632: Here''s a woman! The soul of Hercules has got into her. She has a spirit, is more masculine Than the first gender—Shackerley Marmion, Holland''s Leaguer III iv.
  • 1658: The Psyche, or soul, of Tiresias is of the masculine gender—Thomas Browne, Hydriotaphia.
  • 1859: Black divinities of the feminine ''gender —Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities.
  • 1874: It is exactly as if there were a sex in mountains, and their contours and curves and complexions were here all of the feminine gender—Henry James, ''A Chain of Italian Cities'', The Atlantic Monthly 33 (February, p. 162.)
  • 1892: She was uncertain as to his gender—Robert Grant, ''Reflections of a Married Man'', Scribner''s Magazine 11 (March, p. 376.)
  • 1896: As to one''s success in the work one does, surely that is not a question of gender either—Daily News 17 July.
  • c. 1900: Our most lively impression is that the sun is there assumed to be of the feminine gender—Henry James, Essays on Literature.

As a verb, gender means "breed" in the King James Bible:

Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind

—Leviticus 19:19, 1616

The modern academic sense of the word, in the context of social roles of men and women, dates from the work of John Money (1955), and was popularized and developed by the feminist movement from the 1970s onwards (see Feminism theory and gender studies below). The theory was that human nature is essentially epicene and social distinctions based on sex are arbitrarily constructed. 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."

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.

In the last two decades of the 20th century, the use of gender in academia 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 euphemism 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.


Analogous terms in other languagesTamil

Gender activist Gopi Shankar coined the regional terms for Genderqueer people in Tamil. After English, Tamil is the only language that has been given names for all the genders identified so far.


Urdu recognizes hijra as a third gender in India and Pakistan since the mid to late 2000s.

Gender identity and gender roles Main articles: Gender identity and Gender role

Gender identity is the gender or genders a person self-identifies as. One''s biological sex is directly tied to specific social roles and 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. 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 feminists. There are qualitative analyses that explore and present the representations of gender; however, feminists challenge these dominant ideologies concerning gender roles and sex. Social identity refers to the common identification with a collectivity or social category that creates a common culture among participants concerned. According to social identity theory, 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.

Categorizing males and females into social roles creates a dilemma, because individuals 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. 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 women’s and men’s different access to rights, resources, power in society and health behaviors. 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. 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. 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. Philosopher Michel Foucault claims 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". 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. Such as, being female characterizes one as a woman, and being a woman signifies one as weak, emotional, and irrational, and is incapable of actions attributed to a "man". Judith 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. " is so because gender is politically and therefore socially controlled. Rather than ''woman'' being something one is, it is something one does." More recent criticisms of Judith Butler''s theories critique her writing for reinforcing the very conventional dichotomies of gender.

Social assignment and the idea of gender fluidity See also: Sex assignment

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


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. The social label of being classified into one or the other sex is necessary for the medical stamp on birth certificates. 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 woman or a man in society varies cross culturally according to what things are considered to be masculine or feminine. The cultural traits typically coupled to a particular sex finalize the assignment of gender and the biological differences which play a role in classifying either sex as interchangeable with the definition of gender within the social context.

In this context, the socially constructed rules are at a cross road with the assignment of a particular gender to a person. Gender ambiguity deals with having the freedom to choose, manipulate and create a personal niche within any defined socially constructed code of conduct while gender fluidity is outlawing all the rules of cultural gender assignment. It does not accept the prevalence of the two rigidly defined genders "man" and "woman" and believes in freedom to choose any kind of gender with no rules, no defined boundaries and no fulfilling of expectations associated with any particular gender.

Both these definitions are facing opposite directions with their own defined set of rules and criteria on which the said systems are based.




