DS 2203 TOPIC 01
CONCEPTUALIZATION OF GENDER AND OTHER BASIC CONCEPTS
Given the complexity of gender, it is not surprising that an increasing number of terms and
phrases are developing to describe it. Below are some of the key terms you might encounter:
Sex is a system of classification that divides body types based on presumed reproductive capacity
as typically determined by visual examination of the external genitalia sex includes body type,
chromosomes, hormones, genitals, reproductive organs, or chemical essences/ pheromones.
Sex is the physical structure of one’s reproductive organs that is used to assign sex at birth.
Chromosomes XX determine sex for females and XY for males. Hormones called
estrogen/progesterone is found in females, and testosterone for male. There are also internal and
external genitalia for example vulva, clitoris, and vagina for assigned females, penis and testicles
for assigned males. Given the potential variation in all of these, biological sex must be seen as a
spectrum or range of possibilities rather than a binary set of two options.
Sex-disaggregated data is data that is cross-classified by sex, presenting information separately
for men and women, boys and girls. When data is not disaggregated by sex, it is more difficult to
identify real and potential inequalities. Sex-disaggregated data is necessary for effective gender
analysis.
Sextortion is used to describe a conduct which is not only sexually abusive, but also incorporates
the element of corruption. The sexual component need not be sexual intercourse or even physical
touching. It could be any form of unwanted sexual activity, such as exposing ones private body
parts, posing for sexually suggestive photos, participating in phone sex or submitting to
inappropriate touching.
As for the corruption element, the perpetrator must be a person in authority who abuses that
authority by indulging in the activity of demanding or accepting sexual favors in exchange for the
exercise of that authority.
In other words sextortion is a form of corruption in which sex and not money is the currency for
the bribe. Not all sexually abusive, exploitative, discriminatory or criminal conduct constitutes of
sextortion.
Sextortion requires that the abuser have some form of executive authority over the victim. Where
that authority is lacking, the sexual abuse is not sextortion. Sextortion also requires an exchange
or quid pro quo — a benefit in exchange for a sexual favor. Where that exchange is missing, the
sexually discriminatory conduct is not sextortion: A hostile work environment in which sexual
innuendo is used and pornography displayed may constitute sexual harassment but not sextortion.

Gender is the social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female and the
relationships between women and men and girls and boys, as well as the relations between
women and those between men.
Gender, like all social identities, is socially constructed. Social constructionism is one of the key
theories sociologists use to put gender into historical and cultural focus. Social constructionism is
a social theory about how meaning is created through social interaction – through the things we
do and say with other people. This theory shows that gender it is not a fixed or innate fact, but
instead it varies across time and place.
Gender Awareness: Is an understanding that there are socially determined differences between
women & men based on learned behavior, which affect their ability to access and control
resources. This awareness needs to be applied through gender analysis into projects, programs
and policies.
The meaning of gender awareness
What Does Gender Awareness Mean in Development Projects?
• Women are treated as representatives of half of the population, not as a special interest group
• Development projects do not address only women, but involve men and women according to
their specific needs and strengths.
• Projects are not limited to women's traditional concerns such as health, nutrition and childcare,
but also to the productive sphere, education and social-cultural fields, where women are still
under-represented
• Projects are concerned not only with the protection of women as needy and vulnerable
individuals, but are aimed at the enhancement and expansion of women's and men's experiences,
their self-awareness, skills and creativity
• Projects do not regard women and men only as beneficiaries, but also involve them as
participants and decision-makers.
Gender Norms: Gender norms are the accepted attributes and characteristics of male and female
gendered identity at a particular point in time for a specific society or community. They are the
standards and expectations to which gender identity generally conforms, within a range that
defines a particular society, culture and community at that point in time. Gender norms are ideas
about how men and women should be and act. Internalized early in life, gender norms can
establish a life cycle of gender socialization and stereotyping.
Gender Identity: One’s innermost concept of self as male or female or both or neither—how
individuals perceive themselves and what they call themselves. One’s gender identity can be the
same or different than the sex assigned at birth. Individuals are conscious of this between the ages

