Gender

Lore & Background

The modern English word gender comes from the Middle English gender, gendre, a loanword from Anglo-Norman and Middle French gendre, which in turn came from Latin genus. Both words mean 'kind', 'type', or 'sort', deriving ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European root *ǵénh₁- 'to beget'. The concept of gender, in the modern social science sense, is a recent invention in human history. The ancient world had no basis of understanding gender as it has been understood in the humanities and social sciences for the past few decades. The term gender had been associated with grammar for most of history and only started to move towards it being a malleable cultural construct in the 1950s and 1960s. Before the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role developed, it was uncommon to use the word gender to refer to anything but grammatical categories. In the mid-20th century, a terminological distinction in modern English between biological sex and gender began to develop in the academic areas of psychology, sociology, sexology, and feminism. In the 1970s, feminist theory embraced the concept of a distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender. The distinction between gender and sex is made by most contemporary social scientists in Western countries, behavioral scientists and biologists, many legal systems and government bodies, and intergovernmental agencies such as the WHO.

Reader's Guide

Gender is a central concept in the social sciences, with a branch devoted to gender studies, and is also studied in psychology, sociology, sexology, and neuroscience. The social sciences sometimes approach gender as a social construct, and gender studies particularly does, while research in the natural sciences investigates whether biological differences in females and males influence the development of gender in humans. Biopsychosocial approaches to gender include biological, psychological, and social/cultural aspects. The experiences of intersex people also testify to the complexity of sex and gender; female, male, and other gender identities are experienced across the many divergences of sexual difference. The term has been used as a synonym for sex, and the balance between these usages has shifted over time. In the 1970s, feminist scholars adopted the term gender as a way of distinguishing 'socially constructed' aspects of male–female differences from 'biologically determined' aspects. In legal contexts, courts have addressed discrimination on the basis of gender, noting a history of sex discrimination and the need for heightened scrutiny of gender-based classifications. The term's evolution reflects ongoing debates about the relationship between biological sex and social roles.

Did You Know?

• The word gender comes from Latin genus, meaning 'kind', 'type', or 'sort'.
• Before the mid-20th century, it was uncommon to use the word gender to refer to anything but grammatical categories.
• In the 1970s, feminist theory embraced the concept of a distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender.
• Some societies have third genders, such as the hijras of South Asia and two-spirit persons native to North America.