Gender Concepts/terms

The concepts of gender and sex are distinct but connected.

Sex: Sex refers to biological and physiological characteristics. In Britain, the terms ‘male’ and ‘female’ are used
in birth certificates to denote the sex of children.

Gender: Gender refers to socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities, and attributes. The terms ‘man’,
‘masculine’, ‘woman’, and ‘feminine’ denote gender.

Sex and gender, and the terms, 'male/female’ and ‘man/woman’ are often used and understood interchangeably.
However, in the research literature, sex and gender are considered separately. These definitions are taken from
the Equality and Human Rights Commission's publication.

Gender norms are learned and are not fixed; they evolve and change over time. The roles, behaviours or
activities accepted as ‘normal’ can differ between societies. Societies vary in how rigidly they apply gender
stereotypes, and the amount of flexibility they allow individuals in interpreting their own gender identity.
Unless challenged, gender stereotypes can be formed and reinforced very early in a child's life. Unquestioned
social acceptance of gender stereotypes implies more limited opportunities for individuals, and physical and
mental health risks if they do not comply with those stereotypes. Harassment and discrimination based on sex
are illegal in the Equality Act 2010.

Biological sex does not only consist of the simple binaries of male and female (Sen et al, 2007. People can
choose their gender, including non-binary gender identities, while sex can also be changed in both a physical
and a legal sense. The challenge to heterosexual norms by the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender)
movement goes beyond biological sex to reflect how sexuality and gender are defined and expressed.
(Information from the Scottish Public Health Observatory, 2020)
Definition of Sex vs. Gender
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.
Sex Gender

Biological characteristics (including genetics,
anatomy and physiology) that generally define
humans as female or male. Note that these biological
characteristics are not mutually exclusive; however,
there are individuals who possess both male and
female characteristics.
Born with.
Universal, A-historical
No variation from culture to culture or time to time.
Cannot be changed, except with the medical
treatment.
Example: Only women can give birth. Only women
can breastfeed.
Socially constructed set of roles and responsibilities
associated with being girl and boy or women and
men, and in some cultures a third or other gender.
Not born with.
Gender roles vary greatly in different societies,
cultures and historical periods as well as they
depend also on socio-economic factors, age,
education, ethnicity and religion.
Although deeply rooted, gender roles can be changed
over time, since social values and norms are not
static.
Example: The expectation of men to be economic
providers of the family and for women to be
caregivers is a gender norm in many cultural
contexts.
However, women prove able to do traditionally male
jobs as well as men (e.g. men and women can do
housework; men and women can be leaders and
managers).

Gender Equality vs. 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.

Gender Equality Gender Equity

The state or condition that affords women and men
equal enjoyment of human rights, socially valued
goods, opportunities and resources, allowing both
sexes the same opportunities and potential to
contribute to, and benefit from, all spheres of society
(economic, political, social, and cultural).
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.
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.
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.

Gender Equality vs. Women’s Rights

Women ‘s rights:
o Entitlements that women have on the basis that they are human.
o Normatively based in several international human rights documents (e.g. The Convention on the Elimination
of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)).
o Arranged around the concept of duty bearer& rights holder

Gender equality and non-discrimination on the basis of sex are fundamental human rights. It implies equal
enjoyment of rights by man and women.

Transgender vs. Transsexual

Transgender: refers to those trans people who live permanently in their preferred gender, without necessarily
needing to undergo any medical intervention/s.
Transsexual: refers to people who identifies entirely with the gender role opposite to the sex assigned to at
birth and seeks to live permanently in the preferred gender role. Transsexual people might intend to undergo, are
undergoing or have undergone gender reassignment treatment (which may or may not involve hormone therapy
or surgery).(Source: ILGA-Europe)
Gender GAP and Patterns of Gender Inequality

Gender Gap focuses on the differences between men and women at the national level, seeing both groups
as a homogenous one. However, gender differences are significantly linked to factors such as age, race,
ethnicity, etc.

The gender gap is the difference in any area between women and men in terms of their levels of
participation, access to resources, rights, power and influence, remuneration and benefits. Of particular
relevance related to women’s work is the “gender pay gap”, describing the difference between the average
earnings of men and women (ILO, 2007).

The Global Gender Gap Report 2014 benchmarks national gender gaps of 142 countries on economic,
political, education- and health-based criteria. 2014 was a 9th edition of the Index

Patterns of Inequality

Inequalities in political power and representation: Women are often underrepresented in

formal decision-making structures, including governments, community councils, and policy-
making institutions.

