2022

Basic Concepts
• Pregnant people are commonly asked, “What are you having?” The
question has to do with whether they are expecting a girl or a boy.
About two-thirds of pregnant women in the US want to find out in
advance whether they’ll give birth to a daughter or son (Kearin et al.,
2014). Today, advances in medical technology mean that many
expectant parents may obtain relatively detailed ultrasound images of
the developing fetus; that technology can be used to identify the
fetus’s genitals. Parents soon imagine gendered names, clothing,
colors, toys, activities, and so on for the child, all on the basis of
whether or not they saw a penis on that ultrasound.

Sex and Gender

• In the English language the term sex is used to refer to physical and
physiological features including chromosomes, gene expression,
hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy.

• Gender is the social significance of sex, refers to the characteristics of

women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed. As a social
construct, gender varies from society to society and can change over
time.

1
 2022

• “Sex” refers to the biological division into male and female; “gender”
to the parallel and socially unequal division into femininity and
masculinity.

• At birth, the difference between boys and girls is their sex; as they
grow up society gives them different roles, attributes, opportunities,
privileges and rights that in the end create the social differences
between men and women.

• Biologists have started to discuss the idea that sex may be a

spectrum. Intersex is an umbrella term that describes bodies that fall
outside the strict male/female binary.

• Being intersex can mean different things. For example, a person might
have genitals or internal sex organs that fall outside of typical binary
categories. Or, a person might have a different combination of
chromosomes. Some people do not know that they are intersex until
they reach puberty.

2
 2022

Masculinity and Femininity

• The sex/gender differences raises the issues of male-female;
masculine and feminine, male associated with masculinity and female
with femininity. With each constructions the biological differences
between men and women get translated into social terms and
descriptions.
• Patterns of differences by gender is seen when the character is either
masculine or feminine. For example, pink and blue are gendered
colors, former regarded as feminine and the latter as masculine.
Further to be strong and tough is masculine. Being weak and soft are
associated with feminine character.

Gender Roles
• The sets of behavior, roles and responsibilities attributed to women
and men respectively by society which are reinforced at the various
levels of the society through its political and educational institutions
and systems, employment patterns, norms and values, and through
the family.
• Gender roles in society means how we're expected to act, speak,
dress, groom, and conduct ourselves based upon our assigned sex.

3
 2022

Gender Binary
• The gender binary is a system of thinking about gender as having two
distinct and opposing groups or kinds (that is, male and female).
• It is evident in phrases such as “the opposite sex” and in assuming
that all people must fit squarely into one of these two groups.
• When you apply for a driver’s license, for example, you typically must
choose either male or female for gender; you may choose only one of
these options, and there are no others.
• Today, we know that people may identify themselves as being either
within or outside the gender binary, such as belonging to a third
gender category like genderqueer or as being non-binary.
7

• Non-Binary is widely used to describe a gender identity that can not

be categorized as masculine or feminine. Non-Binary people
experience their gender in all different ways. It could be experienced
as a combination of male and female, neither male nor female, nor
something completely independent of notions of conventional gender
identities. Non-Binary is an expansive umbrella term, and many
gender identities discussed in this article fall under it.

4
 2022

• Gender identity refers to a person’s understanding and experience of

their own gender. Everyone has a gender identity; for some people, it
corresponds with the gender assigned at birth, and for some others, it
does not. Gender identities are expansive and do not need to be
confined within one collectively agreed-upon term. There is no one
authority that dictates the boundaries of gender, except the individual
concerned.

• A person who is transgender is a person whose self-identified gender

differs from the gender they were assigned at birth, typically based on
the appearance of external genitalia (sometimes called natal gender).
• A transgender woman, then, is a person who identifies as female but
was assigned a male gender at birth, and a transgender man is a
person who identifies as male but was assigned a female gender at
birth.
• Still, it is important to note that not all people whose self-identified
gender differs from their assigned gender will label themselves
transgender.
• By contrast, a person who is cisgender is a person whose self-
identified gender matches the gender they were assigned at birth.
10

5
 2022

• Agender means that a person identifies as not having a gender. A person

who identifies within this term often will consider themselves as either
having a type of non-binary gender identity or as not subscribing to any
gender identity at all.
• Demigender is a term used to partially identify, or feel a connection, to
a particular gender. For example, demigirl or demiboy. These identities
vary by person but hold in common the fact that there is not a full
identification with one gender, only an internal leaning towards it.
• Gender questioning describes someone who is questioning all or parts
of their gender (identity or expression) and does not wish to identify
themselves to a specific gender identity.
• Gender fluid, like gender questioning, is a term that can be used to
describe a person’s gender identity, expression, or both. Gender fluid
describes a person who moves fluidly between genders, or whose
gender shifts over time. 11

• Gender expression refers to the ways in which a person chooses to

present their gender to the world around them. This can include
clothing, mannerisms, pronouns, names, etc. However, it is important
to note that while things like names, clothing, and others can be an
intentional part of a person’s gender expression, these things also do
not necessarily need to have a gender attached to them. This is to say
that a person’s gender identity can sometimes inform a person’s
gender expression, but a person’s perceived gender expression does
not dictate their gender identity.

