View source for Biology:Gender

{{short description|Characteristics distinguishing between femininity and masculinity}}
[[File:Combotrans.svg|thumb|Gender symbols intertwined. The red (left) is the female [[Astronomy:Venus|Venus]] symbol. The blue (right) represents the male Mars symbol.]]
'''Gender'''<!-- NOTE: Before altering this definition, consider referring to past talk page discussions about defining gender, and/or looking at more than just the sources that only define it as a social construct, considering that defining gender is a complicated topic. Also, "Characteristics" is a disambiguation page; this means that it does not explain what we mean by sex/gender characteristics, which is why we do not link it. --> is the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, femininity and [[Social:Masculinity|masculinity]]. Depending on the context, these characteristics may include biological [[Biology:Sex|sex]], sex-based [[Social:Social structure|social structure]]s (i.e., [[Social:Gender role|gender role]]s), or [[Philosophy:Gender identity|gender identity]].<ref name="udry">{{cite journal|date=November 1994|title=The Nature of Gender|url=http://people.virginia.edu/~ser6f/udry.pdf|journal=Demography|volume=31|issue=4|pages=561–573|doi=10.2307/2061790|jstor=2061790|pmid=7890091|first1=J. Richard|last1=Udry|s2cid=38476067|access-date=5 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170902100748/http://people.virginia.edu/~ser6f/udry.pdf|archive-date=2 September 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="haig">{{cite journal|date=April 2004 |title=The Inexorable Rise of Gender and the Decline of Sex: Social Change in Academic Titles, 1945–2001 |url=http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/haig/publications_files/04inexorablerise.pdf |journal=Archives of Sexual Behavior |volume=33 |issue=2 |pages=87–96 |doi=10.1023/B:ASEB.0000014323.56281.0d |pmid=15146141|first1=David |last1=Haig |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120615160110/http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/haig/Publications_files/04InexorableRise.pdf |archive-date=15 June 2012 |citeseerx=10.1.1.359.9143 |s2cid=7005542 }}</ref><ref name="www.who.int">{{Cite web|title=What do we mean by "sex" and "gender"? |publisher=[[Organization:World Health Organization|World Health Organization]] |access-date=26 November 2015 |url=http://apps.who.int/gender/whatisgender/en/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130022356/http://apps.who.int/gender/whatisgender/en/ |archive-date=30 January 2017|url-status=dead }}</ref> Most cultures use a [[Gender binary|gender binary]], having two genders (boys/men and girls/women);<ref name="Nadal-re-binary">Kevin L. Nadal, ''The SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender'' (2017, {{ISBN|1483384276}}), page 401: "Most cultures currently construct their societies based on the understanding of gender binary—the two gender categorizations (male and female). Such societies divide their population based on biological sex assigned to individuals at birth to begin the process of gender socialization."</ref> those who exist outside these groups fall under the umbrella term [[History:Non-binary gender|''non-binary'' or ''genderqueer'']]. Some societies have specific genders besides "man" and "woman", such as the hijras of [[Place:South Asia|South Asia]]; these are often referred to as ''third genders'' (and ''fourth genders'', etc.).

Sexologist John Money introduced the terminological distinction between [[Biology:Sex and gender distinction|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.<ref name=udry /><ref name="haig" /> However, Money's meaning of the word did not become widespread until the 1970s, when [[Social:Feminist theory|feminist theory]] embraced the concept of a distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender. Today, the distinction is followed in some contexts, especially the social sciences<ref name="socialsciencedictionary">{{cite web| url=http://www.socialsciencedictionary.com/GENDER| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110202125938/http://www.socialsciencedictionary.com/GENDER| url-status=dead| archive-date=2 February 2011| title=GENDER| publisher=Social Science Dictionary| access-date=20 March 2015}}</ref><ref name="pearsonhighered">{{cite book|title=Gender Roles: A Sociological Perspective|author=Lindsey, Linda L.|isbn=978-0-13-244830-7|year=2010|publisher=Pearson|chapter=Ch. 1. The Sociology of gender|chapter-url=http://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0132448300.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150405145514/http://www.pearsonhighered.com/assets/hip/us/hip_us_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/0132448300.pdf|archive-date=5 April 2015}}</ref> and documents written by the [[Organization:World Health Organization|World Health Organization]] (WHO).<ref name="www.who.int" />

In other contexts, including some areas of the social sciences, ''gender'' includes ''sex'' or replaces it.<ref name="udry" /><ref name="haig" /> For instance, in non-human animal research, ''gender'' is commonly used to refer to the biological sex of the animals.<ref name="haig" /> This change in the meaning of gender can be traced to the 1980s. In 1993, the US [[Organization:Food and Drug Administration|Food and Drug Administration]] (FDA) started to use ''gender'' instead of ''sex''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.fda.gov/downloads/RegulatoryInformation/Guidances/UCM126835.pdf|title=Guideline for the Study and Evaluation of Gender Differences in the Clinical Evaluation of Drugs|access-date=3 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406164205/https://www.fda.gov/downloads/RegulatoryInformation/Guidances/UCM126835.pdf|archive-date=6 April 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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."<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fda.gov/medicaldevices/deviceregulationandguidance/guidancedocuments/ucm283453.htm|title=Evaluation of Sex-Specific Data in Medical Device Clinical Studies – Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff|date=22 August 2014|website=U.S. Food and Drug Administration|access-date=26 February 2019}}</ref>

The [[Social:Social science|social science]]s have a branch devoted to [[Gender studies|gender studies]]. Other sciences, such as sexology and [[Biology:Neuroscience|neuroscience]], are also interested in the subject. The social sciences sometimes approach gender as a [[Philosophy:Social constructionism|social construct]], and gender studies particularly do, while research in the [[Natural science|natural science]]s investigates whether [[Philosophy:Sex differences in humans|biological differences]] in females and males influence the development of gender in humans; both inform debate about how far biological differences influence the formation of gender identity. In some English literature, there is also a [[Philosophy:Trichotomy|trichotomy]] between biological sex, psychological gender, and social gender role. This framework first appeared in a feminist paper on transsexualism in 1978.<ref name="haig" /><ref>{{cite journal|year=1978|title=Transsexualism and women: A critical perspective|journal=Feminist Studies|volume=4|issue=3|pages=97–106|doi=10.2307/3177542|jstor=3177542|author=Yudkin, M.}}</ref>
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== Etymology and usage ==

=== Derivation ===

The modern English word ''gender'' comes from the [[Social:Middle English|Middle English]] ''gender'', ''gendre'', a [[Social:Loanword|loanword]] from [[Social:Anglo-Norman language|Anglo-Norman]] and [[Social:Middle French|Middle French]] ''gendre''. This, in turn, came from [[Social:Latin|Latin]] ''genus''. Both words mean "kind", "type", or "sort". They derive ultimately from a widely attested [[Social:Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] (PIE) [[Social:Root (linguistics)|root]] ''g<sup>e</sup>n-'',<ref>[[Biography:Julius Pokorny|Pokorny, Julius]] (1959, reprinted in 1989) [https://web.archive.org/web/20071113165848/http://www.indo-european.nl/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=leiden&morpho=0&basename=%5Cdata%5Cie%5Cpokorny&first=651 'gen'], in ''Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch'', Bern: Francke, pp. 373–375.</ref><ref>[http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE143.html 'gen<sup>ə</sup>-'] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070704184247/http://www.bartleby.com/61/roots/IE143.html |date=4 July 2007 }}, in 'Appendix I: Indo-European Roots', to ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'', Fourth Edition, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000).</ref>
which is also the source of ''kin'', ''kind'', ''king'', and many other English words.<ref>[http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/roots/zzg00600.html 'Gen']. Your Dictionary.com</ref> It appears in Modern [[Social:French language|French]] in the word ''[[Social:Genre|genre]]'' (type, kind, also ''genre sexuel'') and is related to the [[Social:Greek language|Greek]] root ''gen-'' (to produce), appearing in ''[[Biology:Gene|gene]]'', ''genesis'', and ''[[Chemistry:Oxygen|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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/etymologicaldict00skeauoft/page/n5|title=An Etymological Dictionary of the English Language|last=Skeat|first=Walter William|publisher=Clarendon Press|year=1882|location=Oxford|pages=230}}</ref> 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.<ref name="holmes antiquity" /> 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.<ref name="holmes antiquity">{{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Brooke |title=Gender : Antiquity and its Legacy |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195380828 |pages=1–2 |chapter=Introduction |quote=For as it turns out, what we call gender is a fairly recent concept. It's not that people in Ancient Greece and Rome didn't talk and think and argue about the categories of male and female, masculine and feminine and the nature and extent of sexual difference. They did in [ways] both similar to and very different from our own. The problem is that they didn't have the concept of gender that has grown so influential in the humanities and the social sciences over the past four decades.}}</ref> 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.<ref name="holmes antiquity2">{{cite book |last1=Holmes |first1=Brooke |title=Gender : Antiquity and its Legacy |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780195380828 |pages=3–4 |chapter=Introduction |quote=The concept of gender, as I've just said, is recent. So what is it and where does it come from? Simone de Beauvoir famously wrote: 'one is not born, but rather becomes, woman'...But the term 'gender', which had long been associated with grammar, only started to move towards what she was describing in the later 1950s and 1960s.}}</ref>

Sexologist John Money introduced the terminological distinction between [[Biology:Sex and gender distinction|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.<ref name=udry /><ref name="haig" /> For example, in a bibliography of 12,000 references on marriage and family from 1900–1964, the term ''gender'' does not even emerge once.<ref name=udry /> Analysis of more than 30 million academic article titles from 1945–2001 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.<ref name="haig" /> 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).<ref name="haig" />

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; [[Biography:David Haig (biologist)|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."<ref name="haig" />

In legal cases alleging discrimination, ''sex'' is usually preferred as the determining factor rather than ''gender'' as it refers to biology rather than socially constructed norms which are more open to interpretation and dispute.<ref>Render, Meredith. (2006) "Misogyny, Androgyny, and Sexual Harassment: Sex Discrimination in a Gender-Deconstructed World". ''Harvard Journal of Law & Gender''. Vol. 29(1) (Winter). pp. 99–150.</ref> Julie Greenberg writes that although gender and sex are separate concepts, they are interlinked in that gender discrimination often results from stereotypes based on what is expected of members of each sex.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Greenberg | first1 = Julie A | year = 1999 | title = Defining Male and Female: Intersexuality and the Collision Between Law and Biology | journal = Arizona Law Review | volume = 41 | page = 265 }}</ref> In ''J.E.B. v. Alabama ex rel. T.B.'', United States Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia wrote:

{{quote|The word 'gender' has acquired the new and useful connotation of cultural or attitudinal characteristics (as opposed to physical characteristics) distinctive to the sexes. That is to say, gender is to sex as feminine is to female and masculine is to male.<ref>''J.E.B. v. Ala. ex rel. T.B.'', 114 S. Ct. 1419, 1436 n.1 (1994)</ref>}}