Most societies have only two distinct, broad classes of gender roles, masculine and feminine, that correspond with the biological sexes of male and female. When a baby is born, society allocates the child to one sex or the other, on the basis of what their genitals resemble. However, some societies explicitly incorporate people who adopt the gender role opposite to their biological sex; for example, the two-spirit people of some indigenous American peoples. Other societies include well-developed roles that are explicitly considered more or less distinct from archetypal female and male roles in those societies. In the language of the sociology of gender, they comprise a third gender, more or less distinct from biological sex (sometimes the basis for the role does include intersexuality or incorporates eunuchs). One such gender role is that adopted by the hijras of India and Pakistan. Another example may be the Muxe (pronounced ), found in the state of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, "beyond gay and straight."

The Bugis people of Sulawesi, Indonesia have a tradition that incorporates all the features above. Joan Roughgarden argues that some non-human animal species also have more than two genders, in that there might be multiple templates for behavior available to individual organisms with a given biological sex.

In July 2012 Gopi Shankar, a Gender activist and a student from The American College in Madurai coined the regional terms for genderqueer people in Tamil, Gopi said apart from male and female, there are more than 20 types of genders, such as transwoman, transmen, androgynous, pangender, trigender,, etc., and ancient India refers it as Trithiya prakirthi. "

Measurement of gender identity

Early gender identity research hypothesized a single bipolar dimension of masculinity-femininity—that is masculinity and femininity were opposites on one continuum. As societal stereotypes changed, however, assumptions of the unidimensional model were challenged. This led to the development of a two-dimensional gender identity model, in which masculinity and femininity were conceptualized as two separate, orthogonal dimensions, coexisting in varying degrees within an individual. This conceptualization on femininity and masculinity remains the accepted standard today.


Feminism theory and gender studies Feminist philosophy Major works Major theorists Key concepts
Part of a series on
  • A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792)
  • The Subjection of Women (1869)
  • The Second Sex (1949)
  • The Feminine Mystique (1963)
  • The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution (1970)
  • The Creation of Patriarchy (1986)
  • Gender Trouble (1990)
  • Mary Wollstonecraft
  • Simone de Beauvoir
  • Betty Friedan
  • Shulamith Firestone
  • Gloria Steinem
  • Angela Davis
  • bell hooks
  • Gerda Lerner
  • Judith Butler
  • Feminism
  • Gender
  • Gender equality
  • Gender performativity
  • v
  • t
  • e

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. The philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir applied existentialism to women''s experience of life: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one." 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.

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", but in the 1978 edition, the use of sex and gender is reversed. 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. 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".

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). 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". 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.


Andrea Dworkin stated her "commitment to destroying male dominance and gender itself" while stating her belief in radical feminism.

Critiques of feminist theory by Warren Farrell have given broader consideration to findings from a ten-year study of courtship by Buss. Both perspectives on gendering are integrated in Attraction Theory, a theoretical framework developed by Dr Rory Ridley-Duff illustrating how courtship and parenting obligations (rather than male dominance) act as a generative mechanism that produces and reproduces a range of gender identities.

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. Hawkesworth 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".

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".

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. 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.

Social construction of sex hypotheses See also: Sex and gender distinction

Scholars 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. 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." The World Health Organization states, "''ex'' refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women," and "''ender'' refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women." 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." 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, Judith Butler, a professor of rhetoric and comparative literature, 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."

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.

Butler argues that "bodies only appear, only endure, only live within the productive constraints of certain highly gendered regulatory schemas," 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." Marria Lugones states that, among the Yoruba people, there was no concept of gender and no gender system at all before colonialism. She argues that colonial powers used a gender system as a tool for domination and fundamentally changing social relations among the indigenous.

With regard to history, Linda Nicholson, a professor of history and women''s studies, says that the notion of human bodies being separated into two sexes is not historically consistent. She argues that male genitals 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 gradation of physical forms, or a spectrum. Therefore, the current perspective toward sex, which is to consider women and men and their typical genitalia as the only possible natural options, came into existence through historical, not biological roots.

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 "ur 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." 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." 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. In her book, titled 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.

Thus it may be said that determining the sex of children is actually a cultural act, and the sex of children is in fact socially constructed. Therefore, it is possible that although sex seems fixed and only related to biology, it may be actually deeply related to historical and social factors as well as biology and other natural sciences.

