• The word “gender” is often used as a synonym for “sex”, but it has more than one meaning, and this can cause confusion.
• In much feminist theory, gender is a value system that places maleness above femaleness; a hierarchy that places men and their needs ahead of women and their needs.
• “Gender roles” refers to the behaviour expected of and imposed on the two sexes, which vary across time and cultures and are often referred to as masculinity and femininity.
• “Gender expression” refers to ways of expressing yourself that are related to your society’s gender roles.

The words “sex” and “gender” are often mixed up. In the past couple of decades “gender” has increasingly taken the place of “sex” in legal documents; in professional and public language it is preferred because it does not have the double meaning of “sexual intercourse”. But as the theory of gender identity has spread, it has caused confusion, because some people are referring to sex and others to gender identity. This is particularly serious for healthcare, which requires clear communication and full knowledge of a patient’s biology. 

Gender in detail

The word “gender” came from a Latin word that means “type”. In some languages, such as French and Spanish, words have “genders”, which is a grammatical classification. Modern English has no gender in this sense, except when referring to individual people or animals whose sex is known. But the word itself has evolved to have several different meanings.

Sometimes it is used as a synonym for “sex” (for example, in the “gender pay gap”: the difference between men’s and women’s average pay).

Some feminists use the word to refer to the hierarchy imposed in a sexist society, whereby women and everything associated with women are regarded as inferior to men and everything associated with men. In this sense, gender refers to men’s interests and needs being prioritised, and women’s being sidelined.   

The expression “gender roles” refers to rules and expectations about how men and women should behave. Sometimes the words “masculine” and “feminine” are used for these. What counts as masculine or feminine varies a bit from one place and time to another, but there are overall patterns. Being aggressive and interested in sport, letting body hair grow and seeking a leadership role at work might count as “masculine”. Being passive, doing lots of housework, wearing modest clothing or high heels, shaving your underarms, legs or pubic hair, and working in a “caring” job like nursing or school-teaching might count as “feminine”.

Whatever the words mean in a given culture, nobody is entirely masculine or feminine. “Gender non-conformity” may be largely tolerated, or it may be harshly punished, as when the Taliban force women to cover their entire bodies.

A related idea is “gender expression”. This means ways of expressing yourself that are related to your society’s ideas about masculinity and femininity, for example clothing, hairstyles and behaviours.

Yet another use of the word “gender” is as short for “gender identity”. For more on this use of the word, see “What is gender identity?”. 

So the word gender has several meanings, none of which is clearly defined or measurable. This is true both for cultural meanings (though social-science methods can give broad outlines of sex-related stereotypes and behavioural patterns) and for gender identity (which is entirely individual and subjective).

It is thus very different from the word sex, which refers to two separate, objectively defined biological categories. Sex can be determined and described using things that others can observe and measure, such as genes and genitals. 

Further reading

‘What are sex and gender and what is the difference?’ (CAN-SG, 2022)