==== 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 [[Biography:Aristotle|Aristotle]], this concept was introduced by the Greek philosopher [[Biography:Protagoras|Protagoras]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Rhetoric |author=Aristotle |translator-last=Roberts |translator-first=William Rhys |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V_IMCohto0YC&pg=PA127 |date=2004 |orig-year=1st pub. Modern Library NY, 1954 |publisher=[[Social:Dover Publications|Dover]] |location=Mineola, NY |isbn=978-0-486-43793-4 |oclc=55616891 |quote=A fourth rule is to observe Protagoras' classification of nouns into male, female and inanimate.}}</ref>
In 1926, Henry Watson Fowler stated that the definition of the word pertained to this grammar-related meaning: {{quote|"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."<ref>Fowler's Modern English Usage, 1926: p. 211.</ref>}}

==== As a social role ====

Sexologist John Money coined the term ''gender role'', and was the first to use it in print in a scientific trade journal. 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."<ref name="Basic-Concepts">{{cite journal |last1=Money |first1=John |last2=Hampson |first2=Joan G |last3=Hampson |first3=John |date=October 1955 |title=An Examination of Some Basic Sexual Concepts: The Evidence of Human Hermaphroditism |journal=Bull. Johns Hopkins Hosp. |volume=97 |issue=4 |pages=301–19 |quote=By the term, gender role, we mean 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. Gender role is appraised in relation to the following: general mannerisms, deportment and demeanor, play preferences and recreational interests; spontaneous topics of talk in unprompted conversation and casual comment; content of dreams, daydreams, and fantasies; replies to oblique inquiries and projective tests; evidence of erotic practices and, finally, the person's own replies to direct inquiry. |pmid=13260820}}</ref>

The modern academic sense of the word, in the context of social roles of men and women, dates at least back to 1945,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/77468 |title=''gender'', n. |page=Sense 3(b) |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |website=Oxford English Dictionary Online |publisher=Oxford English Dictionary |access-date=2017-01-05}}</ref> 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:Social construction of gender|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."<ref name="difference">[http://www.bartleby.com/61/59/G0075900.html Usage note: ''Gender''], {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060321144225/http://bartleby.com/61/59/G0075900.html |date=21 March 2006 }} ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'', Fourth Edition, (2000).</ref>

{{quote|The effectiveness of the medication appears to depend on the sex (not gender) of the patient.<br />In peasant societies, gender (not sex) roles are likely to be more clearly defined.}}

== Gender identity and gender roles ==
{{Main|Philosophy:Gender identity|Social:Gender role}}
[[File:Sebastian Berggren 1999 for Wild Side Story.jpg|thumb|upright|Gender depicted as an ambiguous phenomenon, by a young Swedish actor]]
''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.<ref>Mikkola, Mari (12 May 2008). [http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2012/entries/feminism-gender "Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender."] Stanford University.</ref>

<nowiki> </nowiki>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. [[Biography:Judith Butler|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.<ref name="Butler 1990">Butler (1990)</ref> ''Social identity'' refers to the common identification with a collectivity or social category that creates a common culture among participants concerned.<ref>Snow, D.A. and Oliver, P.E. (1995). "Social Movements and Collective Behavior: Social Psychological Dimensions and Considerations", pp. 571–600 in Karen Cook, Gary A. Fine, and James S.House (eds.) ''Sociological Perspectives on Social Psychology''. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.</ref> According to [[Philosophy:Social identity theory|social identity theory]],<ref>Taifel, H. & Turner, J.C. (1986). "The social identity of intergroup relations", pp. 7–24 in S. Worchel & W.G. Austin (eds.) ''The psychology of intergroup relations''. Chicago: Nelson-Hall. {{ISBN|0-8185-0278-9}}.</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|year=1996|title=Group norms and the attitude-behavior relationship: A role for group identification|journal=Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin|volume=22|issue=8|pages=776–793|doi=10.1177/0146167296228002|author1=Terry, D.J.|author2=Hogg, M.A.|s2cid=145426706}}</ref>
[[File:2013 Rally for Transgender Equality 21175.jpg|thumb|A protester holding a flyer with the words "Gender is like that old jumper from my cousin. It was given to me and it doesn't fit" at a rally for transgender equality in Washington D.C. in 2013]]
Categorizing males and females into social roles creates a problem, 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.<ref>Pathak, Sunita, and Pathak, Surendra [https://www.academia.edu/263120/Gender_and_the_MDGs_with_reference_to_women_as_human "Gender and the MDGs with Reference to Women as Human"]. Academia.edu.</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last2=Johnson|first2=J. L.|last3=Percy|first3=M.E.|last4=Ratner|first4=P.A.|year=2010|title=Help seeking for cardiac symptoms: Beyond the masculine–feminine binary|journal=Social Science & Medicine|volume=71|issue=1|pages=18–24|doi=10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.03.006|pmid=20398989|last1=Galdas|first1=P. M.|pmc=5142841}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Warnecke, Tonia 2013">{{Cite journal|year=2013|title=Entrepreneurship and Gender: An Institutional Perspective|journal=Journal of Economic Issues|volume=47|issue=2|pages=455–464|doi=10.2753/JEI0021-3624470219|last1=Warnecke|first1=T.|s2cid=153502466}}</ref> 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.<ref>Spade, J., Valentine, C. (2011). ''The kaleidoscope of gender: prisms, patterns, and possibilities''. Pine Forge Press. 3rd edition</ref> 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.<ref name="Warnecke, Tonia 2013" />

Philosopher [[Biography:Michel Foucault|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".<ref>Tong, Rosemarie (2009). Feminist thought : a more comprehensive introduction / Rosemarie Tong.Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press {{ISBN|0-8133-4375-5}}.</ref> 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.<ref name="Butler 1990" /> "[This] is so because gender is politically and therefore socially controlled. Rather than 'woman' being something one is, it is something one does."<ref name="Butler 1990" /> More recent criticisms of Judith Butler's theories critique her writing for reinforcing the very conventional dichotomies of gender.<ref>Vigo, Julian. 'The Body in Gender Discourse: The Fragmentary Space of the Feminine.' ''La femme et l'écriture''. Meknès, Maroc, 1996.</ref>

=== Social assignment and gender fluidity ===
According to [[Gender studies|gender theorist]] Kate Bornstein, gender can have ambiguity and fluidity.<ref>Bornstein, Kate (1995). ''Gender Outlaw – On Men, Women and the rest of us'', Vintage, {{ISBN|0-679-75701-5}} pp. 51–52</ref> There are two contrasting ideas regarding the definition of gender, and the intersection of both of them is definable as below:

The [[Organization:World Health Organization|World Health Organization]] defines gender as the result of socially constructed ideas about the behavior, actions, and roles a particular sex performs.<ref name="www.who.int" /> 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.<ref name="www.who.int" /> Intersections and crossing of the prescribed boundaries have no place in the arena of the social construct of the term "gender".

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 woman or a man in society varies cross-culturally according to what things are considered to be masculine or feminine.<ref name="Birke, Lynda 2001">Birke, Lynda (2001). "Chapter 24, In Pursuit of Difference." ''The Gender and Science Reader''. New York: Routledge, pp. 309–22.</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ehrensaft|first=Diane|date=25 May 2017|title=Gender nonconforming youth: current perspectives|journal=Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics|language=en|volume= 8|pages=57–67|doi=10.2147/ahmt.s110859|issn=1179-318X|pmc=5448699|pmid=28579848}}</ref>

=== Social categories ===
[[File:Mollcutpurse.jpg|thumb|upright|Mary Frith ("Moll Cutpurse") scandalized 17th century society by wearing male clothing, smoking in public, and otherwise defying gender roles.]]
Sexologist John Money coined the term ''gender role'' in 1955. The term ''[[Social:Gender role|gender role]]'' is defined as the actions or responses that may reveal their status as boy, man, girl or woman, respectively.<ref name="j1">{{cite journal|year=1955|title=Hermaphroditism, gender and precocity in hyperadrenocorticism: Psychologic findings|journal=Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital|volume=96|issue=6|pages=253–264|pmid=14378807|last1=Money|first1=J|author-link1 = John Money}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Laurie|first=Timothy|title=The Ethics of Nobody I Know: Gender and the Politics of Description|url=https://www.academia.edu/6262250|year=2014|journal=Qualitative Research Journal|volume=14|issue=1|pages=64–78|doi=10.1108/qrj-03-2014-0011|hdl=10453/44221|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

==== Non-binary and third genders ====
Historically, many if not most societies have recognized only two distinct, broad classes of gender roles, a [[Gender binary|binary]] of masculine and feminine, largely corresponding to the biological sexes of male and female.<ref name="Nadal-re-binary"/><ref name="Llorente-re-binary">Maria Llorente, ''Culture, Heritage, and Diversity in Older Adult Mental Health Care'' (2018, {{ISBN|1615372059 }}), page 184: "Historically, in many, if not most, cultures, gender traditionally has been conceived as binary, but the modern and preferred understanding is that gender actually occurs on a spectrum."</ref><ref>Marie L. Miville, Angela D. Ferguson, ''Handbook of Race-Ethnicity and Gender in Psychology'' (2014, {{ISBN|1461488605}}), page 47: "In Western societies, as in many regions of the world, gender has been historically conceptualized and constructed as a binary (being either "male" or "female") largely determined by both biological (genetic and hormonal) and social cognitive (social, cultural reinforcement, and modeling of gendered behaviour)."</ref> When a baby is born, society allocates the child to one gender or the other, on the basis of what their genitals resemble.<ref name="Birke, Lynda 2001" />

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,<ref>{{cite web|url = http://tedxmaui.com/hinaleimoana-wong-kalu/|title = Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu – TedxMaui|date = 27 May 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url = http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue6/matzner.html|title = Intersections: Transgender, Queens, Mahu, Whatever': An Oral History from Hawai'i}}</ref> or the [[Biography:Ojibwe language|Ojibwe]] ''ikwekaazo'', "men who choose to function as women",<ref name=Treur2011>{{cite book|last1=Treuer|first1=Anton|title= The Assassination of Hole in the Day|date=2011|publisher=Borealis Books|isbn=9780873518017|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1aIrg3wiUyoC|access-date=17 October 2016|chapter=Women and Gender}}</ref> or ''ininiikaazo'', "women who function as men".<ref name=Treur2011/> In the language of the [[Social:Sociology of gender|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,<ref>{{Cite book | editor=Gilbert Herdt | title=Third Sex Third Gender: Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History | year=1996 | isbn=978-0-942299-82-3 | oclc=35293440}}</ref> 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.<ref name=Kehoe>{{cite web|last=Kehoe|first=Alice B.|title=Appropriate Terms|work=SAA Bulletin|publisher=Society for American Archaeology 16(2), UC-Santa Barbara|date=2002|issn=0741-5672|url=https://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/16-2/saa14.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041105120021/https://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/16-2/saa14.html|archive-date=5 November 2004|access-date=2019-05-01|quote=At the conferences that produced the book, ''Two-Spirited People'', I heard several First Nations people describe themselves as very much unitary, neither "male" nor "female," much less a pair in one body. Nor did they report an assumption of duality within one body as a common concept within reservation communities; rather, people confided dismay at the Western proclivity for dichotomies. Outside Indo-European-speaking societies, "gender" would not be relevant to the social personae glosses "men" and "women," and "third gender" likely would be meaningless. The unsavory word "berdache" certainly ought to be ditched (Jacobs et al. 1997:3–5), but the urban American neologism "two-spirit" can be misleading.|url-status=live}}</ref>

