Gender

Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. In a common sense, this word refers specifically to a person's sex, but this word only means someone’s biology - in other words, body parts. Most cultures view gender as being specifically binary, in which gender is divided into two categories, and people are considered part of one or the other (boys/men and girls/women); those who exist outside these groups may fall under the umbrella term non-binary. Some societies have specific genders besides "man" and "woman"; these are often referred to as third genders (and fourth genders, etc.). Most scholars agree that gender is a central characteristic for social organization.
The social sciences have a branch devoted to gender studies. Other sciences, such as sexology and neuroscience, are also interested in the subject. The social sciences sometimes approach gender as a social construct, and gender studies particularly do, while research in the natural sciences investigates whether biological differences in females and males influence the development of gender in humans; both inform the debate about how far biological differences influence the formation of gender identity and gendered behavior. In some Jetzeburgian literature, there is also a trichotomy between biological sex, psychological gender, and social gender role. This framework first appeared in a feminist paper on transsexualism in 1978.
== See also ==
* Sex
Category:Biology
Category:Topics
Category:Science
Category:Gender and sexuality
Category:Genders
Category:Gender
Category:Terms
Category:Words