Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining
to, and differentiating between, masculinity
and femininity.
Depending on the context, these characteristics
may include biological sex (i.e., the state
of being male, female, or an intersex variation),
sex-based social structures (i.e., gender
roles), or gender identity.
In the traditions of cultures dominated by
languages in which there are gender pronouns,
people who identify as men or women or use
masculine or feminine gender pronouns, are
using a system of gender binary whereas those
who exist outside these groups fall under
the umbrella terms non-binary or genderqueer.
Some cultures have specific gender roles that
are distinct from "man" and "woman," such
as the hijras of South Asia.
These are often referred to as third genders.
Sexologist John Money introduced the terminological
distinction between biological sex and gender
as a role in 1955.
Before his work, it was uncommon to use the
word gender to refer to anything but grammatical
categories.
However, Money's meaning of the word did not
become widespread until the 1970s, when feminist
theory embraced the concept of a distinction
between biological sex and the social construct
of gender.
Today, the distinction is followed in some
contexts, especially the social sciences and
documents written by the World Health Organization
(WHO).In other contexts, including some areas
of the social sciences, gender includes sex
or replaces it.
For instance, in non-human animal research,
gender is commonly used to refer to the biological
sex of the animals.
This change in the meaning of gender can be
traced to the 1980s.
In 1993, the US Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) started to use gender instead of sex.
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."The social sciences have
a branch devoted to gender studies.
Other sciences, such as sexology and neuroscience,
are also interested in the subject.
The social sciences sometimes approach gender
as a social construct, and gender studies
particularly do, while research in the natural
sciences investigates whether biological differences
in males and females influence the development
of gender in humans; both inform debate about
how far biological differences influence the
formation of gender identity.
In some English literature, there is also
a trichotomy between biological sex, psychological
gender, and social gender role.
This framework first appeared in a feminist
paper on transsexualism in 1978.
== Etymology and usage ==
The modern English word gender comes from
the Middle English gender, gendre, a loanword
from Anglo-Norman and Middle French gendre.
This, in turn, came from Latin genus.
Both words mean "kind", "type", or "sort".
They derive ultimately from a widely attested
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root gen-,
which is also the source of kin, kind, king,
and many other English words.
It appears in Modern French in the word genre
(type, kind, also genre sexuel) and is related
to the Greek root gen- (to produce), appearing
in gene, genesis, and oxygen.
The 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.
The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary
(OED1, Volume 4, 1900) notes the original
meaning of gender as "kind" had already become
obsolete.
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 Aristotle, this concept was introduced
by the Greek philosopher Protagoras.
In 1926, Henry Watson Fowler stated that the
definition of the word pertained to this grammar-related
meaning: "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."
The modern academic sense of the word, in
the context of social roles of men and women,
dates at least back to 1945, 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 construction
were labelled matters of gender.
The popular use of gender simply as an alternative
to sex (as a biological category) is also
widespread, although attempts are still made
to preserve the distinction.
The American Heritage Dictionary (2000) uses
the following two sentences to illustrate
the difference, noting that the distinction
"is useful in principle, but it is by no means
widely observed, and considerable variation
in usage occurs at all levels."
The effectiveness of the medication appears
to depend on the sex (not gender) of the patient.In
peasant societies, gender (not sex) roles
are likely to be more clearly defined.
In the last two decades of the 20th century,
the use of gender in academia 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;
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."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.
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.
In J.E.B. v. Alabama ex rel.
T.B., United States Supreme Court Justice
Antonin Scalia wrote:
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.
== Gender identity and gender roles ==
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.
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.
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.
Social identity refers to the common identification
with a collectivity or social category that
creates a common culture among participants
concerned.
According to social identity theory, an important
component of the self-concept is derived from
memberships in social groups and categories;
this is demonstrated by group processes and
how inter-group relationships impact significantly
on individuals' self perception and behaviors.
The groups people belong to therefore provide
members with the definition of who they are
and how they should behave within their social
sphere.
Categorizing males and females into social
roles creates a 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.
Globally, communities interpret biological
differences between men and women to create
a set of social expectations that define the
behaviors that are "appropriate" for men and
women and determine women's and men's different
access to rights, resources, power in society
and health behaviors.
Although the specific nature and degree of
these differences vary from one society to
the next, they still tend to typically favor
men, creating an imbalance in power and gender
inequalities within most societies.
Many cultures have different systems of norms
and beliefs based on gender, but there is
no universal standard to a masculine or feminine
role across all cultures.
Social roles of men and women in relation
to each other is based on the cultural norms
of that society, which lead to the creation
of gender systems.
The gender system is the basis of social patterns
in many societies, which include the separation
of sexes, and the primacy of masculine norms.Philosopher
Michel Foucault 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".
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.
"[This] is so because gender is politically
and therefore socially controlled.
