Full Answer
Which structure is male gender specific?
Male Urethra: Male urethra is longer (20 cm) since it has to travel through the penis. Female Urethra: Female urethra is shorter (4 cm). Diameter. Male Urethra: The diameter of the male urethra is 8-9 mm. Female Urethra: The diameter of the female urethra is 6 mm. Opening. Male Urethra: Male urethra opens to the outside at the tip of the penis.
Is gender really a hierarchy?
Sex is a hierarchy: male above female, man above woman, boy above girl. But gender, which even WHO, the World Health Organization, defines as masculinity or femininity, is a patriarchal construct much more complex than a simple hierarchy — gender is a system by which patriarchy rewards conformity. Framing gender as a hierarchy too easily leads to men being categorized as more oppressed than women.
Is gender a social structure?
What is gender? One definition that I have encountered is that gender could be considered as a social structure, which Daniel Lee Kleinman interprets as follows: At the most general level, there are no formal rules defining gender relations.
How is gender constructed?
Social Construction of Gender Essay
- Introduction. Gender as a topic has become very popular over the recent past. ...
- Social Construction of Gender. Gender is socially constructed. ...
- Relationship between the Two Genders. The society is waking to a new down where women and men are considered equal. ...
- Sex, Gender and Gender Conformity. ...
- Conclusion. ...
- Works Cited. ...
What is the definition of the term gender structure?
Gender structure, expressing power relations between men and women in society, shapes the masculine and femi- nine identities as crucial parts of our human status. Since antiquity, gender structure has been regulated by patriarchal social orders on the basis of unequal power relations nearly throughout the world.
What is the simple definition of gender?
Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationships with each other.
What are the three levels of gender?
3 Dimensions of Gender. A person's gender is the complex interrelationship between three dimensions: body, identity and social.
What is the classical definition of gender?
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity.
What's another word for gender?
In this page you can discover 25 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for gender, like: sex, female, male, grammatical class, kind, identity, sex-gender, grammatical gender, ethnicity, sexual and gender-related.
What are the characteristics of gender?
There are 4 characteristics of gender:Gender is learned.Gender is collaborative.Gender is something we do.Gender involves asymmetry.
What is gender structuralism?
Structuralist theories of gender or sex are generally based on, or attempt to demonstrate, a relationship that is expressed in terms of the structural formula: men are to culture what women are to nature, or men are to women what culture is to nature.
What are the types of gender?
There are many different gender identities, including male, female, transgender, gender neutral, non-binary, agender, pangender, genderqueer, two-spirit, third gender, and all, none or a combination of these.
What are the 4 types of gender?
In English, the four genders of noun are masculine, feminine, common, and neuter.
What is the Oxford definition of gender?
The state of being male or female as expressed by social or cultural distinctions and differences, rather than biological ones; the collective attributes or traits associated with a particular sex, or determined as a result of one's sex.
What is the importance of gender?
Gender is of key importance in defining the power, privilege and possibilities that some people have and some people do not have in a given society. It affects progress towards equality and freedom from discrimination.
What is gender and its importance?
Gender is an important consideration in development. It is a way of looking at how social norms and power structures impact on the lives and opportunities available to different groups of men and women. Globally, more women than men live in poverty.
What is gender in social terms?
Gender refers to the characteristics of women, men, girls and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviours and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl or boy, as well as relationships with each other. As a social construct, gender varies from society to society and can change over time.
What is gender based discrimination?
Gender is hierarchical and produces inequalities that intersect with other social and economic inequalities. Gender-based discrimination intersects with other factors of discrimination, such as ethnicity, socioeconomic status , disability, age, geographic location, gender identity and sexual orientation, among others. This is referred to as intersectionality.
How does rigid gender affect people?
Rigid gender norms also negatively affect people with diverse gender identities, who often face violence, stigma and discrimination as a result, including in healthcare settings. Consequently, they are at higher risk of HIV and mental health problems, including suicide.
How does gender affect men?
For example, specific notions of masculinity may encourage boys and men to smoke, take sexual and other health risks, misuse alcohol and not seek help or health care. Such gender norms also contribute to boys and men perpetrating violence – as well as being subjected to violence themselves. They can also have grave implications for their mental health.
