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Gender Presentation : Gender And Gender

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Gender is a very complex topic in our society. While one may have the sexual organs of a male, a female, or both, one 's gender is defined by complex rules that the culture defines through social norms and expectations. One must consider how gender may or may not impact how one is perceived in their presentation to the outside world because these evaluations define how gender presentation is identified within a leadership and workplace context. It is from this framework that one might influence others behaviors or attitudes in the workplace. Careful analysis of the history, the future and the ethics of gender will help us to evaluate how gender presentation might influence workplace behavior and outcomes, especially for those that do not conform to the societal expectations for their gender.
The history of gender presentation needs to begin with how gender has been defined over time, how it was used politically, and what it has become today. One might be tempted to agree that biological differences between male and female are identifiable and universal, and with them comes well-defined expectations for gender presentation. However, this assumption holds the binary gender principal, which is not entirely accurate when one considers the presence of sexually ambiguous persons. In 1955, John Money and his colleagues were researching persons considered biologically ambiguous. In doing so, they found it necessary to create the categorizations of gender role and gender orientation

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