Rather than 'woman' being something one is,
it is something one does."
More recent criticisms of Judith Butler's
theories critique her writing for reinforcing
the very conventional dichotomies of gender.
=== Social assignment and gender fluidity
===
According to gender theorist Kate Bornstein,
gender can have ambiguity and fluidity.
There are two contrasting ideas regarding
the definition of gender, and the intersection
of both of them is definable as below:
The World Health Organization defines gender
as the result of socially constructed ideas
about the behavior, actions, and roles a particular
sex performs.
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.
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.
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.
The cultural traits typically coupled to a
particular sex finalize the assignment of
gender and the biological differences which
play a role in classifying either sex as interchangeable
with the definition of gender within the social
context.
In this context, the socially constructed
rules are at a cross road with the assignment
of a particular gender to a person.
Gender ambiguity deals with having the freedom
to choose, manipulate and create a personal
niche within any defined socially constructed
code of conduct while gender fluidity is outlawing
all the rules of cultural gender assignment.
It does not accept the prevalence of the two
rigidly defined genders "man" and "woman"
and believes in freedom to choose any kind
of gender with no rules, no defined boundaries
and no fulfilling of expectations associated
with any particular gender.
Both these definitions are facing opposite
directions with their own defined set of rules
and criteria on which the said systems are
based.
=== Social categories ===
Sexologist John Money coined the term gender
role in 1955.
The term gender role is defined as the actions
or responses that may reveal their status
as boy, man, girl or woman, respectively.
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".Because
social aspects of gender can normally be presumed
to be the ones of interest in sociology and
closely related disciplines, gender role is
often abbreviated to gender in their literature.
==== Non-binary and third genders ====
Traditionally, most societies have only recognized
two distinct, broad classes of gender roles,
masculine and feminine, that correspond with
the biological sexes of male and female.
When a baby is born, society allocates the
child to one gender or the other, on the basis
of what their genitals resemble.
However, some societies explicitly incorporate
people who adopt the gender role opposite
to their biological sex; for example, the
two-spirit people of some indigenous American
peoples.
Other societies include well-developed roles
that are explicitly considered more or less
distinct from archetypal female and male roles
in those societies.
In the language of the sociology of gender,
they comprise a third gender, more or less
distinct from biological sex (sometimes the
basis for the role does include intersexuality
or incorporates eunuchs).
One such gender role is that adopted by the
hijras of India and Pakistan.
Another example may be the muxe (pronounced
[ˈmuʃe]), found in the state of Oaxaca,
in southern Mexico.
The Bugis people of Sulawesi, Indonesia have
a tradition that incorporates all the features
above.In addition to these traditionally recognized
third genders, many cultures now recognize,
to differing degrees, various 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,
and non-binary people may face increased risk
of assault, harassment, and discrimination.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.
=== 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.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).
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.
=== 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.
The philosopher and feminist Simone de Beauvoir
applied existentialism to women's experience
of life: "One is not born a woman, one becomes
one."
In context, this is a philosophical statement.
However, it may be analyzed in terms of biology—a
girl must pass puberty to become a woman—and
sociology, as a great deal of mature relating
in social contexts is learned rather than
instinctive.Within feminist theory, terminology
for gender issues developed over the 1970s.
In the 1974 edition of Masculine/Feminine
or Human, the author uses "innate gender"
and "learned sex roles", but in the 1978 edition,
the use of sex and gender is reversed.
By 1980, most feminist writings had agreed
on using gender only for socioculturally adapted
traits.
In gender studies the term gender refers to
proposed social and cultural constructions
of masculinities and femininities.
In this context, gender explicitly excludes
reference to biological differences, to focus
on cultural differences.
This emerged from a number of different areas:
in sociology during the 1950s; from the theories
of the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan; and in
the work of French psychoanalysts like Julia
Kristeva, Luce Irigaray, and American feminists
such as Judith Butler.
Those who followed Butler came to regard gender
roles as a practice, sometimes referred to
as "performative".Charles E. Hurst states
that some people think sex will, "...automatically
determine one's gender demeanor and role (social)
as well as one's sexual orientation (sexual
attractions and behavior).
Gender sociologists believe that people have
cultural origins and habits for dealing with
gender.
For example, Michael Schwalbe believes that
humans must be taught how to act appropriately
in their designated gender to fill the role
properly, and that the way people behave as
masculine or feminine interacts with social
expectations.
Schwalbe comments that humans "are the results
of many people embracing and acting on similar
ideas".
People do this through everything from clothing
and hairstyle to relationship and employment
choices.
Schwalbe believes that these distinctions
are important, because society wants to identify
and categorize people as soon as we see them.
They need to place people into distinct categories
to know how we should feel about them.
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.
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".
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.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 Sandra
Harding and Joan Scott, began to conceive
of gender "as an analytic category within
which humans think about and organize their
social activity".