Biological factors and views See also: Sexual differentiation and Sex determination and differentiation (human)


The term "gender role" appeared in print first in 1955. The term gender identity was used in a press release, November 21, 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.

Money refers to attempts to distinguish a difference between biological sex and social gender as "scientifically debased", because of our increased knowledge of a continuum of dimorphic features (Money''s word is "dipolar") that link biological and behavioral differences. These extend from the exclusively biological "genetic" and "prenatal hormonal" differences between men and women, to "postnatal" features, some of which are social, but others have been shown to result from "post-pubertal hormonal" effects.


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.

Sexual reproduction Main article: Sexual reproduction

Sexual differentiation demands the fusion of gametes that are morphologically different.

—Cyril Dean Darlington, Recent Advances in Cytology, 1937.Hoverflies mating



What is considered defining of sexual reproduction is the difference between the gametes and the binary nature of fertilization. Multiplicity of gamete types within a species would still be considered a form of sexual reproduction. However, of more than 1.5 million living species, recorded up to about the year 2000, "no third sex cell—and so no third sex—has appeared in multi-cellular animals." Why sexual reproduction has an exclusively binary gamete system is not yet known. A few rare species that push the boundaries of the definitions are the subject of active research for light they may shed on the mechanisms of the evolution of sex. For example, the most toxic insect, the harvester ant Pogonomyrmex, has two kinds of female and two kinds of male. One hypothesis is that the species is a hybrid, evolved from two closely related preceding species.

Fossil records indicate that sexual reproduction has been occurring for at least one billion years. However, the reason for the initial evolution of sex, and the reason it has survived to the present are still matters of debate, there are many plausible theories. It appears that the ability to reproduce sexually has evolved independently in various species on many occasions. There are cases where it has also been lost, notably among the Fungi Imperfecti. The blacktip shark (Carcharhinus limbatus), flatworm (Dugesia tigrina) and some other species can reproduce either sexually or asexually depending on various conditions.

Gender taxonomy


  • chromosomes
46xx, 46xy, 47xxy (Klinefelter syndrome), 45xo (Turner''s syndrome), 47xyy, 47xxx, 48xxyy, 46xx/xy mosaic, other mosaic, and others
  • gonads
  • hormones
  • genitals
primary sexual characteristics (six class system)
  • secondary sexual characteristics
  • brain structure
  • gender identity
psychological identification with either of the two main sexes
  • gender role
social conformity with expectations for either of the two main sexes
  • erotic preference
gynophilia, androphilia, bisexuality, asexuality and various paraphilias.Sexual/gender dimorphism See also: Sexual differentiation, Sexual dimorphism and Sex differences in humansSexual differentiation in peafowl


In humans, the "default" processes of reproduction result in an individual with female characteristics. An intact Y-chromosome contains what is needed to "reprogram" the processes sufficiently to produce male characteristics, leading to sexual differentiation. Part of the Y-chromosome, the Sex-determining Region Y (SRY), causes what would normally become ovaries to become testes. These, in turn, produce male hormones called androgens. However, several points in the processes have been identified where variations can result in people with atypical characteristics, including atypical sexual characteristics. Terminology for atypical sexual characteristics has not stabilized. Disorder of sexual development (DSD) is used by some in preference to intersex, which is used by others in preference to pseudohermaphroditism.

Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) is an example of a DSD that also illustrates that female development is the default for humans. Although having one X and one Y chromosome, some people are biologically insensitive to the androgens produced by their testes. As a result, they follow the normal human processes that results in a female. Women who are XY report identifying as a woman—feeling and thinking like a woman—and, where their biology is completely insensitive to masculinizing factors, externally they look identical to other women. Unlike other women, however, they cannot produce ova, because they do not have ovaries.

The human XY system is not the only sex determination system. Birds typically have a reverse, ZW system—males are ZZ and females ZW. Whether male or female birds influence the sex of offspring is not known for all species. Several species of butterfly are known to have female parent sex determination.


