Difference Between Sex and Gender

Gender can be defined as “sex roles” which are conditions that one considers to be for men or women. People tends to mistake it with sex or thinks that they are both the same. We discussed about the patterns of gender which how the authors of The Kaleidoscope of Gender describes it as “regularized, prepackaged ways of thinking, feeling, and acting” (Spade and Valentino,2017). It becomes an identity for us. We believe that there is and can only be two genders, being masculine for men and feminine for women. These roles has been forced onto us since birth: blue for boys, and pink for girls. You can see the roles being push onto a person throughout one’s life, but we don’t notice it since it’s “normal” to us.

As Lorber explores in her essay “Night to His Day”: The Social Construction of Gender, “most people find it hard to believe that gender is constantly created and re-created out of human interaction, out of social life, and is the texture and order of that social life” (Lorber 1). This article was very intriguing because I thought of my gender as my sex but they are not the same. Lorber has tried to prove that gender has a different meaning that what is usually perceived of through ordinary connotation. Gender is the “role” we are given, or the role we give to ourselves. Throughout the article it is obvious that we are to act appropriately according to the norms and society has power over us to make us conform. As a member of a gender

Gender has been described as masculine or feminine characteristics that encompass gender identity sex as well as social roles (Nobelius 2004). According to sexologist John Money, there is a difference between gender as a role and the biologically of differences in sex (Udry 1994). Within scholarly disciplines, cultures and contexts, gender frequently has its own mean, contextual frame of reference and the manner in which it is used to describe a variety of issues and characteristics. The sociocultural codes, conventions and the suggested and literal rules that accompany the notion of gender are vast and diverse. There has been and continues to be much scholarly debate regarding the idea of gender and how it has been viewed historically; as well as changes in the grammatical use of the

Gender is one of the most heated terms in the English language during the 21st century, whose role seems to be constantly changing, always on the move, reflecting new updated meanings for society. Gender roles often portray the fairness and justice of any given society, hence the more equality genders reach, the more advanced and sophisticated the society is considered to be. They also suggest a set of rules that males and females have to follow and play their parts in order to define genders. However, the ambiguity of society’s confinement, like an invisible hand around everybody’s neck, draws attention to the artificiality of what we define as “acceptable” behaviors.

Gender has been traditionally defined as male or female with the allocation of stereotypes and set gender roles assigned to men and women. However, in contemporary society the definition of gender has been altered, forming a societal divide between the concepts of gender and sex with the removal of gender roles. Gender is currently defined by a person’s form of self-identification and sex is based scientifically on biological factors. Culture is an intangible collection of a wide variety of societal customs including language and traditions. An assemblage of both concepts develop an individual’s personal expression of identity.

First of all I am going to begin with defining sex and gender. Sex in a sociological perspective is defined as the biological and physiological differences between men and women which are contrasted in terms of reproductive function(Abercrombie et al 2000 :313). On the other hand gender is sociologically conceived as the social roles allocated to men and women in society that is to say gender is learned not innate. However previously it was believed that sex determined gender thus the differences between men and

There are difference between sex and gender, and as time passes they become better known. Sex is known as male or female. Sex refers to the biology, the differences of chromosomes and hormones; internal and external sex organs of individuals. Gender is known by the terms “masculine” and “feminine”. Gender refers to the characteristics of a society or culture that are defined as either masculine or feminine. Gender roles refer to the characteristics and behaviors that different cultures attribute to the sexes. The evolution of gender norms happens by culture and region, and over time, there has been less of an emphasis on biology so much to explain differences between men and women, just know society shapes different outcomes and expectations

and its definition in society. They bring forth the idea that gender is a result of actions and

Gender can be defined as the personal identity of an individual that they express outwardly, despite the persons actual biological sex and sexual preference. Put simply, gender is ‘the state of being male or female’ (Oxford Dictionary, 2015). The academic study of gender first emerged in the 1960’s, alongside the rise of second wave feminists and women’s movements. Over the years, research has developed in many ways – with people beginning to study how gender differs from sex and developing that research into what causes people to defy their gender norms and how gender and sex can be completely unrelated.