Feminist scholars in Political Science began
employing gender as an analytical category,
which highlighted "social and political relations
neglected by mainstream accounts".
However, Hawkesworth states "feminist political
science has not become a dominant paradigm
within the discipline".American political
scientist Karen Beckwith addresses the concept
of gender within political science arguing
that a "common language of gender" exists
and that it must be explicitly articulated
in order to build upon it within the political
science discipline.
Beckwith describes two ways in which the political
scientist may employ 'gender' when conducting
empirical research: "gender as a category
and as a process."
Employing gender as a category allows for
political scientists "to delineate specific
contexts where behaviours, actions, attitudes
and preferences considered masculine or feminine
result in particular" political outcomes.
It may also demonstrate how gender differences,
not necessarily corresponding precisely with
sex, may "constrain or facilitate political"
actors.
Gender as a process has two central manifestations
in political science research, firstly in
determining "the differential effects of structures
and policies upon men and women," and secondly,
the ways in which masculine and feminine political
actors "actively work to produce favorable
gendered outcomes".With regard to gender studies,
Jacquetta Newman states that although sex
is determined biologically, the ways in which
people express gender is not.
Gendering is a socially constructed process
based on culture, though often cultural expectations
around women and men have a direct relationship
to their biology.
Because of this, Newman argues, many privilege
sex as being a cause of oppression and ignore
other issues like race, ability, poverty,
etc.
Current gender studies classes seek to move
away from that and examine the intersectionality
of these factors in determining people's lives.
She also points out that other non-Western
cultures do not necessarily have the same
views of gender and gender roles.
Newman also debates the meaning of equality,
which is often considered the goal of feminism;
she believes that equality is a problematic
term because it can mean many different things,
such as people being treated identically,
differently, or fairly based on their gender.
Newman believes this is problematic because
there is no unified definition as to what
equality means or looks like, and that this
can be significantly important in areas like
public policy.
=== Social construction of sex hypotheses
===
Sociologists generally regard gender as a
social construct, and various researchers,
including many feminists, consider sex to
only be a matter of biology and something
that is not about social or cultural construction.
For instance, sexologist John Money suggests
the distinction between biological sex and
gender as a role.
Moreover, Ann Oakley, a professor of sociology
and social policy, says "the constancy of
sex must be admitted, but so also must the
variability of gender."
The World Health Organization states, "'[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."
Thus, sex is regarded as a category studied
in biology (natural sciences), while gender
is studied in humanities and social sciences.
Lynda Birke, a feminist biologist, maintains
"'biology' is not seen as something which
might change."
Therefore, it is stated that sex is something
that does not change, while gender can change
according to social structure.
However, there are scholars who argue that
sex is also socially constructed.
For example, gender theorist 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."
She continues:It would make no sense, then,
to define gender as the cultural interpretation
of sex, if sex is itself a gender-centered
category.
Gender should not be conceived merely as the
cultural inscription of meaning based on a
given sex (a juridical conception); gender
must also designate the very apparatus of
production whereby the sexes themselves are
established.
[...] This production of sex as the pre-discursive
should be understood as the effect of the
apparatus of cultural construction designated
by gender.
Butler argues that "bodies only appear, only
endure, only live within the productive constraints
of certain highly gendered regulatory schemas,"
and sex is "no longer as a bodily given on
which the construct of gender is artificially
imposed, but as a cultural norm which governs
the materialization of bodies."
Marria Lugones states that, among the Yoruba
people, there was no concept of gender and
no gender system at all before colonialism.
She argues that colonial powers used a gender
system as a tool for domination and fundamentally
changing social relations among the indigenous.With
regard to history, Linda Nicholson, a professor
of history and women's studies, points out
that the understanding of human bodies as
sexually dimorphic was historically not recognised.
She argues 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.
In addition, drawing from the empirical research
of intersex children, Anne Fausto-Sterling,
a professor of biology and gender studies,
describes how the doctors address the issues
of intersexuality.
She starts her argument with an example of
the birth of an intersexual individual and
maintains "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."
Then she adds how gender assumptions affects
the scientific study of sex by presenting
the research of intersexuals by John Money
et al., and she concludes that "they never
questioned the fundamental assumption that
there are only two sexes, because their goal
in studying intersexuals was to find out more
about 'normal' development."
She also mentions the language the doctors
use when they talk with the parents of the
intersexuals.
After describing how the doctors inform parents
about the intersexuality, she asserts that
because the doctors believe that the intersexuals
are actually male or female, they tell the
parents of the intersexuals that it will take
a little bit more time for the doctors to
determine whether the infant is a boy or a
girl.
That is to say, the doctors' behavior is formulated
by the cultural gender assumption that there
are only two sexes.
Lastly, she maintains that the differences
in the ways in which the medical professionals
in different regions treat intersexual people
also give us a good example of how sex is
socially constructed.