How does gender affect healthcare?
The way that health services are organized and provided can either limit or enable a person’s access to healthcare information, support and services, and the outcome of those encounters. Health services should be affordable, accessible and acceptable to all, and they should be provided with quality, equity and dignity.
What are the risks of women and girls?
Consequently, women and girls face greater risks of unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections including HIV, cervical cancer, malnutrition, lower vision, respiratory infections, malnutrition and elder abuse, amongst others. Women and girls also face unacceptably high levels of violence rooted in gender inequality and are at grave risk of harmful practices such as female genital mutilation, and child, early and forced marriage. WHO figures show that about 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.
What are the barriers women face?
Gender inequality and discrimination faced by women and girls puts their health and well-being at risk. Women and girls often face greater barriers than men and boys to accessing health information and services. These barriers include restrictions on mobility; lack of access to decision-making power; lower literacy rates; discriminatory attitudes of communities and healthcare providers; and lack of training and awareness amongst healthcare providers and health systems of the specific health needs and challenges of women and girls.
What is gender system?
Gender systems are the social structures that establish the number of genders and their associated gender roles in every society. A gender role is "everything that a person says and does to indicate to others or to the self the degree that one is either male, female, or androgynous. This includes but is not limited to sexual and erotic arousal ...
What is gender identity?
Gender identity is one's own personal experience with gender role and the persistence of one's individuality as male, female, or androgynous, especially in self-awareness and behavior. A gender binary is one example of a gender system.
What does "femminielli" mean?
Standard Italian femmina, "a female", -ello, masculine diminutive suffix) is a slur used to refer to a population of males with markedly feminine gender expression in traditional Neapolitan culture. It may be hard to define this term within modern Western notions of "gay men" versus "trans women" since both these categories overlap to a degree in the case of femminielli It has been noted that this term is not derogatory and does not carry stigma, with femminielli instead traditionally believed to bring luck.
What is gender violence?
Gendered violence is a worldwide issue that can take place in different forms with varying consequences. It can be similar to a hate crime in which physical violence is specifically targeting the victim's gender. Transgender people and women experience the most gender violence but anyone can be a victim.
When was the gender system first recognized in India?
Find sources: "Gender system" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (June 2011) "The recognition of more than two sex/genders is recorded in India as early as the eighth century BCE". In modern India, the term hijra is most commonly meant as "eunuch" or intersexed, and is a term of sexual impotence.
When did Bangladesh start a third gender birth certificate?
As of November 11, 2013, the country of Bangladesh has decided to begin a third gender birth certificate.
Is Brazil a gender binary?
Like in Indian culture, some subcultures in Brazil follow a gender binary that differs from the traditional Western one. Rather than men and women, certain areas of Brazil have men and not-men. Men are masculine, and anyone who displays feminine qualities falls under the category of not-man.
Who coined the term gender role?
As a social role. Sexologist John Money coined the term gender role, and was the first to use it in print in a scientific trade journal. In a seminal 1955 paper he defined it as "all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself or herself as having the status of boy or man, girl or woman.".
How do gender roles affect society?
Although the specific nature and degree of these differences vary from one society to the next, they still tend to typically favor men, creating an imbalance in power and gender inequalities within most societies. Many cultures have different systems of norms and beliefs based on gender, but there is no universal standard to a masculine or feminine role across all cultures. Social roles of men and women in relation to each other is based on the cultural norms of that society, which lead to the creation of gender systems. The gender system is the basis of social patterns in many societies, which include the separation of sexes, and the primacy of masculine norms.
What are the characteristics of a social organization?
Depending on the context, these characteristics may include biological sex, sex -based social structures (i.e., gender roles ), or gender identity. Most scholars agree that gender is a central characteristic for social organization. Most cultures use a gender binary, having two genders ( boys / men and girls / women );
Why is gender important?
Gender, and particularly the role of women is widely recognized as vitally important to international development issues. This often means a focus on gender-equality, ensuring participation, but includes an understanding of the different roles and expectation of the genders within the community.
When did the FDA reverse its position on gender?
Later, in 2011, the FDA reversed its position and began using sex as the biological classification and gender as "a person's self representation as male or female, or how that person is responded to by social institutions based on the individual's gender presentation.".
