Sex–gender distinction
While in ordinary speech, the terms sex and gender are often used interchangeably, in contemporary academic literature, the terms often have distinct meanings, especially when referring to people. Sex generally refers to an organism's assigned biological sex, while gender usually refers to either social roles typically associated with the sex of a person or personal identification of one's own gender based on their own personal sense of it.
Most contemporary social scientists, behavioral scientists and biologists, many legal systems and government bodies and intergovernmental agencies such as the WHO make a distinction between gender and sex. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and sex is consistent with the individual's gender identity, but in rare circumstances, an individual's assigned sex and gender do not align, and the person may be transgender.
Though sex and gender have been used interchangeably at least as early as the fourteenth century, this usage was not common by the late 1900s. Issac Madison Bentley defined gender as the "socialized obverse of sex" in 1945. Sexologist John Money popularized this distinction beginning in 1955, but did not invent it. As Money viewed it, gender and sex are analysed together as a single category including both biological and social elements, but later work by Robert Stoller separated the two, designating sex and gender as biological and cultural categories, respectively. Before the work of Bentley, Money and Stoller, the word gender was only regularly used to refer to grammatical categories.
Origins
The historic meaning of gender, ultimately derived from Latin genus, was of "kind" or "variety". By the 20th century, this meaning was obsolete, and the word gender was almost always used to refer to grammatical categories, although there are a small number of examples of gender being used as a synonym for sex prior to the 20th century, and even as early as 1474. This changed in the early 1970s when the work of John Money, particularly the popular college textbook Man & Woman, Boy & Girl, was embraced by feminist theory, though Money did not invent the concept. This meaning of gender is now prevalent in the social sciences, although in many other contexts, gender includes sex or replaces it. As formulated by Money, gender is seen as an additional variable of sex. The later work of Robert Stoller, who innovated the term "gender identity", separated gender from sex as specifically cultural and biological categories, respectively, and treated them as "two different orders of data". Other studies have noted that, while there is some tentative evidence for a potential genetic, neuroanatomical, and hormonal basis for gender identity, the specific biological mechanisms involved have not yet been demonstrated.Dictionary definitions
The Oxford English Dictionary defines sex as "Either of the two main categories into which humans and many other living things are divided on the basis of their reproductive functions". A further annotation exists on a separate definition stating that "The word sex tends now to refer to biological differences, while gender often refers to cultural or social ones."Merriam-Webster defines sex as "either of the two major forms of individuals that occur in many species and that are distinguished respectively as female or male especially on the basis of their reproductive organs and structures." or "the sum of the structural, functional, and sometimes behavioral characteristics of organisms that distinguish males and females". They also note that "octors can alter the physical characteristics of sex, but bodily sex does not determine gender."
The Cambridge Dictionary lists several different definitions of gender, such as "the condition of being a member of a group of people in a society who share particular qualities or ways of behaving which that society associates with being male, female, or another identity", or "the male or female sex, or the state of being either male or female".
In the Oxford English Dictionary, gender is defined as—in a modern and especially feminist use—"a euphemism for the sex of a human being, often intended to emphasize the social and cultural, as opposed to the biological, distinctions between the sexes", with the earliest example cited being from 1963. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines gender as "a subclass within a grammatical class of a language that is partly arbitrary but also partly based on distinguishable characteristics and that determines agreement with and selection of other words or grammatical forms". The Britannica dictionary defines gender as "a person's own sense of being male, female, some combination of male and female, or neither male nor female". The American Heritage Dictionary states that gender may be defined by identity as "neither entirely female nor entirely male"; its Usage Note adds:
Some people maintain that the word sex should be reserved for reference to the biological aspects of being male or female or to sexual activity, and that the word gender should be used only to refer to sociocultural roles.... In some situations this distinction avoids ambiguity, as in gender research, which is clear in a way that sex research is not. The distinction can be problematic, however. Linguistically, there isn't any real difference between gender bias and sex bias, and it may seem contrived to insist that sex is incorrect in this instance.
Scientific use
In biology
, or the size differences of gametes, is the defining feature of the two sexes.By definition, males are organisms that produce small, mobile gametes ; while females are organisms that produce large and generally immobile gametes. Richard Dawkins stated that it is possible to interpret all the differences between the sexes as stemming from this single difference in gametes.