In her Sexing the body: gender politics and
the construction of sexuality, she introduces
the following example: A group of physicians
from Saudi Arabia recently reported on several
cases of XX intersex children with congenital
adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a genetically inherited
malfunction of the enzymes that aid in making
steroid hormones.
[...] In the United States and Europe, such
children, because they have the potential
to bear children later in life, are usually
raised as girls.
Saudi doctors trained in this European tradition
recommended such a course of action to the
Saudi parents of CAH XX children.
A number of parents, however, refused to accept
the recommendation that their child, initially
identified as a son, be raised instead as
a daughter.
Nor would they accept feminizing surgery for
their child.
[...] This was essentially an expression of
local community attitudes with [...] the preference
for male offspring.
Thus it is evident that culture can play a
part in assigning gender, particularly in
relation to intersex children.Another work
of Ann Fausto-Sterling's in which she discusses
gender is The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female
Are Not Enough.
In this article, Fausto-Sterling states that
Western culture has only two sexes and that
even their language restricts the presence
of more than two sexes.
She argues that instead of having a binomial
nomenclature for organizing humans into two
distinct sexes (male and female), there are
at least five sexes in the broad spectrum
of gender.
These five sexes include male, female, hermaphrodite,
female pseudohermaphrodites (individuals who
have ovaries and some male genitalia but lack
testes), and male pseudohermaphrodites (individuals
who have testes and some female genitalia
but lack ovaries).
Fausto-Sterling additionally adds that in
the category of hermaphrodites, there are
additional degrees and levels in which the
genitalia are developed; this means that there
may be more intersexes that exist in this
continuum of gender.
Fausto-Sterling argues that gender has been
gradually institutionally disciplined into
a binary system through medical advances.
She brings up multiple instances where gender
in history was not split into strictly male
or female, and states that, by the end of
the Middle Age, intersex individuals were
forced to pick a side in the binary gender
code and to adhere by it.
She adds on that "hermaphrodites have unruly
bodies" and they need to fit into society's
definition of gender.
Thus, modern-day parents have been urged by
medical doctors to decide the sex for their
hermaphroditic child immediately after childbirth.
She emphasizes that the role of the medical
community is that of an institutionalized
discipline on society that there can only
be two sexes: male and female and only the
two listed are considered "normal."
Lastly, Fausto-Sterling argues that modern
laws require humans to be labelled either
as male or female and that "ironically, a
more sophisticated knowledge of the complexity
of sexual systems has led to the repression
of such intricacy."
She mentions this quote to inform the prevailing
thought that hermaphrodites, without medical
intervention, are assumed to live a life full
of psychological pain when in fact, there
is no evidence in which that is the case.
She finishes up her argument asking what would
happen if society started accepting intersex
individuals.
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 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."
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 Belief’s
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."
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."
== Biological factors and views ==
In most cases, men and women and boys and
girls are similar in behavior, with little
gender difference, but 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.
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.The 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 gender
dysphoria.
Studies in this, and related areas, inform
the following summary of the subject by John
Money.
He stated:
The term "gender role" appeared in print first
in 1955.
The term gender identity was used in a press
release, November 21, 1966, to announce the
new clinic for transsexuals at The Johns Hopkins
Hospital.
It was disseminated in the media worldwide,
and soon entered the vernacular.
The definitions of gender and gender identity
vary on a doctrinal basis.
In popularized and scientifically debased
usage, sex is what you are biologically; gender
is what you become socially; gender identity
is your own sense or conviction of maleness
or femaleness; and gender role is the cultural
stereotype of what is masculine and feminine.
Causality with respect to gender identity
disorder is sub-divisible into genetic, prenatal
hormonal, postnatal social, and post-pubertal
hormonal determinants, but there is, as yet,
no comprehensive and detailed theory of causality.
Gender coding in the brain is bipolar.
In gender identity disorder, there is discordance
between the natal sex of one's external genitalia
and the brain coding of one's gender as masculine
or feminine.
Money refers to attempts to distinguish a
difference between biological sex and social
gender as "scientifically debased", because
of our increased knowledge of a continuum
of dimorphic features (Money's word is "dipolar")
that link biological and behavioral differences.
These extend from the exclusively biological
"genetic" and "prenatal hormonal" differences
between men and women, to "postnatal" features,
some of which are social, but others have
been shown to result from "post-pubertal hormonal"
effects.
Although causation from the biological—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 "gay gene"
has not been proven, but such a gene remains
an acknowledged possibility.There are studies
concerning women who have a condition called
congenital adrenal hyperplasia, which leads
to the overproduction of the masculine sex
hormone, androgen.
These women usually have ordinary female appearances
(though nearly all girls with congenital adrenal
hyperplasia (CAH) have corrective surgery
performed on their genitals).