The hijras of {{wipe|India}} and {{wipe|Pakistan}} are often cited as third gender.<ref>Nanda, Serena (1998). ''Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India''. Wadsworth Publishing. {{ISBN|0-534-50903-7}}</ref><ref>Reddy, Gayatri (2005). ''With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity in South India.'' (Worlds of Desire: The Chicago Series on Sexuality, Gender, and Culture), University of Chicago Press (1 July 2005). {{ISBN|0-226-70756-3}}</ref> Another example may be the muxe (pronounced {{IPA-oax|ˈmuʃe|}}), found in the state of Oaxaca, in southern Mexico.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/weekinreview/07lacey.html "A lifestyle distinct: the Muxe of Mexico,"] ''New York Times'', 6 December 2008.</ref> The Bugis people of Sulawesi, Indonesia have a tradition that incorporates all the features above.<ref>Graham, Sharyn (April–June 2001) [http://www.insideindonesia.org/edit66/bissu2.htm Sulawesi's Fifth Gender] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060618180935/http://www.insideindonesia.org/edit66/bissu2.htm |date=18 June 2006 }}. ''Inside Indonesia''.</ref>

In addition to these traditionally recognized third genders, many cultures now recognize, to differing degrees, various [[History:Genderqueer|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,<ref>McGee, R. Jon and Richard L. Warms (2011). Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History. New York, McGraw Hill.</ref> and non-binary people may face increased risk of assault, harassment, and discrimination.<ref name="Harrison2011">{{cite journal | author1 = Jack Harrison | author2 = Jaime Grant | author3 = Jody L. Herman | title = A Gender Not Listed Here: Genderqueers, Gender Rebels, and Otherwise in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey | journal = LGBTQ Policy Journal | volume = 2 | year = 2011–2012 | url = http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/release_materials/agendernotlistedhere.pdf | access-date = 20 December 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120725182217/http://www.thetaskforce.org/downloads/release_materials/agendernotlistedhere.pdf | archive-date = 25 July 2012 | url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Biography:Joan Roughgarden|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.<ref>Roughgarden, Joan (2004) ''Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People''. University of California Press. {{ISBN|0-520-24073-1}}</ref>

=== Measurement of gender identity ===
Early gender identity research hypothesized a single bipolar dimension of masculinity-femininity, with masculinity and femininity being opposites on one continuum. Assumptions of the unidimensional model were challenged as societal stereotypes changed, which led to the development of a two-dimensional gender identity model. In the model, masculinity and femininity were conceptualized as two separate and orthogonal dimensions, coexisting in varying degrees within an individual. This conceptualization on femininity and masculinity remains the accepted standard today.<ref name=palan />

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).<ref name=palan>{{cite journal|author=Palan, K. |year=2001 |url=http://www.amsreview.org/articles/palan10-2001.pdf |title=Gender Identity in Consumer Research: A Literature Review and Research Agenda |journal=Academy of Marketing Science Review |volume=10 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120911204513/http://www.amsreview.org/articles/palan10-2001.pdf |archive-date=11 September 2012}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|year=1997|title=Changes in masculine and feminine traits over time: A meta-analysis|journal=Sex Roles|volume=36|issue=5–6|pages=305–325|doi=10.1007/BF02766650|last1=Twenge|first1=Jean M.|s2cid=144858334}}</ref>

=== 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.<ref>Anne Fausto-Sterling (1992) ''Myths of Gender: Biological Theories about Men and Women''. New York: Basic Books. p. 8 {{ISBN|0-465-04792-0}}.</ref> The philosopher and feminist [[Biography:Simone de Beauvoir|Simone de Beauvoir]] applied [[Philosophy:Existentialism|existentialism]] to women's experience of life: "One is not born a woman, one becomes one."<ref>de Beauvoir, Simone (1949) ''The Second Sex''.</ref> 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.<ref>Fausto-Sterling (2000) Chapter 3 "Of Gender and Genitals", pp. 44–77</ref>

Within [[Social:Feminist theory|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",<ref>{{Cite book | author=Chafetz, J.S. | title=Masculine/Feminine or Human? An Overview of the Sociology of Sex Roles | location=Itasca, Illinois | publisher=F.E. Peacock | year=1974 }}</ref> but in the 1978 edition, the use of ''sex'' and ''gender'' is reversed.<ref>{{Cite book | author=Chafetz, J.S. | title=Masculine/Feminine or Human? An Overview of the Sociology of Sex Roles | location=Itasca, Illinois | publisher=F.E. Peacock | year=1978 | isbn=978-0-87581-231-1 | oclc=4348310 | url=https://archive.org/details/masculinefeminin00chaf }}</ref>
By 1980, most feminist writings had agreed on using ''gender'' only for socioculturally adapted [[Social:Trait theory|traits]].

In [[Gender studies|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.<ref>Garrett, Stephanie (1992). [https://books.google.com/books?id=WMoNAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover ''Gender''], Routledge, p. vii {{ISBN|0-422-60570-0}}.</ref> This emerged from a number of different areas: in sociology during the 1950s; from the theories of the psychoanalyst [[Biography:Jacques Lacan#Lacan and his discontents|Jacques Lacan]]; and in the work of French psychoanalysts like [[Biography:Julia Kristeva|Julia Kristeva]], [[Biography:Luce Irigaray|Luce Irigaray]], and American feminists such as [[Biography:Judith Butler|Judith Butler]]. Those who followed Butler came to regard gender roles as a practice, sometimes referred to as "performative".<ref>Butler (1990) p. 9.</ref>

Charles E. Hurst states that some people think sex will, "...automatically determine one's gender demeanor and role (social) as well as one's [[Social:Sexual orientation|sexual orientation]] (sexual attractions and behavior).<ref name="Hurst141" /> 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".<ref>Schwalbe, M. (2005). The Sociologically Examined Life: Pieces of the Conversation Third Edition. pp. 22–23 {{ISBN|0-07-282579-0}}</ref> 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.<ref>Smith, N. and Stanley, E. (2011). Captive Genders. 1st ed. Edinburgh: AK Press.</ref><ref>Center for American Progress, (2016). Unjust: How The Broken Criminal Justice System Fails LGBT People. Washington.</ref><ref>Lydon et al., "Coming Out of Concrete Closets: A Report on Black & Pink's National LGBTQ Prisoner Survey."</ref> 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".<ref name="Hurst141">Hurst, C. (2007) ''Social Inequality: Forms, Causes, and Consequences''. 6th Edition. pp. 131, 139–142</ref> 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.<ref>Dworkin, Andrea (1995). "My Life as a Writer", pp.&nbsp;33–34 in Dworkin, Andrea ''Life and Death: Unapologetic Writings on the Continuing War Against Women''. New York: Free Press. {{ISBN|0-7432-3626-2}}</ref>

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 [[Biography:Sandra Harding|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".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Hawkesworth|first=Mary|year=2005|title=Engendering political science: An immodest proposal|journal=Politics & Gender|volume=1|issue=1|pages=141–156|doi=10.1017/s1743923x0523101x}}</ref>

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".<ref>{{cite journal|last=Karen|first=Beckwith|s2cid=146644541|title=A Common Language of Gender?|journal=Politics & Gender|year=2005|volume=1|issue=1|page=132|doi=10.1017/s1743923x05211017}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Women, Politics, and Public Policy: The Political Struggles of Canadian Women, 2nd ed|last=White|first=Linda|publisher=Oxford Press|year=1964|pages=6–7}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Women, Politics, and Public Policy: The Political Struggles of Canadian Women, 2nd ed|last=White|first=Linda|publisher=Oxford Press|year=1964|pages=11–12}}</ref>

=== Social construction of sex hypotheses ===
[[File:WomanFactory1940s.jpg|thumb|"Rosie the Riveter" was an iconic symbol of the American homefront in WWII and a departure from restrictive, "feminine", gender roles due to wartime necessity.]]
Sociologists generally regard gender as a social construct, and various researchers, including many [[Social:Feminism|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.<ref name=j1 /> 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."<ref>Oakley, Ann (1972). ''Sex, Gender and Society''. London: Temple Smith. p. 16 {{ISBN|0-85117-020-X}}.</ref> The [[Organization:World Health Organization|World Health Organization]] states, "'[s]ex' refers to the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women," and "'gender' refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women."<ref>World Health Organization (2002). "[https://www.who.int/gender/whatisgender/en/ Gender and Reproductive Rights: Working Definitions]". Retrieved 15 November 2012.</ref> Thus, sex is regarded as a category studied in biology (natural sciences), while gender is studied in [[Social:Humanities|humanities]] and social sciences. Lynda Birke, a feminist biologist, maintains "'biology' is not seen as something which might change."<ref>Birke, Lynda (2001). "In Pursuit of Difference: Scientific Studies of Women and Men," Muriel Lederman and Ingrid Bartsch eds., ''The Gender and Science Reader'', New York: Routledge. p. 320.</ref> 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 theorist [[Biography:Judith Butler|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."<ref>Butler (1990) p. 7.</ref><br />
She continues:<blockquote>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.<ref>Butler (1990) p. 10.</ref></blockquote>

Butler argues that "bodies only appear, only endure, only live within the productive constraints of certain highly gendered regulatory schemas,"<ref>Butler (1993) p. xi.</ref> 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."<ref>Butler (1993) pp. 2–3.</ref>

With regard to history, Linda Nicholson, a professor of history and [[Philosophy:Women's studies|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.<ref>{{cite journal|year=1994 |title="Interpreting Gender". Signs |journal=Journal of Women in Culture and Society |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=79–105 |doi=10.1086/494955 |jstor=3174928 |author=Nicholson, Linda |s2cid=225085688 }}</ref> Scholars such as Helen King, [[Biography:Joan Cadden (historian)|Joan Cadden]], and Michael Stolberg have criticized this interpretation of history.<ref>Helen King. 2013. ''The One-Sex Body on Trial: The Classical and Early Modern Evidence.'' Farnham: Ashgate. 978-1-4094-6335-1</ref><ref>Joan Cadden. 1993. ''Meanings of Sex Difference in the Middle Ages: Medicine, Science, and Culture.'' Cambridge University Press.</ref><ref>Michael Stolberg. 2003. "A Woman Down to her Bones. The Anatomy of Sexual Difference in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries." ''Isis,'' 94: 274-299.</ref>