Gender studies Main article: 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. 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. It also analyses race, ethnicity, location, nationality, and disability.

General studies GenesChimpanzeeMain article: XY sex-determination system



BrainHuman brain

"It is well established that men have a larger cerebrum than women by about 8–10% (Filipek et al., 1994; Nopoulos et al., 2000; Passe et al., 1997a,b; Rabinowicz et al., 1999; Witelson et al., 1995)." However, what is functionally relevant are differences in composition and "wiring". Richard J. Haier and colleagues at the universities of New Mexico and California (Irvine) found, using brain mapping, that men have more grey matter related to general intelligence than women, and women have more white matter related to intelligence than men – the ratio between grey and white matter is 4% higher for men than women.

Grey matter is used for information processing, while white matter consists of the connections between processing centers. Other differences are measurable but less pronounced. Most of these differences are produced by hormonal activity, ultimately derived from the Y chromosome and sexual differentiation. However, differences that arise directly from gene activity have also been observed.


—Language areas of the brain:   Angular gyrus   Supramarginal gyrus   Broca''s area   Wernicke''s area   Primary auditory cortex



Society and behaviors See also: Sex and psychology




Social theorists have sought to determine the specific nature of gender in relation to biological sex and sexuality, 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. 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.

Contemporary socialisation theory proposes the notion that when a child is first born it has a biological sex but no social gender. As the child grows, "...society provides a string of prescriptions, templates, or models of behaviors appropriate to the one sex or the other," which socialises the child into belonging to a culturally specific gender. 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, and to make an impact on the production of culture and knowledge. Adults who do not perform these ascribed roles are perceived from this perspective as deviant and improperly socialised.

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 believes gendering occurs in at least five different interacting social processes:

  • 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
  • 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

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. "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."



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.

Legal status General

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, 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.




The first person known to be legally of indeterminate gender (that is, neither man or woman in legal terms) is Alex MacFarlane, from Australia, whose status was reported in January 2003.

Australian government policy on indeterminate gender

Alex MacFarlane was reported as receiving a passport with an ''X'' sex descriptor in early 2003. This was stated by the West Australian to be on the basis of a challenge by MacFarlane, using an indeterminate birth certificate issued by the State of Victoria.

Australian government policy between 2003 and 2011 was to issue passports with an ''X'' marker only to people who could "present a birth certificate that notes their sex as indeterminate".

In 2011, the Australian Passport Office introduced new guidelines for issuing of passports with a new gender, and broadened availability of an X descriptor to all individuals with certified "indeterminate" sex or gender, issued by a medical doctor. The revised policy stated that "sex reassignment surgery is not a prerequisite to issue a passport in a new gender. Birth or citizenship certificates do not need to be amended."

Australian Commonwealth guidelines on the recognition of sex and gender, passed the Sex Discrimination Amendment Act on June 25th 2013 without a vote. It defined the ''X'' as a gender marker which would encompass "indeterminate/intersex/unspecified" categories. The policy extends the use an ''X'' gender marker to any adult who chooses that option and can obtain a certifying letter from a doctor or psychologist, in all dealings with the Commonwealth government and its agencies. The option is being introduced over a three year period. The guidelines also clarify that the federal government will now collect data on gender, rather than sex. The "gender identity" attribute protects trans people with non-binary identities. However, it does contain an exemption in record keeping. Federal guidelines on sex and gender recognition provide for the implementation of the "X" classification across federal departments and agencies.

Recognition of an intermediate gender is controversial even amongst intersex organisations, such as Organisation Intersex International Australia, who oppose such a classification of infants and children.

Gender and society Gender and languages

Natural languages often make gender distinctions. These may be of various kinds, more or less loosely associated by analogy with various actual or perceived differences between men and women.