Bhargava et al. note that the terms sex and gender are not, and should not be used as, interchangeable terms. They state that "ex is dichotomous, with sex determination in the fertilized zygote stemming from unequal expression of sex chromosomal genes." In contrast, gender is seen as including "perception of the individual as male, female, or other, both by the individual and by society". The authors differentiate between sex differences, caused by biological factors, and gender differences, which "reflect a complex interplay of psychological, environmental, cultural, and biological factors". Gender identity is thus seen as a "psychological concept that refers to an individual's self-perception".
Sex differences
The term sex differences is typically applied to sexually dimorphic traits that are hypothesized to be evolved consequences of sexual selection. For example, the human "sex difference" in height is a consequence of sexual selection, while the "gender difference" typically seen in head hair length is not. Scientific research shows an individual's sex influences their behavior.Sex differences are primarily caused by hormonal, genetic, and environmental factors. According to David Geary, the most fundamental sex difference in humans is the respective cost of reproduction, which is higher for females than males because of pregnancy and higher postnatal parental expenditure, resulting in different mating choice preferences for males and females.
In psychiatry
The American Psychiatric Association states that "Sex is often described as a biological construct defined on an anatomical, hormonal, or genetic basis."Robert Stoller, whose work was the first to treat sex and gender as "two different orders of data", in his book Sex and Gender: The Development of Masculinity and Femininity, uses the term 'sex' to refer to the "male or the female sex and the component biological parts that determine whether one is a male or a female". He further states that, in order to determine sex, chromosomes, external genitalia, internal genitalia, gonads, hormonal states, secondary sex characteristics, and possibly also brain systems, must be analysed. He states that a person's sex is determined by "an algebraic sum of all these qualities", resulting in most people being classified as either 'male' or 'female'.
In psychology
One of the guidelines used by the American Psychological Association states that "here are a number of indicators of biological sex, including sex chromosomes, gonads, internal reproductive organs, and external genitalia."In The Psychology of Gender, it is stated that "sex refers to the biological categories of female and male, categories distinguished by genes, chromosomes, and hormones."
In sociology
Sociologist Dudley Poston states that sex in humans is "determined biologically, in five ways":- Based on different chromosomes.
- Based on different gonads, which produce the gametes and sex hormones.
- Based on different relative levels of sex-specific hormones.
- Based on different internal reproductive structures.
- Based on different sex-specific external genitals. This definition usually results in the assignment of sex at birth.
While noting that typically sex is assigned based on genital inspection at birth, Raine Dozier states that biological sex is "a complex constellation of chromosomes, hormones, genitalia, and reproductive organs."
Used primarily in sociology and gender studies, doing gender is the socially constructed performance which takes place during routine human interactions, rather than as a set of essentialized qualities based on one's biological sex. The term first appeared in Candace West and Don Zimmerman's article "Doing Gender", published in the peer-reviewed journal, Gender and Society. Originally written in 1977 but not published until 1987, "Doing Gender" is the most cited article published in Gender and Society.
West and Zimmerman state that to understand gender as activity, it is important to differentiate between sex, sex category, and gender. They say that sex refers to the socially agreed upon specifications that establish one as male or female; sex is most often based on an individual's genitalia, or even their chromosomal typing before birth. They consider sex categories to be dichotomous, and that the person is placed in a sex category by exhibiting qualities exclusive to one category or the other. During most interactions, others situate a person's sex by identifying their sex category; however, they believe that a person's sex need not align with their sex category. West and Zimmerman maintain that the sex category is "established and sustained by the socially required identificatory displays that proclaim one's membership in one or the other category". Gender is the performance of attitudes and actions that are considered socially acceptable for one's sex category.
West and Zimmerman suggested that the interactional process of doing gender, combined with socially agreed upon gender expectations, holds individuals accountable for their gender performances. They also believe that while "doing gender" appropriately strengthens and promotes social structures based on the gender dichotomy, it inappropriately does not call into question these same social structures; only the individual actor is questioned. The concept of "doing gender" recognizes that gender both structures human interactions and is created through them.