In addition, drawing from the empirical research of [[Biology:Intersex|intersex]] children, Anne Fausto-Sterling, a professor of biology and [[Gender studies|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."<ref>Fausto-Sterling (2000) p. 45.</ref> 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."<ref>Fausto-Sterling (2000) p. 46.</ref> 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.<ref name="Fausto-Sterling, Anne 2000">Fausto-Sterling (2000)</ref> In her ''Sexing the body: gender politics and the construction of sexuality'', she introduces the following example:<blockquote> A group of physicians from Saudi Arabia recently reported on several cases of XX intersex children with [[Medicine:Congenital adrenal hyperplasia|congenital adrenal hyperplasia]] (CAH), a genetically inherited malfunction of the [[Biology:Enzyme|enzyme]]s 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.<ref>Fausto-Sterling (2000) pp. 58–59.</ref></blockquote>

Thus it is evident that culture can play a part in assigning gender, particularly in relation to intersex children.<ref name="Fausto-Sterling, Anne 2000" />

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 [[Social:Gender role|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."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Priess|first1=Heather A.|last2=Lindberg|first2=Sara M.|last3=Hyde|first3=Janet Shibley|title=Adolescent Gender-Role Identity and Mental Health: Gender Intensification Revisited|jstor=25592088|volume=80|issue=5|pages=1531–1544|doi=10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01349.x|journal=Child Development|pmc=4244905|pmid=19765016|year=2009}}</ref> 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."<ref name="Wiley">{{Cite journal|last1=Ridgeway|first1=Cecilia L.|last2=Correll|first2=Shelley J.|s2cid=8797797|title=Unpacking the Gender System: A Theoretical Perspective on Gender Beliefs and Social Relations|jstor=4149448|volume=18|issue=4|pages=510–531|doi=10.1177/0891243204265269|journal=Gender|year=2004}}</ref> 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."<ref name="Wiley" />

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 [[Philosophy:Gender identity|gender identity]] is determined solely by parenting.<ref>{{cite web|title=David Reimer, subject of 'sex reassignment,' dead at 38|url=http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/May/13/ln/ln52a.html}}</ref><ref name="Colapinto">{{cite book| vauthors = Colapinto J |url=https://archive.org/details/asnaturemadehim00john|title=As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl|publisher=Harper Perennial|year=2001|isbn=0-06-092959-6|author-link=John Colapinto}}</ref> Between the 1960s and 2000, many other newborn and infant boys were surgically reassigned as females if they were born with malformed penises, or if they lost their penises in accidents. Many surgeons believed such males would be happier being socially and surgically reassigned female. 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. Six of seven cases providing orientation in adult follow-up studies identified as heterosexual males, with one retaining a female identity, but who is attracted to women. Such cases do not support the theory that parenting influences gender identity or sexual orientation of natal males.<ref name="Bailey1">{{cite journal | vauthors = Bailey JM, Vasey PL, Diamond LM, Breedlove SM, Vilain E, Epprecht M | title = Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science | journal = Psychological Science in the Public Interest | volume = 17 | issue = 2 | pages = 45–101 | date = September 2016 | pmid = 27113562 | doi = 10.1177/1529100616637616 | s2cid = 42281410 | doi-access = free }}</ref>{{rp|72–73}} 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.<ref>[http://www.isna.org/faq/reimer Intersex Society of North America | A world free of shame, secrecy, and unwanted genital surgery]</ref>

In 2015, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a webinar series on gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, etc.<ref>{{Cite web |title=American Academy of Pediatrics, Education, LGBT Health and Wellness|url=https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/Committees-Councils-Sections/solgbt/Pages/Education.aspx|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170804215532/https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/Committees-Councils-Sections/solgbt/Pages/Education.aspx|archive-date=2017-08-04|website=www.aap.org|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | date=September 11, 2015|title=American Academy of Pediatrics Webinar Series - What is Gender?|url=https://www.aap.org/en-us/Documents/solgbt_webinar_what_is_gender_sherer.pdf|website=American Academy of Pediatrics}}</ref> In the first lecture Dr. Sherer explains that parents' influence (through punishment and reward of behavior) can influence gender ''expression'' but not gender ''identity''.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Dr. Sherer | work = American Academy of Pediatrics |title=SOLGBTHW Webinar - What is Gender Terminology and Definitions|date=2015-09-15|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrqIq1oiwdY}}</ref> She cites a ''Smithsonian'' article that shows a photo of a 3 year old President Franklin D. Roosevelt with long hair, wearing a dress.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|title=When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?|language=en|work=Smithsonian|url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-did-girls-start-wearing-pink-1370097/?c=y&page=1|access-date=2017-08-04}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Children as old as 6 wore gender neutral clothing, consisting of white dresses, until the 1940s.<ref name=":2" /> In 1927, ''{{wipe|Time (magazine)}}'' magazine printed a chart showing sex-appropriate colors, which consisted of pink for boys and blue for girls.<ref name=":2" /> 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).<ref name=":1" />

== 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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hines|first1=Melissa|last2=Constantinescu|first2=Mihaela|last3=Spencer|first3=Debra|title=Early androgen exposure and human gender development|journal=Biology of Sex Differences|date=26 February 2015|volume=6|pages=3|doi=10.1186/s13293-015-0022-1|pmc=4350266|issn=2042-6410|pmid=25745554}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hines|first1=Melissa|title=Prenatal endocrine influences on sexual orientation and on sexually differentiated childhood behavior|journal=Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology|date= 6 February 2017|volume=32|issue=2|pages= 170–182|doi=10.1016/j.yfrne.2011.02.006|pmc= 3296090|issn=0091-3022|pmid= 21333673}}</ref>

The [[Biology:Sexual dimorphism#Psychological and behavioral differentiation|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 [[Medicine:Gender dysphoria|gender dysphoria]]. Studies in this, and related areas, inform the following summary of the subject by John Money. He stated:

{{quote|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.<ref>{{cite journal|pmid=7996589|year=1994|last1=Money|first1=J|title=The concept of gender identity disorder in childhood and adolescence after 39 years|volume=20|issue= 3|pages=163–177|doi= 10.1080/00926239408403428|journal= Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy}}</ref>}}

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 [[Biology:Sexual dimorphism|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.

Although causation from the biological—[[Biology:Genetics|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. For example, the existence of a "[[Philosophy:Biology and sexual orientation|gay gene]]" has not been proven, but such a gene remains an acknowledged possibility.<ref>{{cite news | first= Michael | last= Abrams | url= http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jun/born-gay/article_view?b_start:int=0&-C= | title= The Real Story on Gay Genes: Homing in on the science of homosexuality—and sexuality itself| work= Discover | date= June 2007 }}</ref>

There are studies concerning women who have a condition called [[Medicine:Congenital adrenal hyperplasia|congenital adrenal hyperplasia]], which leads to the overproduction of the masculine sex [[Biology:Hormone|hormone]], [[Biology:Androgen|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.<ref>{{Cite web | last = Beattie-Moss | first = Melissa | title = Are gender differences predetermined? | publisher = Penn State University | date = 8 June 2005 | url = http://www.rps.psu.edu/probing/gender.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060113080145/http://www.rps.psu.edu/probing/gender.html | url-status=dead | archive-date = 13 January 2006 | access-date = 30 August 2010 }}</ref>

=== Gender taxonomy ===
The following gender taxonomy illustrates the kinds of diversity that have been studied and reported in medical literature. It is placed in roughly chronological order of biological and social development in the human [[Biology:Biological life cycle|life cycle]]. The earlier stages are more purely biological and the latter are more dominantly social. Causation is known to operate from chromosome to gonads, and from gonads to hormones. It is also significant from brain structure to gender identity (see Money quote above). Brain structure and processing (biological) that may explain erotic preference (social), however, is an area of ongoing research. Terminology in some areas changes quite rapidly as knowledge grows.
* [[Biology:Chromosome|chromosome]]s: 46,XX ([[Biology:Female|genetic female]]); 46,XY ([[Biology:Male|genetic male]]) ;45,X (Turner's syndrome); 47,XXY ([[Medicine:Klinefelter syndrome|Klinefelter syndrome]]); 47,XYY ([[Medicine:XYY syndrome|XYY syndrome]]); 47,XXX (XXX syndrome); 48,XXYY ([[Medicine:XXYY syndrome|XXYY syndrome]]); 46,XX/XY [[Biology:Mosaic (genetics)|mosaic]]; other mosaic;
* gonads: testicles; [[Biology:Ovary|ovaries]]; ovarian and testicular tissues, not in same gonad ([[Medicine:True hermaphroditism|true hermaphroditism]]), ovotestes, or other [[Medicine:Gonadal dysgenesis|gonadal dysgenesis]];
* [[Biology:Hormone|hormone]]s: [[Biology:Androgen|androgen]]s (including [[Chemistry:Testosterone|testosterone]], [[Chemistry:Dihydrotestosterone|dihydrotestosterone]], etc.), [[Biology:Estrogen|estrogen]]s (including [[Chemistry:Estradiol|estradiol]], [[Chemistry:Estriol|estriol]], etc.), [[Biology:Antiandrogen|antiandrogen]]s, [[Biology:Progestogen|progestogen]]s, and [[Biology:List of human hormones|others]];
* [[Biology:Sex organ|primary sexual characteristics]]: [[Biology:Sex organ#External and internal organs|genitals]]<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.dsdguidelines.org/htdocs/parents/handout_genital_development.html | title= Genital Development| work= Handbook for Parents| via= dsdguidelines.org | publisher= Consortium on the Management of Disorders of Sex Development; Intersex Society of America| year= 2006}}</ref>
* secondary sexual characteristics: dimorphic physical characteristics, other than primary characteristics (such as body hair, development of breasts); certain changes in brain structure due to organizing effects of sex hormones<ref>{{cite journal| title= Is it useful to view the brain as a secondary sexual characteristic?| journal= Neurosci Biobehav Rev |volume = 46 Pt 4| date= October 2014| number= 46 Pt 4| pages= 628–38 | doi= 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2014.08.009| last1= Ball | first1= GF | last2= Balthazart | first2= J | last3= McCarthy | first3= MM | pmid= 25195165| s2cid= 1331406 }}</ref>
* [[Philosophy:Gender identity|gender identity]]: one's sense of oneself as a [[Biology:Man|man]], woman, or gender non-conforming;
* gender expression: presentation and behaviors that express aspects of gender identity or [[Social:Gender role|gender role]]

=== Sexual dimorphism ===
[[File:Peacock courting peahen.jpg|thumb|Sexual differentiation in [[Biology:Peafowl|peafowl]]]]
Although sexual reproduction is ''defined'' at the cellular level, key features of sexual reproduction operate ''within'' the structures of the gamete cells themselves. Notably, gametes carry very long molecules called [[Biology:DNA|DNA]] that the biological processes of reproduction can "read" like a book of instructions. In fact, there are typically many of these "books", called ''chromosomes''. Human gametes usually have 23 chromosomes, 22 of which are common to both sexes. The final chromosomes in the two human gametes are called ''sex'' chromosomes because of their role in sex determination. Ova always have the same sex chromosome, labelled ''[[Biology:X chromosome|X]]''. About half of spermatozoa also have this same X chromosome, the rest have a [[Biology:Y chromosome|Y-chromosome]]. At fertilization the gametes fuse to form a cell, usually with 46 chromosomes, and either XX female or XY male, depending on whether the sperm carried an X or a Y chromosome. Some of the other possibilities are listed here.