However, despite taking hormone-balancing
medication given to them at birth, these females
are statistically more likely to be interested
in activities traditionally linked to males
than female activities.
Psychology professor and CAH researcher Dr.
Sheri Berenbaum attributes these differences
to an exposure of higher levels of male sex
hormones in utero.
=== 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 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.
chromosomes: 46,XX (genetic female); 46,XY
(genetic male) ;45,X (Turner's syndrome);
47,XXY (Klinefelter syndrome); 47,XYY (XYY
syndrome); 47,XXX (XXX syndrome); 48,XXYY
(XXYY syndrome); 46,XX/XY mosaic; other mosaic;
gonads: testicles; ovaries; ovarian and testicular
tissues, not in same gonad (true hermaphroditism),
ovotestes, or other gonadal dysgenesis;
hormones: androgens (including testosterone,
dihydrotestosterone, etc.), estrogens (including
estradiol, estriol, etc.), antiandrogens,
progestogens, and others;
primary sexual characteristics: genitals
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
gender identity: one’s sense of oneself
as a man, woman, or gender non-conforming;
gender expression: presentation and behaviors
that express aspects of gender identity or
gender role
=== 
Sexual dimorphism ===
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 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
X.
About half of spermatozoa also have this same
X chromosome, the rest have a 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
above.
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 X-linked
recessive trait and is much more common in
men.
However, sex-limited genes on any chromosome
can be expressed to indicate, for example,
"if in a male body, do X; otherwise, do not."
The human XY system is not the only sex determination
system.
Birds typically have a reverse, ZW system—males
are ZZ and females ZW.
Whether male or female birds influence the
sex of offspring is not known for all species.
Several species of butterfly are known to
have female parent sex determination.The platypus
has a complex hybrid system, the male has
ten sex chromosomes, half X and half Y.
==== Human brain ====
"It is well established that men have a larger
cerebrum than women by about 8–10% (Filipek
et al., 1994; Nopoulos et al.,
2000; Passe et al., 1997a,b; Rabinowicz et
al., 1999; Witelson et al., 1995)."
However, what is functionally relevant are
differences in composition and "wiring".
Richard J. Haier and colleagues at the universities
of New Mexico and California (Irvine) found,
using brain mapping, that men have more grey
matter related to general intelligence than
women, and women have more white matter related
to intelligence than men – the ratio between
grey and white matter is 4% higher for men
than women.Grey matter is used for information
processing, while white matter consists of
the connections between processing centers.
Other differences are measurable but less
pronounced.
Most of these differences are produced by
hormonal activity, ultimately derived from
the Y chromosome and sexual differentiation.
However, differences that arise directly from
gene activity have also been observed.
A sexual dimorphism in levels of expression
in brain tissue was observed by quantitative
real-time 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 X-linked gene was
transposed to the Y chromosome after the human–chimpanzee
lineages split.
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.
For example, both men and women learn and
use language; however, 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.
== Gender studies ==
Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary
study and academic field devoted to gender,
gender identity and gendered representation
as central categories of analysis.
This field includes Women's studies (concerning
women, feminity, their gender roles and politics,
and feminism), Men's studies (concerning men,
masculinity, their gender roles, and politics),
and LGBT studies.
Sometimes Gender studies is offered together
with Study of Sexuality.
These disciplines study gender and sexuality
in the fields of literature and language,
history, political science, sociology, anthropology,
cinema and media studies, human development,
law, and medicine.
It also analyses race, ethnicity, location,
nationality, and disability.
== 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 behavioral psychology
collates evidence in an effort to discover
correlations 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.
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.
Social theorists have sought to determine
the specific nature of gender in relation
to biological sex and sexuality, with the
result being that culturally established gender
and sex have become interchangeable identifications
that signify the allocation of a specific
'biological' sex within a categorical gender.
The second wave feminist view that gender
is socially constructed and hegemonic in all
societies, remains current in some literary
theoretical circles, Kira Hall and Mary Bucholtz
publishing new perspectives as recently as
2008.Contemporary socialisation theory proposes
the notion that when a child is first born
it has a biological sex but no social gender.
As the child grows, "...society provides a
string of prescriptions, templates, or models
of behaviors appropriate to the one sex or
the other," which socialises the child into
belonging to a culturally specific gender.
There is huge incentive for a child to concede
to their socialisation with gender shaping
the individual's opportunities for education,
work, family, sexuality, reproduction, authority,
and to make an impact on the production of
culture and knowledge.
Adults who do not perform these ascribed roles
are perceived from this perspective as deviant
and improperly socialized.Some believe society
is constructed in a way that splits gender
into a dichotomy via social organisations
that constantly invent and reproduce cultural
images of gender.
Joan Acker believes gendering occurs in at
least five different interacting social processes:
The construction of divisions along the lines
of gender, such as those produced by labor,
power, family, the state, even allowed behaviors
and locations in physical space
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.