When did the gender change?
This change in the meaning of gender can be traced to the 1980s. In 1993, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) started to use gender instead of sex.
Which countries recognize non-binary genders?
Some countries now legally recognize non-binary or third genders, including Canada, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, India and Pakistan. In the United States, Oregon was the first state to legally recognize non-binary gender in 2017, and was followed by California and the District of Columbia.
What is gender in sociology?
Gender. Gender refers to sociocultural norms, identities, and relations that: 1) structure societies and organizations; and 2) shape behaviors, products, technologies, environments, and knowledges (Schiebinger, 1999). Gender attitudes and behaviors are complex and change across time and place.
What is gender identity?
2. Gender Identities refer to how individuals or groups perceive and present themselves in relation to gender norms. Gender identities may be context-specific and interact with other identities, such as ethnicity, class or cultural heritage (see Intersectional Approaches ). 3.
What are the consequences of gender segregation?
One consequence of such gender segregation is that particular occupations or disciplines become marked symbolically with the (presumed) gender category of the larger group: for example, nursing is seen as a female profession, engineering as male.
How are gender norms produced?
Gender Norms are produced through social institutions (such as families, schools, workplaces, laboratories, universities or boardrooms), social interactions (such as between romantic partners, work colleagues, or family members), and wider cultural products (such as textbooks, literature, film and video games).
When was gender introduced?
Sex and gender interact: The term gender was introduced in the late 1960s to reject biological determinism that interprets behavioral differences as the outcomes of biological disposition. “Gender” was used to distinguish the sociocultural factors that shape behaviors and attitudes from biological factors related to sex.
Is gender behavior universal?
Gendered behaviors and attitude s are learned ; they are neither fixed nor universal. Gendered experiences can affect biology. Moreover, some individuals seek to change aspects of their bodies to align them better with their gender identities.
Is gender a social category?
Importantly, gender is multidimensional (Hyde et al., 2018) and intersects with other social categories, such as sex, age, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and ethnicity (see Intersectional Approaches). Gender is distinct from sex (Fausto-Sterling, 2012).
What is gender in sociology?
Gender Definition in Sociology. Gender, race, ethnicity, and social class are the most commonly used categories in sociology. They represent the major social statuses that determine the life chances of individuals in heterogeneous societies, and together they form a hierarchy of access to property, power, and prestige.
How is gender shaped?
As with any other aspect of social life, gender is shaped by an individual’s genetic heritage, physical body, and physiological development. Socially, however, gendering begins as soon as the sex of the fetus is identified.
Why do boys have to separate from their mothers?
Boys have to separate from their mothers and identify with their fathers in order to establish their masculinity. They thus develop strong ego boundaries and a capacity for the independent action, objectivity, and rational thinking so valued in Western culture. Women are a threat to their independence and masculine sexuality because they remind men of their dependence on their mothers. However, men need women for the emotional sustenance and intimacy they rarely give each other. Their ambivalence toward women comes out in heterosexual love-hate relationships and in misogynistic depictions of women in popular culture and in novels, plays, and operas.
What does gender typing mean?
When women and men work in nontraditional occupations, gender typing is often maintained symbolically, as when policewomen view their work as social work and men nurses emphasize the technical and physical strength aspects of what they do.
What is gender construction in children's peer culture?
Children’s peer culture is another site of gender construction. On playgrounds, girls and boys divide up into separate groups whose borders are defended against opposite-gender intruders. Within the group, girls tend to be more cooperative and play people-based games. Boys tend to play rule-based games that are competitive. These tendencies have been observed in Western societies; anthropological data about children’s socialization shows different patterns of gendering. Everywhere, children’s gender socialization is closely attuned to expected adult behavior.
Why is gender not sex?
Gender was first conceptualized as distinct from sex in order to highlight the social and cultural processes that constructed different social roles for females and males and that prescribed sex-appropriate behavior, demeanor, personality characteristics, and dress.
How are women and men socially constructed?
Through interaction with caretakers, socialization in childhood, peer pressure in adolescence, and gendered work and family roles, women and men are socially constructed to be different in behavior, attitudes, and emotions. The gendered social order is based on and maintains these differences.
How do men and women differ?