  • Several languages such as Persian 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)
  • 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. A system traditionally called "gender" appears in the Ojibwe language, which distinguishes between animate and inanimate, but since this does not exhibit a masculine/feminine distinction it might be better described by "noun class." Likewise, Sumerian distinguishes between personal (human and divine) and impersonal (all other) noun classes, but these classes have traditionally been known as genders.
Gender and science gender

According to Londa Schiebinger, many have argued that science should have a gender. Additionally, "Sir Francis Bacon, the seventeenth-century English ideologue, called for the Royal Society of London to "raise a masculine philosophy". Karl Joel, 19th century German historian of philosophy, desired to return to "manly philosophy" and "applauded the arrival of a masculine epoch". On a different perspective, specifically, the female perspective, Mary Wollstonecraft, "in her efforts to create equality between the sexes, encouraged women to become "more masculine and respectable". On board of supporting the notion that science was masculine, was Evelyn Fox Keller, a feminist American physicist, "declared that science is "masculine," not only in the person of its practitioners but in its ethos and substance." Gender is the prime reason in which women feel estranged and left out of the realm of science. As for women who did participate within science, shadowed the masculine voice in their publications or utilized their male partners to carry out their own findings of science. Society played a leading and influential role into women in the public and private sphere. As more women entered the primatology sciences, in which they were to leave society behind and delve deep into adapting within the dark premises of the wild jungles where years passed by them. Once women were allowed within the public sphere of science, they became secretive about their pregnancies and "took trips for their work", to indulge in giving birth without experiencing the negative stigma of society. Some women disguised themselves in looking like men and experienced the outside societal judgments of working alongside a male scientists.

Gender and religion Further information: Gender and 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 religiousity 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.

yin and yang

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.

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. 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.

In Christianity, God is 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 genders perfectly, which may be seen through the doctrine of Imago Dei. In the New Testament, Jesus at several times mentions 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





Gender inequality has a great impact especially on women and poverty. In poverty stricken countries it is more likely that men have more opportunities to have an income, have more political and social rights than women. Women experience more poverty than men do due to gender discrimination. Women are more vulnerable to chronic poverty because of gender inequalities in the distribution of income, property ownership, credit, and control over earned income.Resource allocation is typically gender-biased within households, and continue on a higher level regarding state institutions.

A bar graph comparing poverty differences based on age and gender in 2012.


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

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.These violent actions related to gender inequality can be measured by comparing violent neighborhoods to non-violent neighborhoods.By noticing the independent variables (neighborhood violence) and the dependent variable (individual violence), it''s possible to analyze gender roles. The strain in the general strain theory is the removal of a positive stimuli and or the introduction of a negative stimuli, which would create a negative affect (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. 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. Males are likely to put the blame on others for adversity and therefore externalize feelings of anger. Females typically internalize their angers and tend to blame themselves instead. Female internalized anger is accompanied by feelings of guilt, fear, anxiety and depression. 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. 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.

Gender and economic development

Gender, and particularly the role of women is widely recognized as vitally important to international development issues. 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.

In modern times, the study of gender and development has become a broad field that involves politicians, economists, and human rights activists. Gender and Development, unlike previous theories concerning women in development, includes a broader view of the effects of development on gender including economic, political, and social issues. The theory takes a holistic approach to development and its effects on women and recognizes the negative effects gender blind development policies have had on women. Prior to 1970, it was believed that development affected men and women in the same way and no gendered perspective existed for development studies. However, the 1970s saw a transformation in development theory that sought to incorporate women into existing development paradigms. When Ester Boserup published her book, Woman’s Role in Economic Development, there was a realization that development affected men and women differently and there began to be more of a focus on women and development. Boserup argued that women were marginalized in the modernization process and practices of growth, development, and development policy threatened to actually make women worse off. Boserup’s work translated into the beginning of a larger discourse termed Women in Development (WID) coined by the Women’s Committee of the Washington DC Chapter of the Society for International Development, a network of female development professionals. The primary goal of WID was to include women into existing development initiatives, since it was argued that women were marginalized and excluded from the benefits of development. In so doing, the WID approach pointed out that the major problem to women’s unequal representation and participation were male biased and patriarchal development policies. In short, the WID approach blamed patriarchy, which did not consider women’s productive and reproductive work. In fact, women were tied to domestic work hence were almost invisible in development programs. The WID approach, however, began to gain criticism as ignoring how women’s economic marginalization was linked to the development model itself. Some feminists argued that the key concept for women and development should be subordination in the context of new capitalist forms of insecure and hierarchical job structures, rather than marginalization as WID approaches emphasized. The rise of criticism against the WID approach led to the emergence of a new theory, that of Women and Development (WAD).

