On balance, gender is more nature than nurture.

I look forward to an exciting debate. Debating whether gender is more biological or societal first requires defining what gender means. The Oxford dictionary defines it as "The state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones)" (1). This standard dictionary definition reveals an interesting fact about gender--it is not the same concept as biological sex, though they are intertwined. Gender is the societal interpretation of the differences between the sexes; this is also the position of the American Psychological Association (2). To affirm the resolution, I must prove that societal views of the sexes are derived from the biological differences between the sexes, and not from external factors. As the resolution states "more", I only need to show that biology is more important than societal factors in determining gender to succeed. First, I will explore the biological roots of gender. Then, I will examine the biological process by which people identify themselves with a certain gender. Finally, I will demonstrate that modern advances that increasingly allow people to alter their biological sexual characteristics undermine the concept of gender; as the biological basis for gender disappears, gender has become increasingly abstract. Argument 1--Gender arose due to biological differences between the sexes. Gender requires at least two different sexes in order to exist; otherwise, there are no sexual differences to be interpreted. Gender predates human history; all species of animals have some sort of expected role for each sex to play based on biology--for example, the spotted hyena, with its strong females, has a matriarchal society (3). Biological strength of the female translates to females being the dominant sex. Gender in human society arose for much of the same reasons. As society developed, the various needs of society were met by the formation of gender roles--females, usually weaker than men, had less participation in plough-based agriculture (4). While it is true that agriculture led to a change in societal circumstances, it would not have resulted in a change in gender views if women and men were biologically endowed with the same strength. This is supported by the fact that the agricultural societies that saw the most male-domination were plow-based, which is the most labor intensive kind of work, and the most alienating to women (4). The biological makeup of females made them more suitable to child-bearing and care, and that is thus the role they played. This role of child-bearing is in itself biological--women are expected to carry and raise the children, as they are the ones that have the capacity for pregnancy, and the capacity to feed the children with their breast milk. While that seems like an obvious fact, it is significant because that is not how all animal societies work. For example, male seahorses become pregnant, not the females; unlike the human male, the male seahorse's gender role involves being a child-bearer (5). Human females have the same role and expectation, because they are biologically suited to it. Biological suitability to roles necessary in a society determines the societal attitude toward each sex. Argument 2--Biology influences gender identification The vast majority of individuals identify their sex as congruent with their gender (cisgender)--no more than 1% of one survey population described itself as "gender variant" (6), demonstrating that, though biological sex and gender are not the same concept, they are closely intertwined; there is an identification with a gender based on biological sex. Furthermore, the existence of transgender people throughout history challenges the notion that people identify gender with sex just because they are pressured to by society. Transgender means "relating to a person whose gender identity does not correspond to that person's biological sex" (7). Consider the case of Murray Hall. Hall, a politician in New York City at the end of the 19th century, was born female but identified as male, and hid his biological sex from the public for 30 years, until his death in 1901 (8). This identification is clearly in spite of societal expectations, and not stemming from them. Many more examples of the existence of trans-gendered people throughout U.S. history despite societal pressure against it are listed (8). This shows that gender identification is primarily biological, not sociological, and every member of a society identifies his/her own gender based on biological factors. Argument 3--The fading of biology as a determinant factor in sex has resulted in the decline of gender The most significant change in the field of sex and gender arrived in the twentieth century in the form of sexual reassignment surgery. In 1952, a procedure was announced that combined surgery and hormone therapy to significant effect, changing a man to have many of the outward physical characteristics of women (9). For the first time, people dissatisfied with discrepancies between their sexual and gender identities could change them, revolutionizing the field of gender studies. The procedures have gradually grown more advanced and widespread since then; approximately 1,000 people in the world have the surgery each year (10). This undermines the core concept of gender (that the different sexes have inherent characteristics that distinguish them) as now, an individual is increasingly able to remove these distinguishing factors through medical procedures. Note that this is distinct from the modern change in view regarding gender; egalitarianism is a different way of interpreting sexual differences, stating that both sexes should have equal opportunities to fill all roles, while still acknowledging male and female as distinct (11). The rise of gender-reassignment and transsexuals like Caitlyn Jenner is instead making gender irrelevant; as the biological foundation for gender disappears, gender becomes increasingly abstract. Half of all millennials view gender as non-binary, meaning not just male and female, but including a range in between, or intersex people (12, 13). In a world where gender traits can now be chosen and are not set in stone by biology, exhibition of these traits means a lot less to society--with fewer and fewer unchangeable biological differences between male and female, gender is becoming insignificant and fluid in the eyes of society. -------- To conclude, gender is natural to every animal society. Like other animals, humans developed gender as optimization of their productivity based on the biological characteristics of each sex. Humans also have an innate, concrete, biological view about whether or not their assigned gender is suitable to them. The decline in importance of biology in determining gender, with the rise of sexual reassignment surgery, has resulted in the decline of gender itself. Gender is fully dependent on biology for its origin and continued existence. Sources: 1.http://www.oxforddictionaries.com... 2.http://www.apa.org... 3.http://animals.sandiegozoo.org... 4.http://isites.harvard.edu... 5.http://animals.nationalgeographic.com... 6.http://healthresearchfunding.org... 7.http://dictionary.reference.com... 8.http://www.umass.edu... 9.http://www.bbc.com... 10.https://www.washingtonpost.com... 11.http://www.tlu.ee... 12.http://fusion.net... 13.http://www.isna.org...