These traits might sound like stereotypes of females and males in today’s society, and to some extent they are, but differences between men and women in attitudes and behavior do in fact exist (Aulette, Wittner, & Blakeley, 2009). For example, women cry more often than men do. Men are more physically violent than women. Women take care of children more than men do. Women smile more often than men. Men curse more often than women. When women talk with each other, they are more likely to talk about their personal lives than men are when they talk with each other (Tannen, 2001). The two sexes even differ when they hold a cigarette (not that anyone should smoke). When a woman holds a cigarette, she usually has the palm of her cigarette-holding hand facing upward. When a man holds a cigarette, he usually has his palm facing downward.
What does it mean to be feminine?
As this nursery rhyme suggests, our traditional notions of femininity and masculinity indicate that we think females and males are fundamentally different from each other. In effect, we think of them as two sides of the same coin of being human. What we traditionally mean by femininity is captured in the adjectives, both positive and negative, we traditionally ascribe to women: gentle, sensitive, nurturing, delicate, graceful, cooperative, decorative, dependent, emotional, passive, and weak. Thus when we say that a girl or woman is very feminine, we have some combination of these traits, usually the positive ones, in mind: she is soft, dainty, pretty, even a bit flighty. What we traditionally mean by masculinity is captured in the adjectives, again both positive and negative, our society traditionally ascribes to men: strong, assertive, brave, active, independent, intelligent, competitive, insensitive, unemotional, and aggressive. When we say that a boy or man is very masculine, we have some combination of these traits in mind: he is tough, strong, and assertive.
What does it mean to believe in a strong biological basis for differences between women and men?
It implies that “anatomy is destiny,” and destiny is, of course, by definition inevitable. Figure 11.1 Belief That Women Should Stay at Home.
What is the difference between masculinity and femininity?
These expectations are called femininity and masculinity. Femininity refers to the cultural expectations we have of girls and women, while masculinity refers to the expectations we have of boys and men. A familiar nursery rhyme nicely summarizes these two sets of traits:
How many chromosomes are there in a female?
Females, of course, have two X chromosomes, while males have one X chro mosome and one Y chr omosome.
Why were men better suited to hunting than women?
Meanwhile, men were better suited than women for hunting because they were stronger and quicker than women. In prehistoric societies, then, biology was indeed destiny: for biological reasons, men in effect worked outside the home (hunted), while women stayed at home with their children.
Is gender a social construction?
Gender as a Social Construction. If sex is a biological concept, then gender is a social concept. It refers to the social and cultural differences a society assigns to people based on their (biological) sex. A related concept, gender roles, refers to a society’s expectations of people’s behavior and attitudes based on whether they are females ...
What is gender socialization?
Gender socialization is the process by which we learn our culture's gender-related rules, norms, and expectations. The most common agents of gender socialization—in other words, the people who influence the process—are parents, teachers, schools, and the media. Through gender socialization, children begin to develop their own beliefs about gender ...
How do teachers and school administrators model gender roles and sometimes demonstrate gender stereotypes?
Teachers and school administrators model gender roles and sometimes demonstrate gender stereotypes by responding to male and female students in different ways. For example, separating students by gender for activities or disciplining students differently depending on their gender may reinforce children’s developing beliefs and assumptions.
How does gender socialization affect us?
Gender socialization is a lifelong process. The beliefs about gender that we acquire in childhood can affect us throughout our lives. The impact of this socialization can be big (shaping what we believe we are capable of accomplishing and thus potentially determining our life's course), small (influencing the color we choose for our bedroom walls), ...
How do parents communicate gender?
Parents are typically a child’s first source of information about gender. Starting at birth, parents communicate different expectations to their children depending on their sex. For example, a son may engage in more roughhousing with his father, while a mother takes her daughter shopping. The child may learn from their parents that certain activities or toys correspond with a particular gender (think of a family that gives their son a truck and their daughter a doll). Even parents who emphasize gender equality may inadvertently reinforce some stereotypes due to their own gender socialization.
How does gender affect children?
Children’s knowledge of gender roles and stereotypes can impact their attitudes towards their own and other genders. Young children, in particular, may become especially rigid about what boys and girls "can" and "cannot" do. This either-or thinking about gender reaches its peak between the ages of 5 and 7 and then becomes more flexible.
