Gender

When I first think of the word "gender," I usually associate the term with "sex". However, as I was looking up the definition of "gender" I was surprised when I found that my original assumptions were incorrect. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary the word gender has two definitions. The first definition states that gender is, "a subclass within a grammatical class (as noun, pronoun, adjective, or verb) of a language that is partly arbitrary but also partly based on distinguishable characteristics (as shape, social rank, manner of existence, or sex) and that determines agreement with and selection of other words or grammatical forms. " This definition describes gender as being more of a category that can be split up into other sub categories, in which objects with similar characteristics are "placed" into. The second definition that the dictionary on the word gender is, " The behavioral, cultural, or psychological traits typically associated with one sex." This definition says that gender is not the actual "sex" itself, but a category made up of different sub categories that categorize different characteristics that come with that sex.

As I continue looking into the word "gender" I found two other definition that correspond with the dictionary definition. According to the World Health Organization "gender" is " used to describe those characteristics of women and men which a socially constructed while sex refers to those who are biologically determined." Likewise , the "Gender and Health collaborative Health project" defines the word "gender" as " gender is to the array of socially constructed roles and relationships , personality traits, attitudes, behaviors, values , relative power and influence that society ascribe to the two sexes on a differential basis." Like the dictionary definition these sources repeat the idea that the word gender is considered more of a category that things or people are placed into because of "like" characteristics.

Using the word gender correctly is important in our class because we will be discussing the ideas surrounding gender, hence the name of the group. To understand the just of the group we must first understand what we have come to learn about. We have not come to learn about anatomy, we have come to expand our thinking of human rights.