Gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, femininity and masculinity. 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); those who exist outside these groups fall under the umbrella term "non-binary" or "genderqueer". Some societies have specific genders besides "man" and "woman", such as the hijras of South Asia; these are often referred to as "third genders" (and "fourth genders", etc.).

Sexologist John Money introduced the terminological distinction between biological sex and gender as a role in 1955. Before his work, it was uncommon to use the word "gender" to refer to anything but grammatical categories. However, Money's meaning of the word did not become widespread until the 1970s, when feminist theory embraced the concept of a distinction between biological sex and the social construct of gender. Today, the distinction is followed in some contexts, especially the social sciences and documents written by the World Health Organization (WHO).

In other contexts, including some areas of the social sciences, "gender" includes "sex" or replaces it. For instance, in non-human animal research, "gender" is commonly used to refer to the biological sex of the animals. 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". 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."

The social sciences have a branch devoted to gender studies. Other sciences, such as sexology and neuroscience, are also interested in the subject. The social sciences sometimes approach gender as a social construct, and gender studies particularly do, while research in the natural sciences investigates whether biological differences in females and males influence the development of gender in humans; both inform debate about how far biological differences influence the formation of gender identity. In some English literature, there is also a trichotomy between biological sex, psychological gender, and social gender role. This framework first appeared in a feminist paper on transsexualism in 1978.
Q866081
femininity
Concept
Q1076509
masculinity
Concept
Q290
sex
Concept
Q211606
social structure
Concept
Q2672163
gender role
Concept
Q48264
gender identity
Concept
Q4430243
social organization
Concept
Q5530970
gender binary
Concept
Q3010
boys
Concept
Q8441
men
Concept
Q3031
girls
Concept
Q467
women
Concept
Q48270
"non-binary" or "genderqueer"
Concept
Q660882
hijras
Concept
Q771405
South Asia
LOC
Q48279
third gender
Concept
Q170912
Sexologist
Concept
Q625794
John Money
PER
Q11681123
biological sex and gender as a role
Concept
Q162378
grammatical categories
Concept
Q4810748
feminist theory
Concept
Q7551016
social construct of gender
UNK
Q7817
World Health Organization
Concept
Q1939117
change in the meaning
Concept
Q204711
Food and Drug Administration
Concept
Q34749
social science
Concept
Q1662673
gender studies
Concept
Q170912
sexology
Concept
Q207011
neuroscience
Concept
Q2642673
social construct
Concept
Q7991
natural science
Concept
Q11491601
biological differences
Concept
Q13134154
trichotomy
UNK
Q190965
transsexualism
Concept
Q48277
Gender
Concept
1955-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1955
DATE
1970-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1970
DATE
1980-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1980
DATE
1993-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1993
DATE
2011-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2011
DATE
1978-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1978
DATE
different from
studies
subclass of
subclass of
field of work