Gender

The word gender originally existed as a grammatical category stemming from the Latin word genus and can be translated as “kind” or “sort.” Genders were known as classes of nouns reflected in behavior of associated words. In some languages, gender is central and adjectives and verbs show gender agreement; in other languages, adverbs, numerals, and other parts of speech agree. In some languages, gender is absent. Stemming from linguistics in which gender referred to feminine and masculine forms within language, gender conveyed strong associations about the role of society in distinguishing words coded as male and female.

During the 1960s, feminist scholars extended the cultural constructions of gendered language to adopt the concept of gender to distinguish cultural characteristics associated with masculinity and femininity from biological features distinct to males and females, such as male and female chromosomes, hormones, and internal and external reproductive organs. The use of the word gender rather than sex wasusedtorepudiate beliefs that biology determined male and female behavior, including stereotypical beliefs about female inferiority. Gender was distinguished as the cultural part of being a man or a woman, and being masculine or feminine was no longer connected with biological sex but described as a culturally variable characteristic.

Now, in current speech, gender has almost completely replaced sex except when referring to sexuality. When asking if a person is a man or a woman, it is customary to ask for “gender” rather than “sex.” In fact, many psychologists use the term sex [Page 422]differences and gender differences interchangeably. However, it is important to clearly distinguish the terms sex and gender when discussing social psychology. Many influential researchers in the field use sex to refer to the binary categories of male and female and gender to refer to the attributes associated with the two sexes, including gender roles and gender stereotypes. It is important to note that this convention is not universally accepted, and often researchers do not distinguish between sex and gender because of different philosophical viewpoints.

The importance of studying gender as a social category is to provide meaningful explanations of historical and cultural relationships between women and men and to better understand social organization as it relates to gender, including gender expectations, educational and professional opportunities, and power relations. In U.S. society, there are still large discrepancies between men and women in social roles, earning power, and occupational status. In families where both parents work full-time, the majority of household chores and child care is the responsibility of the woman. The income of the average working woman is significantly less than that of the average working man. From 1951 to 1999, 90% of university professors in chemistry, physics, mathematics, and engineering were men. In the United States, most positions of political power are held by men.

What causes these differences? There are many possible social explanations, including the notion that, in general, parents, teachers, and society expect and encourage different things from girls and boys, men and women. Gender stereotyping is pervasive: Males are more widely believed to be dominant, independent, aggressive, and achievement-oriented, whereas females are generally believed to be nurturing, affiliative, less esteemed, and more helpful in times of distress. Historically women have been oppressed and have not been offered equal opportunities. Before 1928, women could not vote. Women were less likely to be admitted to institutions of higher learning even when their qualifications were equal to those of male applicants. In fact, until 1969 many private colleges and universities did not admit women. In the past 50 years there have been some changes in social roles and economic and political status of women due to legislation and efforts to abolish various inequities; however, in most settings gender stereotypes persist and provide justification for the existing social arrangement of males as dominant and women as subordinate.

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