Inequalities in economic participation and opportunities: In most countries, women and men
are distributed differently across sectors. Women are receiving lower wages for similar work, are
more likely to be in low-paid jobs and unsecured work (part-time, temporary, home-based) and
are likely to have less access than men to productive assets such as education, skills, property
and credit.

Educational attainment: In most countries women have lower literacy rate, lower level of
enrolment in primary, secondary and tertiary education.

Sexual and domestic violence: Women tend to be more often victims in a form a domestic
violence by woman’s intimate partner, sexual exploitation through trafficking and sex trade, in
wars by an enemy army as a weapon of attempted ‘ethnic cleansing’ etc.

Differences in legal status and entitlements: There are many instances in which equal rights to
personal status, security, land, inheritance and employment opportunities are denied to women
by law or practice.

Achieving greater equality between women and men will require changes at many levels, including changes in
attitudes and relationships, changes in institutions and legal frameworks, changes in economic institutions, and
changes in political decision-making structures.
Other Gender Terms and Terminologies

Other Terms Definitions

Disaggregated Data Data broken down by sex, age or other variables to reflect the different needs,
priorities and interests of women and men, and their access to and control
over resources, services and activities.
Gender Blind Ignoring or failing to address the gender dimension.
Gender Analysis The study of differences in the conditions, needs, participation rates, access
to resources and development, control of assets, decision-making powers,
etc., between women and men in their assigned gender roles.
Gender Awareness The recognition of the fact that life experience, expectations, and needs of
women and men are different, that they often involve inequality and are
subject to change.
Gender Balance Having the same (or a sufficient) number of women and men at all levels
within the organization to ensure equal representation and participation in all
areas of activity and interest.
Gender Focal Point A person within the organization (field or headquarters) who is identified as
being a reference point for issues concerning gender.
Gender Roles The sets of behaviour, 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 Mainstreaming The systematic integration of the respective needs, interests and priorities of
men and women in all the organization’s policies and activities. This rejects
the idea that gender is a separate issue and something to be tacked on as an
afterthought.
Feminism A collection of movements and ideologies that share a common goal: to
define, establish, and achieve equal political, economic, cultural, personal,
and social rights for women. There are several outdated and false stereotypes
on feminism (e.g. feminism meant wanting women to defeat or overtake men
into submission).

Sex and Gender

The sociology of gender examines how society influences our understandings and perception
of differences between masculinity (what society deems appropriate behavior for a “man”)
and femininity (what society deems appropriate behavior for a “woman”).
 We examine how this, in turn, influence’s identity and social practices. We pay special focus on the
power relationships that follow from the established gender order in a given society, as well as how these
changes over time.

Sex and gender do not always align. Cis-gender describes people whose biological body they were born
into matches their personal gender identity. This experience is distinct from being transgender, which is where
one’s biological sex does not align with their gender identity. Transgender people will undergo a gender
transition that may involve changing their dress and self-presentation (such as a name change). Transgender
people may undergo hormone therapy to facilitate this process, but not all transgender people will undertake
surgery. Intersexuality describes variations on sex definitions related to ambiguous genitalia, gonads, sex
organs, chromosomes or hormones. Transgender and intersexuality are gender categories, not sexualities.
Transgender and intersexual people have varied sexual practices, attractions and identities as do cis-gender
people.

People can also choose to be gender queer, by either drawing on several gender positions or otherwise
not identifying with any specific gender (nonbinary); or they may choose to move across genders (gender fluid);
or they may reject gender categories altogether (agender). The third gender is often used by social scientists to
describe cultures that accept non-binary gender positions.

Sexuality is different again; it is about sexual attraction, sexual practices and identity. Just as sex and
gender don’t always align, neither does gender and sexuality. People can identify along a wide spectrum of
sexualities from heterosexual, to gay or lesbian, to bisexual, to queer, and so on. Asexuality is a term used
when individuals do not feel sexual attraction. Some asexual people might still form romantic
relationships without sexual contact.

Regardless of sexual experience, sexual desire and behaviors can change over time, and sexual identities
may or may not shift as a result.

Gender and sexuality are not just personal identities; they are social identities. They arise from our
relationships to other people, and they depend upon social interaction and social recognition. As
such, they influence how we understand ourselves in relation to others.