12

6
 2022

• As gender was shown to be different from sex, so too we must

distinguish it from sexual orientation which concerns who we are
physically, emotionally, and/or romantically attracted to. Hence,
sexual orientation is interpersonal while gender is personal.
• We would be mistaken to state that a boy who plays princess is gay or
that a girl who wears boy’s clothing and has short hair is necessarily
lesbian. The root of such errors comes from our confusing gender and
sexual orientation. The way someone dresses or acts concerns gender
expression and we cannot know what their sexual orientation is from
these behaviors.

13

Sex Role Ideology

• What is considered appropriate behavior for males and females varies
across societies, but there are two possible cultural universals: At
least to some degree, every society assigns traits and tasks on the
basis of gender, and in no society is the status of women superior to
that of men.
• In virtually all human groups, women have greater responsibility for
“domestic” activities while men have greater responsibility for
“external” activities. Women are responsible for cooking, food
preparation, carrying water, caring for clothing, and making
household things, and men are involved with hunting, metalwork,
and weapon making, and travel further from home.
14

7
 2022

Male as Normative
• One theme rooted in history is the male as normative.
• Throughout mythology the male is seen as normative, the female as a
variant or deviation. That is, the male is the important one, the major
representative of the species, the “normal” one, and the female is a
variation on him.
• As Simone de Beauvoir (1952) expressed it, woman is the Other.
• Perhaps the clearest example of the male-as-normative theme is in
language. The word man is used to refer not only to a male person,
but to people in general.

15

• A closely related concept is androcentrism (Bem, 1993). It means,

literally, male-centeredness, or the belief that males are the standard
or norm.
• To be the deviation from the norm is, often, to be marginalized,
ignored, or devalued. Thus, embedded within the theme of male as
normative and androcentrism is the lower social status of women
relative to men.
• Throughout the world, women do not enjoy the same rights,
freedoms, and opportunities as men (United Nations Development
Programme, 2015).

16

8
 2022

Patriarchy
• The term patriarchy means “the absolute rule of the father or the
eldest male member over his family”. Patriarchy is thus the rule of the
father over all women in the family and also over younger socially and
economically subordinate males. Literally, patriarchy means rule by
the male head of a social unit (like family, tribe). The patriarch is
typically a societal elder who has legitimate power over others in the
social unit.
• However, since the early twentieth century, feminist writers have
used the term patriarchy as a concept to refer to the social system of
masculine domination over women. Patriarchy has been a
fundamentally important concept in gender studies.
17

Gender Gap
• The gap in any area between women and men in terms of their levels
of participation, access, rights, remuneration or benefits;

• Gender pay gap, the average difference between the remuneration

for men and women who are working, with women often paid less
than men.
• Gender gap in education, sex discrimination in the education system
affecting both men and women during and after their educational
experiences.

18

9
 2022

Gender Equality
• Gender equality is the state of equal ease of access to resources and
opportunities regardless of gender, including economic participation
and decision-making; and the state of valuing different behaviors,
aspirations and needs equally, regardless of gender.
• Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a
necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable
world.

19

Gender Equity
• Gender equity is the state of justice and fairness in the treatment of
women and men in order to eventually achieve gender equality, often
requesting differential treatment of women and men (or specific
measures) in order to compensate for the historical and social
disadvantages that prevent women and men from sharing a level
playing field.

20

10
 2022

• Example: A family has limited funds, and both daughter and son need
new pair of shoes for the new school year, but only one can get new
shoes this year. If the family decides (and who in the family decides?)
which child will get the new shoes based on the child’s NEED, and not
on the child’s sex; this is an example of gender equality.
• Example: Provision of leadership training for women or establishing
quotas for women in decision-making positions in order to achieve
the state of gender equality; this is an example of gender equity.

• Equity leads to equality! Equity means that there is a need to

continue taking differential actions to address historical inequality
among men and women and achieve gender equality!
21

Intersectionality of Gender
• Intersectionality can be defined as an approach or perspective that
simultaneously considers the meaning and consequences of multiple
categories of identity, difference, and disadvantage (E. R. Cole, 2009).
• That is, according to this approach, we should not consider the effects
of gender in isolation. Instead, we should consider the experience and
effects of gender, race, social class, and sexual orientation
simultaneously.
• When we talk about the category “women,” we are talking about a
complex group that differs along many dimensions and categories,
including ethnicity, social class, and sexual orientation.

22

11
 2022

• Within this perspective, it becomes clear that some groups

experience multiple disadvantages, such as poor Black women or
lesbian women of color.
• Others may be part of a disadvantaged group but also part of a
privileged group, such as White women with disabilities.
• The experience of gender differs for the women at each of these
intersections, but there are also similarities.
• Transgender women and cisgender women may experience their
gender in some ways that are different and some ways that are
similar.

23

12