Gender and Sex Worksheet
Answer the following questions in 50 to 150 words each. Provide citations for all the sources you use.
What is gender? What is sex in biological terms? Are gender and sex the same thing? Explain why or why not?
According to Schaefer (2013), “Gender roles are society’s expectations of the proper behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and females” (p. 349). The World and Health Organization (2013) defines sex as “biological characteristics which define humans as female or male.” Gender and sex are similar but they are not the same thing. I say this because a person can have the sexual characteristics of a man but still have the gender of a woman (e.g. transgender). According to Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center, Inc. (2013),”Transgender, at its most basic level, is a word that applies to someone who doesn't fit within society's standards of how a woman or a man is supposed to look or act” (What is Transgender, para. 3). Transgender may be used to describe someone who was assigned female at birth but later realizes that label doesn't accurately reflect who they feel they are inside. This person may now live life as a man, or may feel that their gender identity can't be truly summed up by either of the two options we're usually given (male or female).
How do gender and sex contribute to the concepts and constructions of masculinity and femininity?
According to Planned Parenthood Federation of America Inc (2013):
“Culture determines gender roles and what is masculine and feminine. What does it mean to be a woman or man? Whether we are women or men is not determined just by our sex organs. Our gender includes a complex mix of beliefs, behaviors, and characteristics. How do you act, talk, and behave like a woman or man? Are you feminine or masculine, both, or neither? These are questions that help us get to the core of our gender and gender identity” (Gender and Gender