Gender
The definition of sex (the categories of man versus woman) as we know them today comes from the
advent of modernity. With the rise of industrialization came better technologies and faster modes of travel and
communication. This assisted the rapid diffusion of ideas across the medical world.

Sex roles describes the tasks and functions perceived to be ideally suited to masculinity versus femininity.
Sex roles have converged across many (though not all) cultures due to colonial practices and also due to
industrialization.

Sex roles were different prior to the industrial revolution, when men and women worked alongside one
another on farms, doing similar tasks. Entrenched gender inequality is a product of modernity. It’s not that
inequality did not exist before, it’s that inequality within the home in relation to family life was not as
pronounced.

In the 19th Century, biomedical science largely converged around Western European practices and ideas.
Biological definitions of the body arose where they did not exist before, drawing on Victorian values. The
essentialist ideas that people attach to man and woman exist only because of this cultural history. This includes
the erroneous ideas that sex:
 Is pre-determined in the womb;
 Defined by anatomy which in turn determines sexual identity and desire;
 Differences are all connected to reproductive functions;
 Identities are immutable; and that
 Deviations from dominant ideas of male/female must be “unnatural.”

There is more variation across cultures when it comes to what is considered “normal” for men and women, thus
highlighting the ethnocentric basis of sex categories. Ethnocentric ideas define and judge practices according
to one’s own culture, rather than understanding cultural practices vary and should be viewed by local standards.

Social Construction of Gender

 Gender, like all social identities, is socially constructed. Social constructionism is one of the key theories
sociologists use to put gender into historical and cultural focus. Social constructionism is a social theory about
how meaning is created through social interaction – through the things we do and say with other people. This
theory shows that gender it is not a fixed or innate fact, but instead it varies across time and place.

Gender norms (the socially acceptable ways of acting out gender) are learned from birth through
childhood socialization. We learn what is expected of our gender from what our parents teach us, as well as
what we pick up at school, through religious or cultural teachings, in the media, and various other social
institutions.

Gender experiences will evolve over a person’s lifetime. Gender is therefore always in flux. We see this
through generational and intergenerational changes within families, as social, legal and technological changes
influence social values on gender. Australian sociologist, Professor Raewyn Connell, describes gender as a
social structure – a higher order category that society uses to organize itself:

Gender is the structure of social relations that centers on the reproductive arena, and the set of practices
(governed by this structure) that bring reproductive distinctions between bodies into social processes. To put it
informally, gender concerns the way human society deals with human bodies, and the many consequences of
that “deal” in our personal lives and our collective fate.

Like all social identities, gender identities are dialectical: they involve at least two sets of actors
referenced against one another: “us” versus “them.” In Western culture, this means “masculine” versus
“feminine.” As such, gender is constructed around notions of Otherness: the “masculine” is treated as the
default human experience by social norms, the law and other social institutions. Masculinities are rewarded over
and above femininities.

Take for example the gender pay gap. Men in general are paid better than women; they enjoy more sexual
and social freedom; and they have other benefits that women do not by virtue of their gender. There are
variations across race, class, sexuality, and according to disability and other socio-economic measures.

Masculinity and Femininity

Masculinity
Professor Connel defines masculinity as a broad set of
processes that include gender relations and gender practices
between men and women and “the effects of these practices in
bodily experience, personality and culture.” Connell argues
that culture dictates ways of being masculine and
“unmasculine.” She argues that there are several masculinities
operating within any one cultural context, and some of these
masculinities are:
 hegemonic;
 subordinate;
 compliant; and
 marginalized.

In Western societies, gender power is held by White, highly educated, middle-class, able-bodied
heterosexual men whose gender represents hegemonic masculinity – the ideal to which other masculinities
must interact with, conform to, and challenge. Hegemonic masculinity rests on tacit acceptance. It is not
enforced through direct violence; instead, it exists as a cultural “script” that are familiar to us from our
socialization. The hegemonic ideal is exemplified in movies which venerate White heterosexual heroes, as well
as in sports, where physical prowess is given special cultural interest and authority.

Masculinities are constructed in relation to existing social hierarchies relating to class, race, age and so on.
Hegemonic masculinities rest upon social context, and so they reflect the social inequalities of the cultures they
embody.