How do individuals develop their own gender identity?
Individuals develop their own gender identity, influenced in part by the process of gender socialization.
How do gender interactions help socialization?
Peer interactions also contribute to gender socialization. Children tend to play with same-gender peers. Through these interactions, they learn what their peers expect of them as boys or girls. These lessons may be direct, such as when a peer tells the child that a certain behavior is or is not "appropriate" for their gender. They can also be indirect, as the child observes same- and other-gendered peers' behavior over time. These comments and comparisons may become less overt over time, but adults continue to turn to same-gendered peers for information about how they are supposed to look and act as a man or a woman.
What is gender order?
The gender order is a system of allocation, based on sex-class assignment, of rights and obligations, freedoms and constraints, limits and possibilities, power and subordination. It is supported by – and supports – structures of convention, ideology, emotion, and desire. These are so interwoven that it is often difficult to separate gender from other aspects of life. The power of convention, or custom, lies in the fact that we simply learn ways of being and ways of doing things without considering any reasons behind them, and without recognizing the larger structures they fall into. And while convention changes continually, members of society often view individual conventions as timeless and necessary, and as key to order. An important property of convention lies in its apparent timelessness. Indeed, part of the process of conventionalization is an erasure of the actual circumstances under which the particular practice in question came into being. For example, we automatically say, “Mr. and Mrs. Jones” – not “Mrs. and Mr. Jones”; and “husband and wife” – not “wife and husband.”13 While this is a matter of convention, the convention was originally explicitly established that men should be mentioned before women on the grounds of male superiority. As early as the sixteenth century, grammarians argued that male should be mentioned before female: “let us kepe a natural order, and set the man before the woman for maners Sake” (Wilson 1560, p. 189; cited in Bodine 1975, p. 134), for “The Masculine gender is more worthy than the Feminine” (Poole 1646, p. 21; cited in Bodine 1975, p. 134). Here is a case in which linguistic convention has been overtly determined by gender ideology and, in turn, supports that ideology at least implicitly.
What is the ubiquity of gender?
One thing that is overwhelming in our narrative of development is the ubiquity of gender. Children get gender from everywhere. Gender consists in a pattern of relations that develops over time to define male and female, masculinity and femininity, simultaneously structuring and regulating people’s relation to society. It is deeply embedded in every aspect of society – in our institutions, in public spaces, in art, clothing, movement. Gender is embedded in experience in all settings from government offices to street games. It is embedded in the family, the neighborhood, church, school, the media, walking down the street, eating in a restaurant, going to the restroom. And these settings and situations are all linked to one other in a structured fashion. Gender is so intricately organized at every level of experience that there is something approaching a seamless connection between a girl’s desire for a frilly party dress and the male control of the means of production. What we experience as our individual, perhaps whimsical, desires emerge within a far-reaching gender order – an order that both supports, and is supported by, these desires. It is this seamless connection that makes language so important to gender and vice versa. Our smallest interactions can be imbued with gender, and our continual performance in those interactions strengthens their role in supporting gender. Every time a little girl desires a frilly pink party dress, insists on having one, or wears one, she is performing a gendered act that renews the gendered meanings associated with pink, frills, dresses, and party clothes. The little girl who insists on wearing grubby overalls has a different effect. Interestingly, however, people often dismiss what they see as exceptions so that the actions of the nonconforming girl may have less ongoing effect.12 The purpose of this section is to give some account of the connection
Is gender monolithic?
Inasmuch as gender unfolds in social practice in a wide variety of communities, it is anything but monolithic. Male and female, masculinity and femininity, are not equally dimorphic everywhere. Nor are they experienced or defined in the same ways everywhere.
Overview
Gender systems around the world
In cultures where the gender binary is prominent and important, transgender people are a major exception to the societal norms related to gender. Intersex people, those who cannot be biologically determined as either male or female, are another obvious deviation. Other cultures have their own practices independent of the Western gender binary.
Gender binary
Gender binary is the classification of sex and gender into two distinct, opposite and disconnected forms of masculine and feminine. Gender binary is one general type of a gender system. Sometimes in this binary model, "sex", "gender" and "sexuality" are assumed by default to align.