18 months and 3 years. Most people develop a gender identity that matches their biological sex.
For some, however, their gender identity is different from their biological or assigned sex. Some
of these individuals choose to socially, hormonally and/or surgically change their sex to more
fully match their gender identity.
Gender identity arises out of complex patterns of interaction between the self and others. Some
people can reject the gender specified by their biology by, for example, passing as members of
the other gender and even changing their sex by radical surgery. Some people are born with a
mixture of the typical biological traits from both sexes; in such cases medical professionals may
decide on the ‘proper’ sex and intervene accordingly. This suggests that biology does
Gender Expression: Refers to the ways in which people externally communicate their gender
identity to others through behavior, clothing, haircut, voice, and other forms of presentation.
Gender expression also works the other way as people assign gender to others based on their
appearance, mannerisms, and other gendered characteristics. Sometimes, transgender people seek
to match their physical expression with their gender identity, rather than their birth-assigned sex.
Gender expression should not be viewed as an indication of sexual orientation. What Is Sexual
Orientation?
Sexual orientation is a term used to refer to a person's emotional, romantic, and sexual attraction
to individuals of a particular gender (male or female). Sexual orientation is different from gender
and gender identity — how you feel about and express your gender. Sexual orientation is about
who you are attracted to and want to have intimate relationships with.
People who are attracted to members of the other gender often call themselves straight or
heterosexual. People who are attracted to people of the same gender often call themselves gay or
homosexual. Women who are gay may prefer the term lesbian. People who are attracted to both
men and women, or people of any sex or gender identity, may call themselves bisexual. People
whose attractions span across many different gender identities (male, female, transgender,
genderqueer, intersex, etc.) may call themselves pansexual or queer. People who are unsure
about their sexual orientation may call themselves questioning or curious. People who don't
experience any sexual attraction for anyone may call themselves asexual.
Transgender: Sometimes used as an umbrella to describe anyone whose identity or behavior
falls outside of stereotypical gender norms. More narrowly defined, it refers to an individual
whose gender identity does not match their assigned birth gender. Being transgender does not
imply any specific sexual orientation (attraction to people of a specific gender.) Therefore,
transgender people may additionally identify with a variety of other sexual identities as well.
Although a child may not yet be aware of their sexual orientation, they usually have a strong
sense of their gender identity.

Gender Parity: is a numerical concept. Gender parity concerns relative equality in terms of
numbers and proportions of men and women, girls and boys. Gender parity addresses the ratio of
female-to male values (or males-to-females, in certain cases) of a given indicator.
Cisgender (Gender Normative): Refers to people whose sex assignment at birth corresponds to
their gender identity and expression.
Gender typing is the process by which children acquire not only a gender identity but also the
motives, values, and behaviors considered appropriate in their culture for members of their
biological sex.
Gender Fluidity: Gender fluidity conveys a wider, more flexible range of gender expression,
with interests and behaviors that may even change from day to day. Gender fluid children do not
feel confined by restrictive boundaries of stereotypical expectations of girls or boys. In other
words, a child may feel they are a girl some days and a boy on others, or possibly feel that neither
term describes them accurately.
Gender Planning: Refers to the process of planning developmental programmes and projects
that are gender sensitive and which take into account the impact of differing gender roles and
gender needs of women and men in the target community or sector. It involves the selection of
appropriate approaches to address not only women and men’s practical needs, but which also
identifies entry points for challenging unequal relations (ie. strategic needs) and to enhance the
gender-responsiveness of policy dialogue.
Gender-responsive Budget (GRB): Gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) is government
planning, programming and budgeting that contributes to the advancement of gender equality
and the fulfillment of women's rights. It entails identifying and reflecting needed interventions to
address gender gaps in sector and local government policies, plans and budgets. GRB also aims
to analyze the gender-differentiated impact of revenue-raising policies and the allocation of
domestic resources and Official Development Assistance.
Gender Balance is a human resource issue. It is about the equal participation of women and men
in all areas of work (international and national staff at all levels, including at senior positions) and
in programmes that agencies initiate or support (e.g. food distribution programmes). Achieving a
balance in staffing patterns and creating a working environment that is conducive to a diverse
workforce improves the overall effectiveness of our policies and programmes, and will enhance
agencies’ capacity to better serve the entire population.
Gender-based Violence (GBV): GBV is an umbrella term for any harmful act that is perpetrated
against a person’s will and that is based on socially ascribed (gender) differences between
females and males. The nature and extent of specific types of GBV vary across cultures, countries
and regions. Examples include sexual violence, including sexual exploitation/abuse and forced