Femininity
Professor Judith Lorber and Susan Farrell argue that the
social constructionist perspective on gender explores the taken-
for-granted assumptions about what it means to be “male” and “female,” “feminine” and “masculine.” They
explain:

women and men are not automatically compared; rather, gender categories (female-male, feminine-
masculine, girls-boys, women-men) are analyzed to see how different social groups define them, and how
they construct and maintain them in everyday life and in major social institutions, such as the family and
the economy.

Femininity is constructed through patriarchal ideas. This means that femininity is always set up as inferior to
men. As a result, women as a group lack the same level of cultural power as men.

Women do have agency to resist patriarchal ideals. Women can actively challenge gender norms by
refusing to let patriarchy define how they portray and reconstruct their femininity. This can be done by rejecting
cultural scripts. For example:

 Sexist and racist judgements about women’s sexuality;

 Fighting rape culture and sexual harassment;
 By entering male-dominated fields, such as body-building or science;
 Rejecting unachievable notions of romantic love disseminated in films and novels that turn women into
passive subjects; and
 By generally questioning gender norms, such as by speaking out on sexism. Sexist comments are one of
the everyday ways in which people police and maintain the existing gender order.

As women do not have cultural power, there is no version of hegemonic femininity to rival hegemonic
masculinity. There are, however, dominant ideals of doing femininity, which favor White, heterosexual, middle-
class cis-women who are able-bodied. Minority women do not enjoy the same social privileges in comparison.

The popular idea that women do not get ahead because they lack confidence ignores the intersections of
inequality. Women are now being told that they should simply “lean in” and ask for more help at work and at
home. “Leaning in” is a limited way of overcoming gender inequality only if you’re a White woman already
thriving in the corporate world, by fitting in with the existing gender order. Women who want to challenge this
masculine logic, even by asking for a pay rise, are impeded from reaching their potential. Indigenous and other
women of colour are even more disadvantaged.

Source: Zevallos, Z. (2014) ‘Sociology of Gender,’ The Other Sociologist, 28 November. Online
resource: https://othersociologist.com/sociology-of-gender/ Retrieved at:
https://othersociologist.com/sociology-of-gender/#:~:text=The%20sociology%20of%20gender
%20examines,for%20a%20%E2%80%9Cwoman%E2%80%9D).

Gender Role

A gender role is a set of societal norms dictating what types of behaviors are generally considered
acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on their actual or perceived sex. These are usually
centered on opposing conceptions of femininity and masculinity, although there are myriad exceptions and
variations. The specifics regarding these gendered expectations may vary substantially among cultures, while
other characteristics may be common throughout a range of cultures.

Various groups have led efforts to change aspects of prevailing gender roles that they believe are
oppressive or inaccurate, most notably the feminist movement.

The term ‘gender role’ was first coined by John Money in 1955 during the course of his study of intersex
individuals to describe the manners in which these individuals express their status as a male or female, in a
situation where no clear biological assignment exists.

Background
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines gender roles as “socially constructed roles, behaviors,
activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women”. However, debate
continues as to what extent gender and its roles are socially constructed (i.e., non-biologically influenced), and
to what extent “socially constructed” may be considered synonymous with “arbitrary “or “malleable”.
Therefore, a concise authoritative definition of gender roles or gender itself is elusive.
 Some systems of classification, unlike the WHO, are non-binary or gender queer, listing multiple possible
genders including transgender and intersex as distinct categories. Gender roles are culturally specific, and while
most cultures distinguish only two (boy and girl or man and woman), others recognize more. Androgyny, for
example, has been proposed as a third gender. Other societies have claimed to see more than five genders, and
some non-Western societies have three genders – man, woman and third gender. Some individuals (not
necessarily being from such a culture) identify with no gender at all.

Gender role – defined as referring in some sense to cultural expectations according to an understood
gender classification – should not be confused with gender identity, the internal sense of one’s own gender,
which may or may not align with categories offered by societal norms. The point at which these internalized
gender identities become externalized into a set of expectations is the genesis of a gender role.

Gender roles are usually referenced in a pejorative sense, as an institution that restricts freedom of
behavior and expression, or are used as a basis for discrimination.
Because of the prevailing gender role of general subordination, women were not granted the right to vote in
many parts of the world until the 19th or 20th centuries, some well into the 21st. Women throughout the world,
in myriad respects, do not enjoy full freedom and protection under the law. Contrariwise because of the
prevailing perception of men as primarily breadwinners, they are seldom afforded the benefit of paternity leave.

Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/culturalanthropology/chapter/gender-role/