Genes which are specific to the X or Y chromosome are called sex-linked genes. For example, the genes which create red and green retinal photoreceptors are located on the X chromosome, which men only have one of. Thus red-green color blindness is an [[Biology:X-linked recessive inheritance|X-linked recessive trait]] and is much more common in men. However, [[Biology:Sex-limited genes|sex-limited genes]] on any chromosome can be expressed differently in one sex versus another, with some degree of expression in both sexes.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Evolution |date=2010-09-27 |last1=Connallon |first1=Tim |last2=Clark |first2=Andrew |title=Sex Linkage, Sex-Specific Selection, and the Role of Recombination in the Evolution of Sexually Dimorphic Gene Expression |volume=64 |issue=12 |pages=3417–3442 |doi=10.1111/j.1558-5646.2010.01136.x |pmid=20874735 |pmc=2998557 |url=}}</ref>

The human [[Biology:XY sex-determination system|XY system]] is not the only sex determination system. Birds typically have a reverse, ZW system—males are ZZ and females ZW.<ref>{{cite book| first1= Maria | last1= Lepowsky | first2= JS | last2= Chafetz | title= The Encyclopedic Entry of Gender | via = Reference.com; Dictionary.com| year= 2008}}{{nonspecific| date= February 2019}}</ref> Whether male or female birds influence the sex of offspring is not known for all species. Several species of [[Biology:Butterfly|butterfly]] are known to have female parent sex determination.<ref>{{cite journal|last2= Sahara|first2=K.|last3=Marec|first3=F.|year= 2007|title=Sex Chromosomes and Sex Determination in Lepidoptera|journal=Sexual Development|volume=1|issue=6|pages=332–46|doi=10.1159/000111765|pmid=18391545|quote=The speciose insect order Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) and their closest relatives, Trichoptera (caddis flies), share a female-heterogametic sex chromosome system|last1=Traut|first1=W.|s2cid=6885122}}</ref>

The [[Biology:Platypus|platypus]] has a complex hybrid system, the male has ten sex chromosomes, half X and half Y.<ref name="discoverPlatypus">{{Cite web|url=http://discovermagazine.com/2005/apr/sex-ys-platypuses0425/|title=Sex, Ys, and Platypuses|publisher=Discover|author=Selim, Jocelyn |date=25 April 2005|access-date=7 May 2008}}</ref>

==== Human brain ====
[[File:Brain chrischan.jpg|thumb|[[Biology:Human brain|Human brain]]]]
{{main|Biology:Neuroscience of sex differences}}
"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)."<ref name="Haier">{{cite journal|last2=Jung|first2=RE|last3=Yeo|first3=RA|last4=Head|first4=K|last5=Alkire|first5=MT|year=2005|title=The neuroanatomy of general intelligence: Sex matters|journal=NeuroImage|volume=25|issue=1|pages=320–327|doi=10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.11.019|pmid=15734366|last1=Haier|first1=RJ|s2cid=4127512}} Page 324 for cerebrum difference of 8–10%.</ref><ref>{{cite journal|year=2005|title=Big-Brained People are Smarter: A Meta-Analysis of the Relationship between in Vivo Brain Volume and Intelligence|url=http://www.people.vcu.edu/~mamcdani/Big-Brained%20article.pdf|journal=Intelligence|volume=33|issue=4|pages=337–346|doi=10.1016/j.intell.2004.11.005|author=McDaniel, Michael A.}}</ref>
However, what is functionally relevant are differences in composition and "wiring". Richard J. Haier and colleagues at the universities of [[Organization:University of New Mexico|New Mexico]] and [[Organization:University of California, Irvine|California (Irvine)]] found, using [[Biology:Brain mapping|brain mapping]], that men have more [[Biology:Grey matter|grey matter]] related to general [[Philosophy:Intelligence|intelligence]] than women, and women have more [[Biology:White matter|white matter]] related to intelligence than men – the ratio between grey and white matter is 4% higher for men than women.<ref name="Haier" />

Grey matter is used for information processing, while white matter consists of the connections between processing centers. Other differences are measurable but less pronounced.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Tamminga, Carol A. |url=https://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/ajp.156.3.352|title=Brain Development, XI: Sexual Dimorphism|journal=American Journal of Psychiatry|volume=156|year=1999|pages= 352|pmid=10080547|last2=Kennedy|first2=DN|last3=Caviness Jr|first3=VS|issue=3|doi=10.1176/ajp.156.3.352|doi-broken-date=19 January 2021 }}</ref>
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.
{{quote|A sexual dimorphism in levels of [[Biology:Gene expression|expression]] in brain tissue was observed by [[Quantitative research|quantitative]] [[Real-time computing|real-time]] [[Biology:Polymerase chain reaction|PCR]], with females presenting an up to 2-fold excess in the abundance of PCDH11X transcripts. We relate these findings to sexually dimorphic traits in the human brain. Interestingly, PCDH11X/Y gene pair is unique to ''Homo sapiens'', since the [[Biology:Sex linkage|X-linked gene]] was transposed to the Y chromosome after the human–chimpanzee [[Biology:Lineage (evolution)|lineages]] split.|<ref>{{cite journal|pmid=16425037|year=2006|last1=Lopes|first1=AM|last2=Ross|first2=N|last3=Close|first3=J|last4=Dagnall|first4=A|last5=Amorim|first5=A|last6=Crow|first6=TJ|title=Inactivation status of PCDH11X: Sexual dimorphisms in gene expression levels in brain|volume=119|issue=3|pages=267–275|doi=10.1007/s00439-006-0134-0|journal=Human Genetics|s2cid=19323646}}</ref>}}

[[File:Brain Surface Gyri.SVG|thumb|[[Language]] areas of the brain:
{{Legend|#ffac75|[[Biology:Angular gyrus|Angular gyrus]]}}
{{Legend|#fcfb98|[[Biology:Supramarginal gyrus|Supramarginal gyrus]]}}
{{Legend|#b4d8ec|[[Biology:Broca's area|Broca's area]]}}
{{Legend|#b6cf9d|[[Biology:Wernicke's area|Wernicke's area]]}}
{{Legend|#f7a6b6|Primary auditory cortex}}]]

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.<ref>"Even when men and women do the same chores equally well, they may use different brain circuits to get the same result." Linda Marsha (July 2007). [http://discovermagazine.com/2007/brain/she-thinks 'He Thinks, She Thinks'], ''Discover''</ref> For example, both men and women learn and use language; however, [[Biology:Biochemistry|bio-chemically]], they appear to process it differently. Differences in female and male use of language are likely reflections ''both'' of biological preferences and aptitudes, ''and'' of learned patterns.

Testosterone acts on many organs of the body, including the [[Biology:INAH 3|SDN-POA]] located in the [[Biology:Sexually dimorphic nucleus|sexually dimorphic nucleus]] of the brain and the [[Biology:Onuf's nucleus|Onuf's nucleus]] in the [[Biology:Spinal cord|spinal cord]], to create the masculinized patterns.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Fetal Testosterone Influences Sexually Dimorphic Gray Matter in the Human Brain|volume=32|issue=2|pages=674–680|journal= Journal of Neuroscience|doi=10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4389-11.2012|pmid=22238103|pmc=3306238|year=2012|last1=Lombardo|first1=M. V.|last2=Ashwin|first2=E.|last3=Auyeung|first3=B.|last4=Chakrabarti|first4=B.|last5=Taylor|first5=K.|last6=Hackett|first6=G.|last7=Bullmore|first7=E. T.|last8=Baron-Cohen|first8=S.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sakamoto|first=Hirotaka|date=2014-07-11|title=Sexually dimorphic nuclei in the spinal cord control male sexual functions|journal=Frontiers in Neuroscience|volume=8|pages=184|doi=10.3389/fnins.2014.00184|pmid=25071429|pmc=4092374|issn=1662-453X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Filová|first1=Barbora|last2=Ostatníková|first2=Daniela|last3=Celec|first3=Peter|last4=Hodosy|first4=Július|date=2013|title=The Effect of Testosterone on the Formation of Brain Structures|journal=Cells Tissues Organs|language=en|volume=197|issue=3|pages=169–177|doi=10.1159/000345567|pmid=23306974|s2cid=19093923|issn=1422-6421}}</ref>

== Gender studies ==
{{Main|Gender studies}}
[[Gender studies]] is a field of interdisciplinary study and academic field devoted to gender, [[Philosophy:Gender identity|gender identity]] and gendered [[Social:Representation (politics)|representation]] as central categories of analysis. This field includes [[Philosophy:Women's studies|Women's studies]] (concerning women, feminity, their [[Social:Gender role|gender role]]s and politics, and [[Social:Feminism|feminism]]), [[Philosophy:Men's studies|Men's studies]] (concerning men, [[Social:Masculinity|masculinity]], their [[Social:Gender role|gender role]]s, and politics), and LGBT studies.<ref name="whitman">{{cite web | url=http://www.whitman.edu/content/genderstudies | archive-url=https://archive.is/20121212181127/http://www.whitman.edu/content/genderstudies | url-status=dead | archive-date=12 December 2012 | title=Gender Studies | publisher=Whitman College | access-date=2 May 2012 }}</ref>
Sometimes Gender studies is offered together with Study of Sexuality.
These disciplines study gender and sexuality in the fields of literature and language, [[History:History|history]], political science, sociology, [[Social:Anthropology|anthropology]], [[Social:Film studies|cinema]] and [[Social:Media studies|media studies]], human development, law, and medicine.<ref name="uchicago">{{cite web|url=http://gendersexuality.uchicago.edu/about/|title=About – Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality (CSGS)|publisher=The University of Chicago|access-date=2 May 2012}}</ref>
It also analyses race, [[Social:Ethnicity|ethnicity]], location, nationality, and [[Social:Disability|disability]].<ref name="indiana">{{cite web | url=http://www.indiana.edu/~gender/ | title=Department of Gender Studies | publisher=[[Organization:Indiana University|Indiana University]] (IU Bloomington) | access-date=2 May 2012}}</ref><ref name="Race, Ethnicity, Gender & Class">Healey, J.F. (2003). "Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Class: the Sociology of Group Conflict and Change", Pine Forge Press {{ISBN|1-4129-1521-X}}</ref>

== 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 [[Social:Behavioralism|behavioral psychology]] collates evidence in an effort to discover [[Correlation|correlation]]s 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.{{citation needed|date=June 2019}}

