Gender

From Encyclopedia of Sex and Sexuality

The two fundamental ways in which individuals are defined as male or female are by their biological sex and by the sets of roles and behaviors that society imposes on individuals solely as a result of their sex. Gender refers to both a person’s biological sex and to the designations of sex that are made and enforced by the society in which one lives. The designations of gender that exist in different societies are always regarded as “natural,” no matter how they may vary.

Thus, a person’s female gender would include a whole cluster of psychological traits and social behaviors that are regarded as suitable for a woman, such as nurturance and dependence, while a person’s male gender would entail characteristics such as assertiveness and independence. Most social roles—in the family, in the workplace, and in the political structure—are assigned on the basis of gender. Women are encouraged to become housewives and secretaries and men are expected to become breadwinners and have an occupation outside the home.

Roles linked to gender vary in different societies and sometimes in different social classes within a society. For example, in many African societies women are expected to be the farmers, and in some Asian societies they are the small shopkeepers. In American society, even when it was considered appropriate for women to stay at home to care for children, African-American women were expected to work outside the home. Upper-class women in a number of patriarchal societies (e.g. India, Pakistan) have assumed high political office. Despite their seemingly natural links to biological sex, men’s and women’s gender roles may change over time because people begin to live in ways other than the conventionally approved ones, because of objections raised by social movements, or through changes in the law (see also sex roles).