"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."Gender
conventions play a large role in attributing
masculine and feminine characteristics to
a fundamental biological sex.
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.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.
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 homosexual)
to female workers in his employ (disregarding
whether they are straight or gay).
However the popular sexual self-conception
approach (self-conception: gay versus straight)
focuses on the different self-conceptions
and social conceptions of those who are gay/straight,
in comparison with those who are straight
(disregarding what might be vastly differing
economic and power positions between female
and male groups in each category).
There is then, in relation to definition of
and approaches to "gender", a tension between
historic feminist sociology and contemporary
homosexual sociology.
== Legal status ==
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 same-sex marriage laws.
The question then arises as to what legally
determines whether someone is female or male.
In most cases this can appear obvious, but
the matter is complicated for intersex or
transgender people.
Different jurisdictions have adopted different
answers to this question.
Almost all countries permit changes of legal
gender status in cases of intersexualism,
when the gender assignment made at birth is
determined upon further investigation to be
biologically inaccurate—technically, however,
this is not a change of status per se.
Rather, it is recognition of a status deemed
to exist but unknown from birth.
Increasingly, jurisdictions also provide a
procedure for changes of legal gender for
transgender people.
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
law and a different gender under federal law.
=== Intersex people ===
For intersex people, who according to the
UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions
of male or female bodies", access to any form
of identification document with a gender marker
may be an issue.
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.
=== Non-binary and third genders ===
Some countries now legally recognize non-binary
or third genders, including Canada, Germany,
Australia, India and Pakistan.
In the United States, Oregon, California,
and the District of Columbia legally recognize
non-binary gender.
== Gender and society ==
=== 
LanguagesNatural 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.
===
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, Gender differences in spoken
Japanese.
The oldest documented language, Sumerian,
records a distinctive sub-language only used
by female speakers.
Conversely, many Indigenous Australian languages
have distinctive registers with a limited
lexicon used by men in the presence of their
mothers-in-law (see Avoidance speech).
As well, quite a few sign languages have a
gendered distinction due to boarding schools
segregated by gender, such as Irish Sign Language.
Several languages such as Persian or 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 Spanish, Mädchen
(grammatically neuter) in German, and cailín
(grammatically masculine) in 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 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,
Ojibwe, Basque and Hittite; and systems distinguishing
between people (whether human or divine) and
everything else, which are found in the Dravidian
languages and Sumerian.
Several languages employ different ways to
refer to people where there are three or more
genders, such as Navajo or Ojibwe.
=== Science ===
Historically, science has been portrayed as
a masculine pursuit in which women have faced
significant barriers to participate.
Even after universities began admitting women
in the 19th century, women were still largely
relegated to certain scientific fields, such
as home science, nursing, and child psychology.
Women were also typically given tedious, low-paying
jobs and denied opportunities for career advancement.
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.
Although these stereotypes have been dispelled
in modern times, women are still underrepresented
in prestigious "hard science" fields such
as physics, and are less likely to hold high-ranking
positions.
=== Religion ===
This topic includes internal and external
religious issues such as gender of God and
deities creation myths about human gender,
roles and rights (for instance, leadership
roles especially ordination of women, sex
segregation, gender equality, marriage, abortion,
homosexuality)
According to Kati Niemelä of the Church Research
Institute, women are universally more religious
than men.
They believe that the difference in 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 religious fanaticism is more often
seen in men than women.
In Taoism, yin and yang are considered feminine
and masculine, respectively.
The Taijitu and concept of the Zhou period
reach into family and gender relations.
Yin is female and yang is male.
They fit together as two parts of a whole.
The male principle was equated with the sun:
active, bright, and shining; the female principle
corresponds to the moon: passive, shaded,
and reflective.
Male toughness was balanced by female gentleness,
male action and initiative by female endurance
and need for completion, and male leadership
by female supportiveness.
In Judaism, God is traditionally described
in the masculine, but in the mystical tradition
of the Kabbalah, the Shekhinah represents
the feminine aspect of God's essence.
However, Judaism traditionally holds that
God is completely non-corporeal, and thus
neither male nor female.
Conceptions of the gender of God notwithstanding,
traditional Judaism places a strong emphasis
on individuals following Judaism's traditional
gender roles, though many modern denominations
of Judaism strive for greater egalitarianism.
As well, traditional Jewish culture dictates
that there are six genders.
In Christianity, God is traditionally described
in masculine terms and the Church has historically
been described in feminine terms.
On the other hand, Christian theology in many
churches distinguishes between the masculine
images used of God (Father, King, God the
Son) and the reality they signify, which transcends
gender, embodies all the virtues of both men
and women perfectly, which may be seen through
the doctrine of Imago Dei.
In the New Testament, Jesus at several times
mentions with the masculine pronoun i.e.
John 15:26 among other verses.