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.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Impact of Feminist Thought on Sociology |journal=Contemporary Sociology |date=May 1998 |last=England |first=Paula |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=263–268 |doi=10.2307/2654137 |jstor=2654137 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/2654137.pdf |access-date=2021-02-14 }}</ref>

[[File:La defensa de Zaragoza, por David Wilkie.jpg|thumb|300px| Spain's desperate situation when invaded by Napoleon enabled Agustina de Aragón to break into a closely guarded male preserve and become the only female professional officer in the Spanish Army of her time (and long afterwards).]]
Social theorists have sought to determine the specific nature of gender in relation to biological sex and sexuality,{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} 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.{{Citation needed| date= May 2008}} 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.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6d37lDUcLYEC&pg=PP11 |title= Gender Articulated |access-date= 21 September 2008 |publisher= Routledge |isbn= 978-0-415-91399-7 |year= 1995}}</ref>

As the child grows, "...society provides a string of prescriptions, templates, or models of behaviors appropriate to the one sex or the other,"<ref>Connell, R. (1987) ''Gender & Power''. Polity Press, Cambridge. {{ISBN|0-8047-1430-4}}.</ref> which socialises the child into belonging to a culturally specific gender.{{Citation needed|date=May 2008}} 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,<ref>{{cite dictionary| last= Satz | first = Debra | year= 2004 | url= http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-family/ | title= Feminist Perspectives on Reproduction and the Family | encyclopedia= Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | publisher= Stanford University}}</ref> and to make an impact on the production of culture and knowledge.<ref>Lorber, J & Farrell, S (eds.) (1990) ''The Social Construction of Gender''. Sage, Newbury Park. {{ISBN|0-8039-3956-6}}</ref> Adults who do not perform these ascribed roles are perceived from this perspective as deviant and improperly socialized.<ref>Wearing, B (1996). ''Gender: The Pain and Pleasure of Difference''. Longman, Melbourne {{ISBN|0-582-86903-X}}.</ref>

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:<ref>{{Cite journal| year= 1990|title= Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered Organizations|url=http://www.csun.edu/~snk1966/J.%20Acker%20Hierarchies,%20Jobs,%20Bodies%20--%20A%20Theory%20of%20Gendered%20Organizations.pdf|journal=Gender & Society|volume=4|issue=2|pages=139–158|doi= 10.1177/089124390004002002|jstor=189609|last1=Acker|first1=J.|citeseerx= 10.1.1.693.1964|s2cid= 40897237}}</ref>
* 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.<ref>Deji, Olanike F. (2012) ''Gender Concepts and Theories''. Gender and Rural Development. Berlin: Lit. N..</ref> "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."<ref name=glover>Glover, D and Kaplan, C (2000) [https://books.google.com/books?id=2NLbiutayFoC&printsec=frontcover ''Genders''], Routledge, New York {{ISBN|0-415-44243-5}}, p. xxi.</ref>

Gender conventions play a large role in attributing masculine and feminine characteristics to a fundamental biological sex.<ref>{{cite dictionary| last= Mikkola | first= Mari | title= Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender | encyclopedia= The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy | edition= Spring 2016 |editor-first= Edward N. | editor-last= Zalta | url= http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/feminism-gender/ | publisher= Stanford University | date= 12 May 2008 }}</ref> 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.<ref name= glover />

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.<ref>{{Cite journal|year=1999|title=Performativity, Parody, Politics|journal=Theory, Culture & Society|volume=16|issue=2|pages=195–213|doi=10.1177/02632769922050476|last1=Lloyd|first1=M.|s2cid=145251297}}</ref> 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 [[Social:Homosexuality|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.<ref>{{cite journal|year=1994|title=The Heterosexual Imaginary: Feminist Sociology and Theories of Gender|journal=Sociological Theory|volume=12|issue=2|pages=203–219|doi=10.2307/201865|jstor=201865|author=Ingraham, Chrys|citeseerx=10.1.1.470.737}}</ref>

== 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 [[Social:Same-sex marriage|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 [[Biology:Intersex|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.

[[Biology:Sex assignment|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.

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 [[Biology:Intersex|intersex]] people, who according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of [[Biology:Male|male]] or [[Biology:Female|female]] bodies",<ref name="unfe-fact">{{Cite web| author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> | publisher = United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights | title = Free & Equal Campaign Fact Sheet: Intersex| date = 2015| url = https://unfe.org/system/unfe-65-Intersex_Factsheet_ENGLISH.pdf | access-date = 28 March 2016 }}</ref> access to any form of identification document with a gender marker may be an issue.<ref name="Reuters">{{Cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/05/us-kenya-intersex-idUSKCN0JJ1M120141205 |title=Kenya takes step toward recognizing intersex people in landmark ruling |last=Migiro |first=Katy |website=Reuters |date=December 5, 2014 |access-date=April 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141206112734/https://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/05/us-kenya-intersex-idUSKCN0JJ1M120141205 |archive-date=December 6, 2014}}</ref> 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.<ref name="afp2016">{{Cite book| publisher = Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions| isbn = 978-0-9942513-7-4| last = Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutions| title = Promoting and Protecting Human Rights in relation to Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Sex Characteristics| date = June 2016| url = http://www.asiapacificforum.net/resources/manual-sogi-and-sex-charactersitics/}}</ref>

=== Non-binary and third genders ===
Some countries now legally recognize non-binary or third genders, including {{wipe|Canada}}, {{wipe|Germany}},<ref name="post" /> {{wipe|Australia}}, [[Earth:New Zealand|New Zealand]], {{wipe|India}} and {{wipe|Pakistan}}. In the {{wipe|United States}}, Oregon was the first state to legally recognize non-binary gender in 2017,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jun/15/oregon-third-gender-option-identity-law|title='Huge validation': Oregon becomes first state to allow official third gender option|date=15 June 2017|last=Levin|first=Sam|access-date=17 September 2019|work={{wipe|The Guardian}}}}</ref> and was followed by {{wipe|California}} and the District of Columbia.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://transgenderlawcenter.org/resources/id/ca-sb179 |title=Fact Sheet - California's Gender Recognition Act |work=Transgender Law Center |access-date=2021-02-15 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Siegel |first=Rachel |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/new-gender-neutral-identifiers-on-ids-signal-to-nonbinary-dc-residents-that-they-belong/2017/06/21/43361b80-55e3-11e7-a204-ad706461fa4f_story.html |title=New gender-neutral identifiers on IDs signal to nonbinary D.C. residents that they belong |work=The Washington Post |date=2017-06-21 |access-date=2021-02-15 }}</ref>

== Gender and society ==

=== 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. Some grammatical gender systems go beyond, or ignore, the masculine-feminine distinction.<ref>Kroulek, A. (18 January 2016). Why do languages have gender? Retrieved 12 March 2018, from http://www.k-international.com/blog/why-do-languages-have-gender/</ref>
* 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, [[Social:Gender differences in Japanese|Gender differences in Japanese]]. The oldest documented language, [[Social:Sumerian language|Sumerian]], records a distinctive sub-language only used by female speakers. Conversely, many Indigenous Australian languages have distinctive registers with a limited [[Social:Lexicon|lexicon]] used by men in the presence of their mothers-in-law (see [[Social:Avoidance speech|Avoidance speech]]). As well, quite a few [[Social:Sign language|sign language]]s have a gendered distinction due to boarding schools segregated by gender, such as Irish Sign Language.
* Several languages such as [[Social:Persian language|Persian]]<ref name="post">{{cite web |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/12/15/guide-how-gender-neutral-language-is-developing-around-world/ |title=A Guide to How Gender-Neutral Language is Developing Around the World |last=Berger |first=Miriam |date=December 15, 2019 |website=The Washington Post |access-date=April 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108223442/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/12/15/guide-how-gender-neutral-language-is-developing-around-world/ |archive-date=January 8, 2020}}</ref> or [[Social:Hungarian language|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)
* 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 [[Social:Spanish language|Spanish]],<ref name="post" /> ''Mädchen'' (grammatically neuter) in [[Social:German language|German]],<ref name="post" /> and ''cailín'' (grammatically masculine) in [[Social:Irish language|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 [[Social:Dyirbal language|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, [[Biography:Ojibwe language|Ojibwe]], [[Biography:Basque language|Basque]] and [[Social:Hittite language|Hittite]]; and systems distinguishing between people (whether human or divine) and everything else, which are found in the [[Social:Dravidian languages|Dravidian languages]] and [[Social:Sumerian language|Sumerian]].
* Several languages employ different ways to refer to people where there are three or more genders, such as [[Social:Navajo language|Navajo]] or [[Biography:Ojibwe language|Ojibwe]].

=== Science ===
Historically, science has been portrayed as a masculine pursuit in which women have faced significant barriers to participate.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schiebinger|first1=Londa|title=Has Feminism Changed Science? |journal=Signs: Jornal of Women in Culture and Society |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=1171–5 |date=2001 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Mass. |isbn=978-0-674-00544-0 |edition=2nd |pmid=17089478 |doi=10.1086/495540 |s2cid=225088475}}</ref> Even after universities began admitting women in the 19th century, women were still largely relegated to certain scientific fields, such as home science, [[Medicine:Nursing|nursing]], and child psychology.<ref name="Sheffield2006">{{cite book|title=Women and Science: Social Impact and Interaction|date=2006|publisher=Rutgers University Press|isbn=978-0-8135-3737-5|location=New Brunswick, NJ|pages=129–134|last1=Sheffield|first1=Suzanne Le-May}}</ref> Women were also typically given tedious, low-paying jobs and denied opportunities for career advancement.<ref name="Sheffield2006" /> 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.<ref name="Sheffield2006" /> Although these stereotypes have been dispelled in modern times, women are still underrepresented in prestigious "[[Philosophy:Hard and soft science|hard science]]" fields such as [[Physics:Physics|physics]], and are less likely to hold high-ranking positions,<ref name="Eisenhart1998">{{cite journal |title=Women's Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins|journal=Science Education|volume=84|issue=6|last2=Finkel|first2=Elizabeth|date=1998|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-19544-5|location=Chicago|pages=[https://archive.org/details/womenssciencelea0000eise/page/34 34–36]|last1=Eisenhart|first1=Margaret A.|bibcode=2000SciEd..84..793A|doi=10.1002/1098-237X(200011)84:6<793::AID-SCE6>3.0.CO;2-K|url=https://archive.org/details/womenssciencelea0000eise/page/34}}</ref> a situation global initiatives such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 are trying to rectify.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender equality|url=https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/in-focus/women-and-the-sdgs/sdg-5-gender-equality|access-date=2020-09-23|website=UN Women|language=en}}</ref>


=== Religion ===
This topic includes internal and external religious issues such as [[Religion:Gender of God|gender of God and deities]] creation myths about human gender, roles and rights (for instance, leadership roles especially ordination of women, [[Biology:Sex segregation|sex segregation]], [[Social:Gender equality|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 [[History:Religious fanaticism|religious fanaticism]] is more often seen in men than women.<ref>[http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/08/women_more_religious_than_men_1939513.html Women More Religious than Men]. yle.fi (29 August 2010)</ref>

