The Differences Between Male And Female

The gender of a person is the masculine or feminine attributes of that individual with respect to the psychological and biological role in society. (Magar, 2009) A gender role can be defined as the way that a person lives in society with respect to its lifestyle. It can be argued that over time the major differences between men and women’s gender roles have faded. In the past traditional roles have been based in their society by their biological orientation. (Magar, 2009) Gender roles can also be described as the behavior and attitudes that are expected of men and women in a society. (Faqs.org, 2011) Although different cultures impose different expectations, many cultures have the same basic gender roles.

Gender is defined as being male or female as defined by roles, social status, and attitude. The perception of oneself and what characterizes gender identity. Included in gender identity is hormone and behavior interaction, along with the examination of psychological, biological, and environmental influences on sexual separation.

Gender is often described as the state of being ether male or female. In most communities,

What is gender? According to the American Psychology Association (APA), Gender refers to the attitudes, feelings, and behaviors that a given culture associates with a person’s biological sex (APA.ORG). Unfortunately, many people tend to think that

This includes both primary sex characteristics such as their reproductive systems and secondary sex characteristics such as height and muscularity. Gender refers to social or cultural distinctions associated with being male or female. A person’s sex does not always correspond with his or her gender. Gender is a concept that is created by cultural or the social norm. Sexual orientation is the term used when referring to an individual’s physical or emotional attraction to the same or opposite gender. Examples of sexual orientation are “Gay”, “Lesbian”, “Bisexual” and “Straight” (Huffman,

The gender describes how our understandings and perception of differences between masculinity (what society deems appropriate behaviour a “man” and femininity (what society deems appropriate behaviour for a “woman”) are influenced.

Similar to race and ethnicity, sex and gender are terms that can sometimes be confused. Sex “refers to physical or physiological differences between males and females” and gender “refers to social or cultural distinctions with being male or female.” A person’s sex relates strictly to biological factors, while a person’s gender relates to characteristics that are identified as masculine or feminine in society.

Gender is socially constructed, signifying processes and practices of conduct ("doing", "undoing" and "re-doing" gender) (West & Zimmerman, 1987; Deutsch, 2007; West & Zimmerman, 2007) based on an assigned sex category (Hird, 2000; Risman, 2004; Connell, 2010). Sex, in contrast, refers to the biological differences between men and women (chromosomes, hormones and genitalia) (Harding, 1996; Hird, 2000).

Gender as defined by society as a division between biological sex and the roles you must take on in society. In reality gender is a true spectrum that does not follow a simple linear pattern. There are three major aspects that make a person who they are inside. These aspects are Sex, Gender and Gender Identity.

Argument/Conclusion: Gender is a social construction or a process in which human beings are brought up to believe that only two genders (male or female) were normal and that based on your sex you are classified to a specific gender.

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 learned social construction on what you do. It is a cultural system based on the binary opposition of men and women but there are also variations

Merriam-Webster provides two definitions for the meaning of gender. The first is simply that gender is a synonym for sex. The second, however, states that gender is “the behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex (Merriam-Webster).” This is the definition for gender used in this paper, while sex is defined separately, as the biological differences between males and females.

Gender, as defined by the United Nations, includes the psychological, social, cultural, and behavioral characteristics associated with being female or male. It further defines acceptable and allowable behavior in for both men and women in a broad cultural sense (United Nations, 2016). Gender identity impacts our development and how we interact with society. Our daily life decisions are impacted by our gender role beliefs.

There are distinct differences between Sex and Gender. Sex is divided up into two divisions, male or female, based upon their reproductive system. Gender is the notion set by society on what social behaviours are acceptable for males and females, for example the expectation that females are more caring or nurturing than men. Gender can be further divided into two subcategorise: identity and stereotype. Gender identity is the concept that your sex and gender do not have to be the same but can different, i.e. a male at birth can identify as a female. These notions of acceptable behaviour set by society create gender stereotypes for both male and female, which can cause a person to reject their gender identity if they do not conform these gender stereotypes.