The cultural definition of homosexuality
In cultures where the difference between male and female in the gender binary is masculine and feminine, it is important to look at how same-sex sexuality changes between cultures. In some cultures, like the travesti, homosexual behavior moves one from one part of a gender binary to another.
Homosexuality, and its effects on the individual's place in society is sometimes drastically differ…
The Alternative Model of Gender
In "The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough", Anne Fausto-Sterling explores the possibilities of the intersex and how these individuals fit into the traditional labeling of "male" and "female". Her "Alternative Model of Gender," is a proposition that allows for the inclusion of intersexual individuals into the traditional gender labeling system. Anne Fausto-Sterling proposes that a body does not necessarily have to fit into the orthodox gender binary set by a society, but r…
Gendered violence
Gendered violence is a worldwide issue that can take place in different forms with varying consequences. It can be similar to a hate crime in which physical violence is specifically targeting the victim's gender. Transgender people and women experience the most gender violence but anyone can be a victim. Women are particularly at risk of gender violence in intimate relationships. Women are 10 times more likely to be a victim of intimate partner violence. This a…
See also
• Gender and Sexual Diversity
• Transsexualism
• Transgender
• Transgenderism (social movement)
• Intersexuality
Bibliography
• Duberman, Martin. "Gender Diversity in Native North America: Notes toward a Unified Analysis". A Queer World. New York And London: New York University Press, 1997. 65. Print.
• Kulick, D. "The Gender of Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes." American Anthropologist 99.3 (1997): 574–85.
• Nanda, Serena. Gender Diversity: Crosscultural Variations. Waveland Press, 1999. Print.
Overview
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures use a gender binary, in which gender is divided into two categories, and people are considered part of one or the other (boys/men and girls/women); those who exi…
Gender identity and gender roles
Gender identity refers to a personal identification with a particular gender and gender role in society. The term woman has historically been used interchangeably with reference to the female body, though more recently this usage has been viewed as controversial by some feminists.
There are qualitative analyses that explore and present the representations of …
Etymology and usage
The modern English word gender comes from the Middle English gender, gendre, a loanword from Anglo-Norman and Middle French gendre. This, in turn, came from Latin genus. Both words mean "kind", "type", or "sort". They derive ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) root *ǵénh₁- 'to beget', which is also the source of kin, kind, king, and many other English words, with cognates widely attested in many Indo-European languages. It appears in Modern French in the word genre (type, ki…
Biological factors and views
Some gendered behavior is influenced by prenatal and early life androgen exposure. This includes, for example, gender normative play, self-identification with a gender, and tendency to engage in aggressive behavior. Males of most mammals, including humans, exhibit more rough and tumble play behavior, which is influenced by maternal testosterone levels. These levels may also influence sexuality, with non-heterosexual persons exhibiting sex atypical behavior in childhood.
Gender studies
Gender studies is a field of interdisciplinary study and academic field devoted to gender, gender identity and gendered representation as central categories of analysis. This field includes Women's studies (concerning women, feminity, their gender roles and politics, and feminism), Men's studies (concerning men, masculinity, their gender roles, and politics), and LGBT studies. Sometimes Gender studies is offered together with Study of Sexuality. These disciplines study gender and se…
Psychology and sociology
Many of the more complicated human behaviors are influenced by both innate factors and by environmental ones, which include everything from genes, gene expression, and body chemistry, through diet and social pressures. A large area of research in behavioral psychology collates evidence in an effort to discover correlations between behavior and various possible antecedents such as genet…
Legal status
A person's sex as male or female has legal significance—sex is indicated on government documents, and laws provide differently for men and women. Many pension systems have different retirement ages for men or women. Marriage is usually only available to opposite-sex couples; in some countries and jurisdictions there are same-sex marriage laws.
The question then arises as to what legally determines whether someone is female or male. In …
Gender and society
• Grammatical gender is a property of some languages in which every noun is assigned a gender, often with no direct relation to its meaning. For example, the word for "girl" is muchacha (grammatically feminine) in Spanish, Mädchen (grammatically neuter) in German, and cailín (grammatically masculine) in Irish.
• The term "grammatical gender" is often applied to more complex noun class sy…