[[File:Yin yang.svg|thumb|100px|[[Yin and yang|''Yin'' and ''yang'']]]]
In [[Philosophy:Taoism|Taoism]], [[Yin and yang|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://theculturetrip.com/asia/china/articles/the-hidden-meaning-behind-yin-and-yang/ |title=The Hidden Meaning Behind Yin and Yang |last=Deason |first=Rachel |date=February 24, 2018 |website=Culture Trip |access-date=April 25, 2021}}</ref>

In [[Religion:Judaism|Judaism]], [[Religion:God|God]] is traditionally described in the masculine, but in the mystical tradition of the [[Unsolved:Kabbalah|Kabbalah]], the [[Religion:Shekhinah|Shekhinah]] represents the feminine aspect of God's essence.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://stateofformation.org/2012/01/the-shekhinah-or-the-divine-presence-or-divine-feminine-in-judaism/ |title=The Shekhinah or The Divine Presence or Divine Feminine in Judaism |last=Tuchman |first=Lauren |date=January 18, 2012 |website=State of Formation |access-date=April 25, 2021}}</ref> However, Judaism [[Philosophy:Jewish principles of faith|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 [[Religion:Christianity|Christianity]], God is traditionally described in masculine terms and the Church has historically been described in feminine terms. On the other hand, Christian [[Religion:Theology|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 [[Religion:New Testament|New Testament]], Jesus at several times mentions the Holy Spirit with the masculine pronoun i.e. John 15:26 among other verses. Hence, [[Religion:God the Father|the Father]], [[Religion:God the Son|the Son]] and the Holy Spirit (i.e. [[Religion:Trinity|Trinity]]) are all mentioned with the masculine pronoun; though the exact meaning of the masculinity of the Christian triune God is contended.

In [[Religion:Hinduism|Hinduism]], one of the several forms of the [[Religion:Hinduism|Hindu]] God [[Religion:Shiva|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 [[Religion:Parvati|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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ardhanarishvara |title=Arhanarishvara: Hindu deity |website=Britannica |access-date=April 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180815031629if_/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ardhanarishvara |archive-date=August 15, 2018}}</ref>

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, [[Medicine:Multiple sex partners|multiple sex partners]] and open representation of sexual pleasures in artworks like the Khajuraho temples, being accepted within prevalent social frameworks.<ref name="vohra">Vohra, Ashok (8 March 2005), "The Male-Female Hologram," ''Times of India'', p. 9.</ref>

=== 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.<ref name=UNPD>[http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/povertyreduction/focus_areas/focus_gender_and_poverty/ Gender and Poverty Reduction] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141029203731/http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/povertyreduction/focus_areas/focus_gender_and_poverty/ |date=29 October 2014 }}. UNPD.org. 29 October 2014</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|year=1987|title=The Feminization of Poverty|journal=Journal of Economic Issues|volume=21|issue=1|pages=329–337|jstor=4225831|author=Peterson, Janice|doi=10.1080/00213624.1987.11504613}}</ref> Approximately 75% of world's women are unable to obtain bank loans because they have unstable jobs.<ref name=UNPD /> 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''.<ref>Stoiljkovic, Nena. [http://www.dandc.eu/articles/220419/index.en.shtml Smart finance]. D+C Development and Cooperation</ref> In 1978 Diana M. Pearce coined the term feminization of poverty to describe the problem of women having higher rates of poverty.<ref name="ReferenceA">Christopher, Karen, et. all. ''The Gender Gap in Poverty in Modern Nations: Single Motherhood, The Market, and the State''. University of California Press.</ref> Women are more vulnerable to chronic poverty because of gender inequalities in the distribution of income, property ownership, credit, and control over earned income.<ref name="ReferenceB">Cagatay, Nilufer. "Trade, Gender and Poverty." pp. 4–8. United Nations.</ref> Resource allocation is typically gender-biased within households, and continue on a higher level regarding state institutions.<ref name="ReferenceB" />
[[File:Gender and poverty 2012.jpg|thumb|A bar graph comparing poverty differences based on age and gender in 2012.]]
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.<ref>{{cite journal|year=2008|title=The 'Feminisation of Poverty' and the 'Feminisation' of Anti-Poverty Programmes: Room for Revision?|journal=Journal of Development Studies|volume=44|issue=2|pages=165–197|doi=10.1080/00220380701789810|last1=Chant|first1=Sylvia|s2cid=154939529}}</ref>

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 [[Social:Cisgender|cisgender]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://calculators.io/national-transgender-discrimination-survey/ |title=Archived copy |access-date=20 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120220938/https://calculators.io/national-transgender-discrimination-survey/ |archive-date=20 November 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.glaad.org/transgender/transfaq|title=Transgender FAQ|date=8 November 2013}}</ref>

=== General strain theory ===
According to [[Philosophy:General strain theory|general strain theory]], studies suggest that gender differences between individuals can lead to externalized anger that may result in violent outbursts.<ref name="Agnew, Robert 2012">{{Cite journal|year=2012|title=Reflection on "A Revised Strain Theory of Delinquency"|journal=Social Forces|volume=91|pages=33–38|doi=10.1093/sf/sos117|last1=Agnew|first1=R.|s2cid=145274165|doi-access=free}}</ref> These violent actions related to gender inequality can be measured by comparing violent neighborhoods to non-violent neighborhoods.<ref name="Agnew, Robert 2012" /> By noticing the independent variables (neighborhood violence) and the dependent variable (individual violence), it's possible to analyze gender roles.<ref name="search.proquest.com">{{Cite journal|last2=Kempf-Leonard|first2=K.|last3=Mullins|first3=C.|year=2014|title=Gender and Juvenile Drug Abuse: A General Strain Theory Perspective|journal=Women & Criminal Justice|volume=24|pages=22–43|doi=10.1080/08974454.2013.842519|last1=Grothoff|first1=G. E.|s2cid=144473355}}</ref> 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.<ref name="ReferenceC">{{Cite journal|last2=Blurton|first2=D.|last3=McCluskey|first3=J.D.|year=2007|title=General Strain Theory and Delinquency: Focusing on the Influences of Key Strain Characteristics on Delinquency|journal=Crime & Delinquency|volume=54|issue=4|pages=582–613|doi=10.1177/0011128707301627|last1=Moon|first1=B.|s2cid=145118032}}</ref> 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.<ref name="ReferenceC" /> Males are likely to put the blame on others for adversity and therefore externalize feelings of anger.<ref name="Agnew, Robert 2012" /> Females typically internalize their angers and tend to blame themselves instead.<ref name="Agnew, Robert 2012" /> Female internalized anger is accompanied by feelings of guilt, fear, anxiety and depression.<ref name="search.proquest.com" /> 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.<ref name="search.proquest.com" /> 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.<ref name="ReferenceC" />

=== Economic development ===
Gender, and particularly the role of women is widely recognized as vitally important to [[Finance:International development|international development]] issues.<ref>Adema, W., Ali, N., Frey, V., Kim, H., Lunati, M., Piacentini, M. and Queisser, M. (2014). Enhancing Women's Economic Empowerment Through Entrepreneurship and Business leadership in OECD Countries. OECD.</ref> This often means a focus on gender-equality, ensuring [[Social:Participation (decision making)|participation]], but includes an understanding of the different roles and expectation of the genders within the community.<ref>OECD, ILO, IMF and WBG, (2014). Achieving stronger growth by promoting a more genderbalanced economy. Report prepared for the G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting. Melbourne, Australia: G20 Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting.</ref>

In modern times, the study of gender and development has become a broad field that involves politicians, economists, and [[Social:Human rights defender|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{{who|date=July 2016}} 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).<ref>{{cite book |last1=Muyoyeta |first1=Lucy |title=Women, Gender and Development |date=2004 |publisher=Women for Change |location=Zambia |isbn=095351367X |url=https://www.developmenteducation.ie/media/documents/women_gender_dev.pdf}}</ref>

However, just as WID had its critics, so did WAD. Critics{{who|date=July 2016}} 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.<ref>{{cite book |last1=United Nations. Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, & Advancement of Women |title=Gender Mainstreaming an Overview |date=2002 |publisher=United Nations Publications |location=New York |url=https://www.un.org/womenwatch/osagi/pdf/e65237.pdf}}</ref>

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, [[Social:Social vulnerability|vulnerability]] and care link all the goals.<ref name=ODI>{{Cite web|url=http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id=2386&title=gender-mdgs-gender-lens-vital-pro-poor-results |title=Gender and the MDGS |date=September 2008 |publisher=Overseas Development Institute |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310100258/http://www.odi.org.uk/resources/details.asp?id=2386&title=gender-mdgs-gender-lens-vital-pro-poor-results |archive-date=10 March 2011 }}</ref>
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:
# Halve the proportion of people living in extreme poverty at the 1990 level by 2015.
# Achieve universal primary education
# Promote gender equality and empower women
# Reduce child mortality rates
# Improve maternal health
# Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
# Ensure environmental sustainability
# 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.<ref name="Achieving Gender Equality">[http://www.iiep.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Info_Services_Newsletter/pdf/eng/2010/2010_1En.pdf IIEP Newsletter] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716103610/http://www.iiep.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Info_Services_Newsletter/pdf/eng/2010/2010_1En.pdf |date=16 July 2011 }}, Achieving Gender Equality in Education.</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fao.org/gender/gender-home/gender-programme/gender-equity/en/|title= Gender equity|date=November 2009|publisher=Food and Agriculture Organization}}</ref> The [[Organization:Association for Progressive Communications|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.<ref>[http://www.genderevaluation.net/ Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM)]. genderevaluation.net</ref>

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.