Hence, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
(i.e.
Trinity) are all mentioned with the masculine
pronoun; though the exact meaning of the masculinity
of the Christian triune God is contended.
In Hinduism
One of the several forms of the Hindu God
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 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.
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,
multiple sex partners and open representation
of sexual pleasures in artworks like the Khajuraho
temples, being accepted within prevalent social
frameworks.
In a number of North American Indigenous cultures,
non-man/-woman individuals sometimes carried
specific roles within that nation's religious
structures.
These could be the Lakota wíŋkte, Navajo
Nádleehi, Anishinaabe niizh manidoowag and
hundreds more.
Recently, North American Native Americans
and First Nations have adopted the term Two-Spirit
to refer to the mosaic of different genders
cross-culturally.
=== 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.
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.
Approximately 75% of world's women are unable
to obtain bank loans because they have unstable
jobs.
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.
In 1978 Diana M. Pearce coined the term feminization
of poverty to describe the problem of women
having higher rates of poverty.
Women are more vulnerable to chronic poverty
because of gender inequalities in the distribution
of income, property ownership, credit, and
control over earned income.
Resource allocation is typically gender-biased
within households, and continue on a higher
level regarding state institutions.
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.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 cisgender.
=== General strain theory ===
According to general strain theory, studies
suggest that gender differences between individuals
can lead to externalized anger that may result
in violent outbursts.
These violent actions related to gender inequality
can be measured by comparing violent neighborhoods
to non-violent neighborhoods.
By noticing the independent variables (neighborhood
violence) and the dependent variable (individual
violence), it's possible to analyze gender
roles.
The strain in the general strain theory is
the removal of a positive 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.
Studies reveal that even though males and
females are equally likely to react to a strain
with anger, the origin of the anger and their
means of coping with it can vary drastically.
Males are likely to put the blame on others
for adversity and therefore externalize feelings
of anger.
Females typically internalize their angers
and tend to blame themselves instead.
Female internalized anger is accompanied by
feelings of guilt, fear, anxiety and depression.
Women view anger as a sign that they've somehow
lost control, and thus worry that this anger
may lead them to harm others and/or damage
relationships.
On the other end of the spectrum, men are
less concerned with damaging relationships
and more focused on using anger as a means
of affirming their masculinity.
According to the general strain theory, men
would more likely engage in aggressive behavior
directed towards others due to externalized
anger whereas women would direct their anger
towards themselves rather than others.
=== Economic development ===
Gender, and particularly the role of women
is widely recognized as vitally important
to international development issues.
This often means a focus on gender-equality,
ensuring participation, but includes an understanding
of the different roles and expectation of
the genders within the community.In modern
times, the study of gender and development
has become a broad field that involves politicians,
economists, and human rights activists.
Gender and Development, unlike previous theories
concerning women in development, includes
a broader view of the effects of development
on gender including economic, political, and
social issues.
The theory takes a holistic approach to development
and its effects on women and recognizes the
negative effects gender blind development
policies have had on women.
Prior to 1970, it was believed that development
affected men and women in the same way and
no gendered perspective existed for development
studies.
However, the 1970s saw a transformation in
development theory that sought to incorporate
women into existing development paradigms.
When Ester Boserup published her book, Woman’s
Role in Economic Development, there was a
realization that development affected men
and women differently and there began to be
more of a focus on women and development.
Boserup argued that women were marginalized
in the modernization process and practices
of growth, development, and development policy
threatened to actually make women worse off.
Boserup's work translated into the beginning
of a larger discourse termed Women in Development
(WID) coined by the Women's Committee of the
Washington DC Chapter of the Society for International
Development, a network of female development
professionals.
The primary goal of WID was to include women
into existing development initiatives, since
it was argued that women were marginalized
and excluded from the benefits of development.
In so doing, the WID approach pointed out
that the major problem to women's unequal
representation and participation were male
biased and patriarchal development policies.
In short, the WID approach blamed patriarchy,
which did not consider women's productive
and reproductive work.
In fact, women were tied to domestic work
hence were almost invisible in development
programs.
The WID approach, however, began to gain criticism
as ignoring how women's economic marginalization
was linked to the development model itself.
Some feminists argued that the key concept
for women and development should be subordination
in the context of new capitalist forms of
insecure and hierarchical job structures,
rather than marginalization as WID approaches
emphasized.
The rise of criticism against the WID approach
led to the emergence of a new theory, that
of Women and Development (WAD).However, just
as WID had its critics, so did WAD.
Critics of WAD argued that it failed to sufficiently
address the differential power relations between
women and men, and tended to overemphasize
women's productive as opposed to reproductive
roles.
Also, rising criticism of the exclusion of
men in WID and WAD led to a new theory termed
Gender and Development (GAD).
