I. Gender: The word or dictionary meaning of the word (or term) "Gender" is being male or female'.

Another of the term gender is that it is applied when classifying nouns as masculine, feminine or neuter. But the two above mentioned usages of the term gender are too simplistic. The word gender cannot be used to refer to biological differences between males and females. That difference is best described by using the word sex. In other words, the term sex refers to the biological characteristics by which human beings are classified as male and female. Gender, on the other hand, refers to the social, cultural and psychological characteristics by which human behaviour is categorized as 'masculine' or 'feminine'. The term gender is used in sociology to refer to differences society posits in categorising human beings as masculine and feminine. Is there then a difference between the words male and female and masculine and feminine.

Definition of the word gender: Gender is not determined by an individual's biological characteristics, but by how society looks at the roles of men and women. In other words, gender is socially constructed.

Sex: Sex is determined by differences in biological characteristics. The following examples will help you to understand the differences between gender and sex:

Example 1: It is not a man who gives birth to a child but a woman. This is because a woman has the organ uterus or the womb, in which a baby develops before birth. Since a man does not possess this organ, he can not give birth to a baby. This act of a woman giving birth to a baby and a man not being able to do that can be explained by the differential biological characteristics, which moles and females possess. This difference can be understood by using the word sex.

Example 2: A boy falls down while playing with his friends on the school ground. He is hurt badly and starts crying. Instead of giving him first aid, his friends start teasing him by saying 'Aye! Look at him crying as if he is a girl. Go and get him a frock and bangles so that he can wear those and be a girl'. Why should a boy not cry? When there is physical or mental pain, human beings tend to give an expression to this pain by crying. It is more of a human reaction than a male or a female reaction.

If a girl or a woman cries, it is accepted as a perfectly normal thing for her to do but if a boy or a man cries, it is considered unnatural behaviour. A man not crying or a woman crying has nothing to do with their differences in their biological characteristics. This is the way society has come to allocate (assign/distribute) roles to them. Characteristics such as courage, strength, and independence are attributed to boys. Girls are supposed to be timid, weak and dependent. Such socially (attributed) masculine or feminine characteristics can be understood by using the term gender.