However, just as WID had its critics, so did WAD. Many critics of WAD argued that it failed to sufficiently address the differential power relations between women and men, and tended to overemphasize women’s productive as opposed to reproductive roles. Also, rising criticism of the exclusion of men in WID and WAD led to a new theory termed Gender and Development (GAD). Drawing from insights developed in psychology, sociology, and gender studies, GAD theorists shifted from understanding women’s problems as based on their sex (i.e. their biological differences from men) to understanding them as based on gender – the social relations between women and men, their social construction, and how women have been systematically subordinated in this relationship. At their most fundamental, GAD perspectives link the social relations of production with the social relations of reproduction – exploring why and how women and men are assigned to different roles and responsibilities in society, how these dynamics are reflected in social, economic, and political theories and institutions, and how these relationships affect development policy effectiveness. According to proponents of GAD, women are cast not as passive recipients of development aid, but rather as active agents of change whose empowerment should be a central goal of development policy. In contemporary times, most literature and institutions that are concerned with women''s role in development incorporate a GAD perspective, with the United Nations taking the lead of mainstreaming the GAD approach through its system and development policies.

Researchers at the Overseas Development Institute have highlighted that policy dialogue on the Millennium Development Goals needs to recognize that the gender dynamics of power, poverty, vulnerability and care link all the goals. The various United Nations international women’s conferences in Beijing, Mexico City, Copenhagen, and Nairobi, as well as the development of the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 have taken a GAD approach and holistic view of development. The United Nations Millennium Declaration signed at the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000 including eight goals that were to be reached by 2015, and although it would be a difficult task to reach them, all of them could be monitored. The eight goals are: 1. Halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty at the 1990 level by 2015. 2. Achieve universal primary education 3. Promote gender equality and empower women 4. Reduce child mortality rates 5. Improve maternal health 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases 7. Ensure environmental sustainability 8. Global partnership

The MDGs have three goals specifically focused on women: Goal 3, 4 and 5 but women’s issues also cut across all of the goals. These goals overall comprise all aspects of women’s lives including economic, health, and political participation.

Gender equality is also strongly linked to education. The Dakar Framework for Action (2000) set out ambitious goals: to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and to achieve gender equality in education by 2015. The focus was on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in good quality basic education. The gender objective of the Dakar Framework for Action is somewhat different from the MDG Goal 3 (Target 1): “Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015”. MDG Goal 3 does not comprise a reference to learner achievement and good quality basic education, but goes beyond the school level. Studies demonstrate the positive impact of girls’ education on child and maternal health, fertility rates, poverty reduction and economic growth. Educated mothers are more likely to send their children to school.

Some organizations working in developing countries and in the development field have incorporated advocacy and empowerment for women into their work. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) adopted a 10-year strategic framework in November 2009 that includes the strategic objective of gender equity in access to resources, goods, services and decision-making in rural areas, and mainstreams gender equity in all FAO''s programs for agriculture and rural development. The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) has developed a Gender Evaluation Methodology for planning and evaluating development projects to ensure they benefit all sectors of society including women.

The Gender-related Development Index (GDI), developed by the United Nations, aims to show the inequalities between men and women in the following areas: long and healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard of living. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has introduced indicators designed to add a gendered dimension to the Human Development Index (HDI). Additionally, in 1995, the Gender-related Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM) were introduced. More recently, in 2010, UNDP introduced a new indicator, the Gender Inequality Index (GII), which was designed to be a better measurement of gender inequality and to improve the shortcomings of GDI and GEM.

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