Firstly, this essay will examine the fundamental concept of gender. According to West and Zimmerman (1987), the concept of doing gender is all about the routine people accomplish in their everyday lives. However, gender is not about what a person is, but it is something a person does in the process of interacting with others. West and Zimmerman (1987) argue that gender is something we do everyday, all the time, and it is an ongoing activity, so we cannot stop doing it. However, people do gender knowing that they will judge by other. By this they have been held accountable for their gender performances. Deutsch (2007) mentioned that doing gender has had an impact on the study of gender relations. However, this concept has social interactions

Gender refers to the concepts o masculine and feminine whereas sex is the biological fact of being a male or female. According to the evolutionary approach, gender differences are neither deliberate nor conscious; they exist because they enhanced or helped men and women perform particular types of roles in the past. Therefore, the role differences we observe are more a product of our biological inheritance than acquired through socialisation.

“Gender” is a social construct that is developed solely by our society and the early developmental stages of an adolescent’s life. By introducing youths to the roles, behaviors, expectations and activities that correspond with males or females we give a clear guideline of what is accepted from a young male or female. An individual however can identify his or her gender based on their own system of beliefs without corresponding to their natural biological sex. Our lives are shaped by our true biological identities but the influence of the world and society is enough to define what a male and what a female truly is to an individual.

The words ‘sex’ and ‘gender’ are commonly confused with each other in regular, everyday conversations when the two have very different meanings. The term ‘sex’ refers to the biological and physiological characteristics of a person, such as male or female; ‘gender’ is a social construction that refers to masculine or feminine roles in society ( Nordqvist). For

Gender and sex are not synonymous, although they are often used interchangeably. Sex is a biological term and defined as “the categories of male or female of the sum total of biological attributes on which this distinction is based within a species” (Colman, 2009). Gender, however is a social construct and consists of gender role, gender identity and sexual orientation / preference. Gender identity is “a sense of awareness, usually beginning in infancy, continuing through childhood, and reaching maturing in adolescence, of being male or female, or of the gender associated with one’s biological sex”. Gender role is defined as “a set of behaviour patterns, attitudes, and personality characteristics stereotypically perceived as masculine or feminine within a culture” (Colman, 2009). Understanding gender development is important because the perception of gender identity affects the roles individuals play in society. If the reason behind the gender differences can be understood, they can be minimised to develop a more gender equal society. Also, research into gender development has real world applications. In many aspects of psychological research, gender differences can affect results. This can be reduced through gender equality. This essay will focus on the development of gender identity and the role nature and nurture play in it; specifically the role of genetics and cognitive gender development / social learning theory.

As evident from the generalized patterns found in differences in behaviour and outlook observed between the sexes, it may be tempting, as has been done in the past, to conclude that gender is an unavoidable aspect of human existence as determined purely from one 's genes. Indeed, human physiology is subject to sexual dimorphism; statistically significant differences in brain size and rate of maturation of specific substructures in the brain exist between males and females (Giedd, Castellanos, Rajapakese, Vaituzis, & Rapoport, 1997), yet these physical differences fail to explain how individuals form their concept of their own gender, and why they tend to conform to their perceived gender roles as defined by the society in which they live, when these roles are ever-changing. Thus, it is important to differentiate between the physical and nonphysical traits, and how the labels of femininity and masculinity should not confuse the two aspects. As defined by Unger (1979), “sex” would be used to refer to the biological differences in males and females, while “gender” describes socioculturally determined, nonphysiological traits which are arbitrarily designated as being appropriate for either females or males. With more recent awareness and interest in matters of gender nonconformity and individual gender identity, new research now explains how these concepts of gender are shaped by social influences (Perry