Gender
The word gender is derived from the Old French word genre, meaning "kind of thing". It has several meanings in modern usage:
- Gender as a linguistic term is a grammatical distinction and applies to words only, generally assigning them to the classes masculine, feminine or neuter. See grammatical gender.
- Gender is commonly used as a synonym for sex, refering to males and females classified according to genetic differences and distinct primary and secondary sex characteristics. This usage is considered incorrect by some.
- Gender identity is a distinctive construct in man. The terms "sex" and "gender" may in fact correlate, as would be the case when a person who has XY sex chromosomes and therefore is biologically male identifies himself as a man. However, this is not always the case thus demonstrating that "gender identity" as a distinct construct does operate independent and therefore would not be synonymous to a person's physical sex. Among the human specie, physical sex characteristics alone, whether primary or secondary, do not determine a person's "gender identity".
- Social scientists use gender to refer to a particular social status, and cluster of roles, that are often (but not exclusively) assigned on the basis of sex. This is discussed on the article on gender roles.
- Situations sometimes arise where gender may be mimicked by inanimate objects, notably in cable connectors that have "male" and "female" counterparts. For an example in this context see gender changer.
- The gender (pronounced with a hard G, as in get) is an Indonesian musical instrument used in gamelan orchestras. See gender (music)
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