=== Climate change ===
{{Main|Earth:Climate change and gender}}
Gender is a topic of increasing concern within [[Earth:Climate change|climate change]] policy and science.<ref name="Olsson">Olsson, Lennart'' et al.'' (2014) [http://ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/images/uploads/WGIIAR5-Chap13_FINAL.pdf "Livelihoods and Poverty"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028162950/http://ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/images/uploads/WGIIAR5-Chap13_FINAL.pdf |date=28 October 2014 }}, pp. 793–832 in ''Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.'' Ed. C.B. Field et al. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.</ref> Generally, gender approaches to climate change address gender-differentiated [[Biology:Effects of climate change|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 [[Philosophy:Intersectionality|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.<ref name="Birkmann">Birkmann, Joern et al. (2014)[http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg2/ar4-wg2-chapter19.pdf "Emergent Risks and Key Vulnerabilities"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140923002713/http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/wg2/ar4-wg2-chapter19.pdf |date=23 September 2014 }}, pp. 1039–1099 in ''Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.'' Ed. C.B. Field et al. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.</ref>
Roehr<ref name="Roehr">Roehr, Ulrike (2007). [http://www.unep.org/roa/Amcen/Projects_Programme/climate_change/PreCop15/Proceedings/Gender-and-climate-change/Roehr_Gender_climate.pdf "Gender, Climate Change and Adaptation. Introduction to the Gender Dimensions"] {{webarchive|url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20150517003436/http://unep.org/roa/amcen/Projects_Programme/climate_change/PreCop15/Proceedings/Gender-and-climate-change/Roehr_Gender_climate.pdf |date=17 May 2015 }}. unep.org</ref> notes that, while the {{wipe|United Nations}} officially committed to [[Social:Gender mainstreaming|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.<ref name="MacGregor" /><ref name="Tuana">{{Cite book | doi = 10.1007/978-94-007-5518-5_2| chapter = Gendering Climate Knowledge for Justice: Catalyzing a New Research Agenda| title = Research, Action and Policy: Addressing the Gendered Impacts of Climate Change| pages = 17–31| year = 2013| last1 = Tuana | first1 = N. | isbn = 978-94-007-5517-8}}</ref><ref name="Boyd">Boyd, Emily (2009). [https://archive.is/20141027174654/http://practicalaction.metapress.com/content/j61l8q/?genre=issue&id=doi:10.3362/9781780440088 "The Noel Kempff Project in Bolivia: Gender, Power, and Decision-Making in Climate Mitigation"], pp. 101–110 in ''Climate Change and Gender Justice''. Geraldine Terry and Caroline Sweetman (eds.). Warwickshire: Practical Action Publishing, Oxfam GB.</ref>
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.<ref name="Tuana" /> This perception of climate change hides subjectivity and power relations that actually condition climate-change policy and science, leading to a phenomenon that Tuana<ref name="Tuana" /> terms 'epistemic injustice'.
Similarly, MacGregor<ref name="MacGregor">{{Cite journal|year=2010|title=A stranger silence still: The need for feminist social research on climate change|journal=The Sociological Review|volume=57|issue=2_suppl|pages=124–140|doi=10.1111/j.1467-954X.2010.01889.x|last1=MacGregor|first1=S.|s2cid=141663550}}</ref> 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.<ref name="MacGregor" /><ref name="Boyd" />

=== Social media ===
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.<ref>{{cite journal|last2=Eisenstein|first2=Jacob|last3=Schnoebelen|first3=Tyler|date=April 2014|title=Gender identity and lexical variation in social media|journal=Journal of Sociolinguistics|volume=18|issue=2|pages=135–160|doi=10.1111/josl.12080|last1=Bamman|first1=David|arxiv=1210.4567|s2cid=10906164}}</ref> The ways in which people communicate and socialize have also started to change due to advancements in technology.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last1=Hayat|first1=Tsahi (Zack)|last2=Lesser|first2=Ofrit|last3=Samuel-Azran|first3=Tal|title=Gendered discourse patterns on online social networks: A social network analysis perspective|journal=Computers in Human Behavior|volume=77|pages=132–139|doi=10.1016/j.chb.2017.08.041|year=2017}}</ref> One of the biggest reasons for this change is the growth of [[Social:Social media|social media]].

Over the past few years, the use of social media globally has started to rise.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last1=Lesser|first1=Ofrit|last2=Hayat|first2=Tsahi (Zack)|last3=Elovici|first3=Yuval|date=2017-11-02|title=The role of network setting and gender in online content popularity|journal=Information, Communication & Society|volume=20|issue=11|pages=1607–1624|doi=10.1080/1369118x.2016.1252411|s2cid=151946083|issn=1369-118X}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite journal|last2=Wilson|first2=S.A.|last3=DuFrene|first3=D.D.|date=14 October 2011|title=The Social Networking Arena: Battle of the Sexes|journal=Business Communication Quarterly|volume=75|issue=1|pages=64–67|doi=10.1177/1080569911423961|last1=Clipson|first1=T.W.|s2cid=167866592}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gourdreau |first1=Jenna |date=26 April 2010 |title=What men and women are doing on Facebook |work=Forbes |url=https://www.forbes.com/2010/04/26/popular-social-networking-sites-forbes-woman-time-facebook-twitter.html |access-date=12 April 2016}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Tufekci |first1=Zeynep |title=Gender, social capital and social network(ing) sites: Women bonding, men searching |publisher=American Sociological Association |url=http://research.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/2/4/2/6/9/p242696_index.html |access-date=14 April 2016|date=2008-07-31 }}</ref> 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 post''s.''

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.<ref name="auto">{{cite journal|last2=Araüna-Baró|first2=Núria|last3=Martínez-Martínez|first3=Inmaculada José|date=1 June 2013|title=Advertising Stereotypes and Gender Representation in Social Networking Sites|journal=Comunicar|volume=21|issue=41|pages=177–186|doi=10.3916/C41-2013-17|last1=Tortajada-Giménez|first1=Iolanda|doi-access=free}}</ref> Moreover, 58% of women and 45% of men don't look into the camera, which creates an illusion of withdrawal.<ref name="auto"/> 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.<ref name="auto"/> Research has found that images shared online through social networking sites help establish personal self-reflections that individuals want to share with the world.<ref name="auto"/>

According to recent research, gender plays a strong role in structuring our social lives, especially since society assigns and creates "male" and "female" categories.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Hodkinson|first1=P.|title=Bedrooms and beyond: Youth, identity and privacy on social network sites|journal=New Media & Society|volume=19|issue=2|pages=272–288|date=22 September 2015|doi=10.1177/1461444815605454|s2cid=1281232|url=http://epubs.surrey.ac.uk/809096/9/bedrooms%20and%20beyond%20nms%20paper%20-%20for%20repository.pdf}}</ref> Individuals in society might be able to learn the similarities between gender rather than the differences.<ref>{{cite journal|last2=Mackey-Kallis|first2=Susan|last3=Shyles|first3=Len|last4=Barry|first4=Kelly|last5=Biagini|first5=Danielle|last6=Hart|first6=Colleen|last7=Jack|first7=Lauren|date=November 2012|title=Face it: The Impact of Gender on Social Media Images|journal=Communication Quarterly|volume=60|issue=5|pages=588–607|doi=10.1080/01463373.2012.725005|last1=Rose|first1=Jessica|s2cid=54211699}}</ref> Social media helps create more equality, because every individual is able to express him- or herself 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schwartz |first1=HA |last2=Eichstaedt |first2=JC |last3=Kern |first3=ML |last4=Dziurzynski |first4=L |last5=Ramones |first5=SM |last6=Agrawal |first6=M |last7=Shah |first7=A |last8=Kosinski |first8=M |last9=Stillwell |first9=D |last10=Seligman |first10=ME |last11=Ungar |first11=LH |title=Personality, gender, and age in the language of social media: the open-vocabulary approach. |journal=PLOS ONE |date=2013 |volume=8 |issue=9 |pages=e73791 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0073791 |pmid=24086296|pmc=3783449 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...873791S }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book|title=Explaining why young adults use MySpace and Facebook through uses and gratifications theory|last2=Dong|first2=Q|last3=Day|first3=K.D|date=2009|edition=2|pages=215–229|last1=Urista|first1=M.A}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Older adolescents' motivations for social network site use: The influence of gender, group identity, and collective self-esteem|publisher=CyberPsychology & Behavior|edition=2|pages=209–213|last1=Barker|first1=V|journal=Cyberpsychology & Behavior : The Impact of the Internet, Multimedia and Virtual Reality on Behavior and Society|year=2009|volume=12|issue=2|doi=10.1089/cpb.2008.0228|pmid=19250021}}</ref> 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.<ref name="auto1">{{cite journal|last1=de Ridder|first1=Sander|last2=van Bauwel|first2=Sofie|title=Youth and intimate media cultures: Gender, sexuality, relationships, and desire as storytelling practices in social networking sites|journal=Communications|date=1 January 2015|volume=40|issue=3|doi=10.1515/commun-2015-0012|url=https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/5889652/file/7011376.pdf|hdl=1854/LU-5889652}}</ref> Social networking sites have also given individuals access to create a space where they feel more comfortable about their sexuality.<ref name="auto1"/> 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.<ref name="auto1"/>

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.<ref name="auto2">{{cite book|last1=Herring|first1=Susan|last2=Kapidzic|first2=Sanja|title=Teens, Gender, and Self-Presentation in Social Media|date=2015|publisher=International encyclopedia of social and behavioral sciences|edition=2}}</ref>

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.<ref name="auto2"/> 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.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Malin|first1=Sveningsson Elm|title=Doing and undoing gender in a Swedish Internet community|url=http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-18434|access-date=14 April 2016|date=1 January 2007|publisher=Cambridge}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Role of Facebook in Romantic Relationship Development: An Exploration of Knapp's Relational Stage Model|date=2012|publisher=Conference Papers – International Communication Association|pages=1–32}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Gauntlett|first1=D|title=Media, Gender and Identity: An Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ScR9AgAAQBAJ&q=gender%2Band%2Bsocial%2Bmedia&pg=PP1|website=Media, Gender and Identity|access-date=14 April 2016|isbn=978-1-134-15502-6|date=2008-03-18}}</ref> Even though these traits continue to be displayed through gender stereotypes, recent studies show that this isn't necessarily the case any more.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Herring|first1=I|title=Teens, Gender, and Self-Presentation in Social Media. Sciences|url=http://info.ils.indiana.edu/~herring/teens.gender.pdf|publisher=Oxford|access-date=14 April 2016}}</ref>

==See also==
{{Div col}}
* [[Philosophy:Androcentrism|Androcentrism]]
*[[Social:Anti-gender movement|Anti-gender movement]]
* [[Philosophy:Biological determinism|Biological determinism]]
* [[Philosophy:Coloniality of gender|Coloniality of gender]]
* [[Social:Gender bender|Gender bender]]
* [[Gender paradox]]
* Gynocentrism
* [[Philosophy:Postgenderism|Postgenderism]]
* Sexism
* [[Sex ratio]]
{{Div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
* {{Cite book | author=Butler, Judith | year=1990 | title=Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Thinking Gender' | location=New York & London | publisher=Routledge | isbn=978-0-415-38955-6}}
* {{Cite book | author=Butler, Judith | year=1993 | title=Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex" | location=New York | publisher=Routledge | isbn=978-0-415-61015-5}}
* {{Cite book | author=Fausto-Sterling, Anne | year=2000 | title=Sexing the body: gender politics and the construction of sexuality | location=New York | publisher=Basic Books | isbn=978-0-465-07714-4 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780465077137 }}
* {{cite journal | last1 = Hayat | first1 = T. | last2 = Lesser | first2 = O. | last3 = Samuel-Azran | first3 = T. | year = 2017 | title = Gendered discourse patterns on online social networks:a social network analysis perspective | journal = Computers in Human Behavior | volume = 77 | pages = 132–159 | doi = 10.1016/j.chb.2017.08.041 }}

== External links ==
* [http://www.genderportal.eu/ GenPORT: Your gateway to gender and science resources]
* [http://www.worldbank.org/genderinag Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook]

{{Sexual identities}}


[[Category:Biology]]

{{Sourceattribution|Gender|1}}