Week 1

Introduction to Society & Gender

Week 1: Introduction to Society & Gender

Gender & Its Definition

 “Either of the tow sexes male and female, especially when considered
with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological
ones. The term is also used more broadly to denote a range of identities
that do not correspond to established ideas of male and female.”
Week 1: Introduction to Society & Gender

Gender & Its Definition

 In language such as Latin, Greek, Russian and German, each of the classes
(typically, masculine, feminine, common neuter) of nouns and pronouns
distinguished by the different inflections that they have and require in
words syntactically associated with them. Grammatical gender is only
very loosely associated with natural distinctions of sex.
Week 1: Introduction to Society & Gender

Gender & Its Definition

 “The state of being male or female as expressed by social or cultural

distinctions and differences, rather than biological ones; the collective
attributes or traits associated with a particular sex, or determined as a
result of one’s sex.”
Week 1: Introduction to Society & Gender

Gender & Its Definition

 Traditionally, Gender is viewed as being male or female. The predominant

sex trait and biological characteristics that a person has.
 In lay man’s term, the traditional meaning of gender is “the thing between
the legs” and/or the psychological, emotional and sexual attraction
towards a member of a different sex.
Week 1: Introduction to Society & Gender

Gender & Its Definition

 Since the dawn of the new century, the view and idea of gender has
evolved in a contemporary understanding of psychology, sociology and
culture based on the human perception of sexual urges and emotional
attraction.
Week 1: Introduction to Society & Gender

Gender & Its Definition

 The World Health Organization released a definition of Gender in 2018

and it states that “Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics
of women and men, such as norms, roles, and relationship between
groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and can be
changed.”
Week 1: Introduction to Society & Gender

Gender & Its Definition

 Gender role/expression is the expression or demonstration of male or

female characteristics in behavior, clothing and/or mannerism. In short, a
person may have a male gender identity but have a female gender
role/expression.
Week 1: Introduction to Society & Gender

Gender & Its Definition

 Sexual Orientation is a person’s sexual identity in relation to his/her

gender identity to which he/she is attracted to. It is the fact of being the
traditional term of “heterosexual,””homosexual,””bisexual,” or “pansexual.”
Week 1: Introduction to Society & Gender

Gender & Its Definition

 “Gender Identity is what you sleep with at night while Sexual Orientation
is who you sleep with at night.”
Week 1: Introduction to Society & Gender

Society & Gender

 Society - is the aggregate of people living together in a more or less

ordered or organized community. It is governed by norms and rules in
which each members contributes to the development of the community
and serves its purpose as safe and nurturing environment.
Week 1: Introduction to Society & Gender

Society & Gender

 Society’s view towards gender differs from culture to culture. Some

cultures are a matriarchal society while most are patriarchal.
1.
https://www.oed.com/viewdiction
aryentry/Entry/77468
2. Reference/s and Supplementary Material/s
https://www.medicalnewstoday.co
m/articles/232363#gender-
differences Online Supplementary Reading Material/s
3.
http://emedicine.medscape.com/
article/917990