Drawing from insights developed in psychology,
sociology, and gender studies, GAD theorists
shifted from understanding women's problems
as based on their sex (i.e. their biological
differences from men) to understanding them
as based on gender – the social relations
between women and men, their social construction,
and how women have been systematically subordinated
in this relationship.
At their most fundamental, GAD perspectives
link the social relations of production with
the social relations of reproduction – exploring
why and how women and men are assigned to
different roles and responsibilities in society,
how these dynamics are reflected in social,
economic, and political theories and institutions,
and how these relationships affect development
policy effectiveness.
According to proponents of GAD, women are
cast not as passive recipients of development
aid, but rather as active agents of change
whose empowerment should be a central goal
of development policy.
In contemporary times, most literature and
institutions that are concerned with women's
role in development incorporate a GAD perspective,
with the United Nations taking the lead of
mainstreaming the GAD approach through its
system and development policies.Researchers
at the Overseas Development Institute have
highlighted that policy dialogue on the Millennium
Development Goals needs to recognize that
the gender dynamics of power, poverty, vulnerability
and care link all the goals.
The various United Nations international women's
conferences in Beijing, Mexico City, Copenhagen,
and Nairobi, as well as the development of
the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 have
taken a GAD approach and holistic view of
development.
The United Nations Millennium Declaration
signed at the United Nations Millennium Summit
in 2000 including eight goals that were to
be reached by 2015, and although it would
be a difficult task to reach them, all of
them could be monitored.
The eight goals are:
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 partnershipThe MDGs have three goals
specifically focused on women: Goal 3, 4 and
5 but women's issues also cut across all of
the goals.
These goals overall comprise all aspects of
women's lives including economic, health,
and political participation.
Gender equality is also strongly linked to
education.
The Dakar Framework for Action (2000) set
out ambitious goals: to eliminate gender disparities
in primary and secondary education by 2005,
and to achieve gender equality in education
by 2015.
The focus was on ensuring girls' full and
equal access to and achievement in good quality
basic education.
The gender objective of the Dakar Framework
for Action is somewhat different from the
MDG Goal 3 (Target 1): "Eliminate gender disparity
in primary and secondary education, preferably
by 2005, and in all levels of education no
later than 2015".
MDG Goal 3 does not comprise a reference to
learner achievement and good quality basic
education, but goes beyond the school level.
Studies demonstrate the positive impact of
girls' education on child and maternal health,
fertility rates, poverty reduction and economic
growth.
Educated mothers are more likely to send their
children to school.Some organizations working
in developing countries and in the development
field have incorporated advocacy and empowerment
for women into their work.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations (FAO) adopted a 10-year strategic
framework in November 2009 that includes the
strategic objective of gender equity in access
to resources, goods, services and decision-making
in rural areas, and mainstreams gender equity
in all FAO's programs for agriculture and
rural development.
The Association for Progressive Communications
(APC) has developed a Gender Evaluation Methodology
for planning and evaluating development projects
to ensure they benefit all sectors of society
including women.The Gender-related Development
Index (GDI), developed by the United Nations,
aims to show the inequalities between men
and women in the following areas: long and
healthy life, knowledge, and a decent standard
of living.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
has introduced indicators designed to add
a gendered dimension to the Human Development
Index (HDI).
Additionally, in 1995, the Gender-related
Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment
Measure (GEM) were introduced.
More recently, in 2010, UNDP introduced a
new indicator, the Gender Inequality Index
(GII), which was designed to be a better measurement
of gender inequality and to improve the shortcomings
of GDI and GEM.
=== Climate change ===
Gender is a topic of increasing concern within
climate change policy and science.
Generally, gender approaches to climate change
address gender-differentiated 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 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.
Roehr notes that, while the United Nations
officially committed to 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.
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.
This perception of climate change hides subjectivity
and power relations that actually condition
climate-change policy and science, leading
to a phenomenon that Tuana terms ‘epistemic
injustice’.
Similarly, MacGregor 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.
=== 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.
The ways in which people communicate and socialize
have also started to change due to advancements
in technology.
One of the biggest reasons for this change
is the growth of social media.
Over the past few years, the use of social
media globally has started to rise.
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.
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.
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.
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 posts.
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.
Moreover, 58% of women and 45% of men don't
look into the camera, which creates an illusion
of withdrawal.
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.
Research has found that images shared online
through social networking sites help establish
personal self-reflections that individuals
want to share with the world.According to
recent research, gender plays a strong role
in structuring our social lives, especially
since society assigns and creates "male" and
"female" categories.
Individuals in society might be able to learn
the similarities between gender rather than
the differences.
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.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.
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.
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.
Social networking sites have also given individuals
access to create a space where they feel more
comfortable about their sexuality.
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.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.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.
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.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.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.
Even though these traits continue to be displayed
through gender stereotypes, recent studies
show that this isn't necessarily the case
any more.
== See also
