Many writers use the terms sex and gender interchangeably. However, each word has a specific meaning. Sex refers to our biological femaleness or maleness. There are two aspects of biological sex: genetic sex, which is determined by our sex chromosomes, and anatomical sex, the obvious physical differences between males and females. Gender is a term or concept that encompasses the behaviors, socially constructed roles, and psychological attributes commonly associated with being male or female. Thus, although our sex is linked to various physical attributes (chromosomes, penis, vulva, and so forth), our gender refers to the psychological and sociocultural characteristics associated with our sex—in other words, our femininity or masculinity. In this chapter we use the terms masculine and feminine to characterize the behaviors that are typically attributed to males and females. One undesirable aspect of these labels is that they can limit the range of behaviors that people are comfortable expressing. For example, a man might hesitate to be nurturing lest he be labeled feminine, and a woman might be reticent to act assertively for fear of being considered masculine. It is not our intention
to perpetuate the stereotypes often associated with these labels. However, we find it necessary to use these terms when discussing gender issues.
When we meet people for the first time, most of us quickly note their sex and make assumptions about how they are likely to behave based on their maleness or femaleness. These are gender assumptions. For most people gender assumptions are an important part of routine social interaction. We identify people as being either the same sex as we are or the other sex. (We have avoided using the term opposite sex because we believe it overstates the differences between males and females.) In fact, many of us find it hard to interact with a person whose gender is ambiguous. When we are unsure of our identification of someone’s gender, we may become confused and uncomfortable.