prostitution; domestic violence; trafficking; forced/early marriage; harmful traditional practices
such as female genital mutilation; honour killings; and widow inheritance.
Gender Needs: Leading on from the fact that women and men have differing roles based on their
gender, they will also have differing gender needs. These needs can be classified as either
strategic or practical needs.
Practical Gender Needs (PGN): These are gender needs that women and men can easily identify,
as they relate to living conditions. PGNs do not challenge, although they arise out of, gender
divisions of labor and women’s subordinate position in society. PGNs are a response to
immediate and perceived necessity, identified within a specific context. They are practical in
nature and often concern inadequacies in living conditions such as water provision, health care
and employment.
Strategic Gender Interests/Needs: Strategic gender needs are the needs women identify because
of their subordinate position in society. They vary according to particular contexts, related to
gender divisions of labour, power and control, and may include issues such as legal rights,
domestic violence, equal wages and women’s control over their bodies. Meeting SGNs assists
women to achieve greater equality and change existing roles, thereby challenging women’s
subordinate position. They are more long term and less visible than practical gender needs.
Gender Blindness: is the failure to recognize that the roles and responsibilities of men/boys and
women/ girls are given to them in specific social, cultural, economic and political contexts and
backgrounds. Projects, programmes, policies and attitudes which are gender blind do not take
into account these different roles and diverse needs, maintain status quo, and will not help
transform the unequal structure of gender relations.
Gender Role. This is the set of roles, activities, expectations and behaviors assigned to females
and males by society. Our culture recognizes two basic gender roles: Masculine (having the
qualities attributed to males) and feminine (having the qualities attributed to females). People
who step out of their socially assigned gender roles are sometimes referred to as transgender.
Other cultures have three or more gender roles.
Productive roles: Refer to the activities carried out be men and women in order to produce
goods and services either for sale, exchange, or to meet the subsistence needs of the family. For
example in agriculture, productive activities include plating, animal husbandry and gardening that
refers to farmers themselves, or for other people at employees.

Reproductive roles: Refer to the activities needed to ensure the reproduction of society's labour
force. This includes child bearing, rearing, and care for family members such as children, elderly
and workers. These tasks are done mostly by women.
Community managing role: Activities undertaken primarily by women at the community level,
as an extension of their reproductive role, to ensure the provision and maintenance of scarce
resources of collective consumption such as water, health care and education. This is voluntary
unpaid work undertaken in ‘free’ time.
Community politics role: Activities undertaken primarily by men at the community level,
organizing at the formal political level, often within the framework of national politics. This work
is usually undertaken by men and may be paid directly or result in increased power and status.
Triple role/ multiple burden: These terms refer to the fact that women tend to work longer and
more fragmented days than men as they are usually involved in three different gender roles
reproductive, productive and community work.
Gender polarization is a concept in sociology by American psychologist Sandra Bem which
states that societies tend to define femininity and masculinity as polar opposite genders, such that
male-acceptable behaviors and attitudes are not seen as appropriate for women, and vice versa.
Criticism of the concept of gender
There have been two major kinds of criticism of the concept of gender.
Firstly it is based upon a false dichotomy between the biological and the social. This relates to a
general criticism that sociology has tended to see the social as disembodied, with the infant as a
tabula rasa upon which socialization may write at will, to produce social consciousness and
action. The sex/gender distinction, it is said, is linked to a particular form of feminist politics that
seeks the eradication of gender and a move towards androgyny; It leaves little space, for instance,
for other feminist concerns with the biological politics of menstruation, contraception,
reproductive technology, abortion, or the management of childbirth.
The second kind of criticism relates to the way in which the concept of gender focuses on
differences between women and men at the expense of power and domination. Some writers
would prefer to use the term patriarchy as the main organizing concept, in order to keep the
question of power to the fore, both analytically and politically.
On a lighter note, ‘gender’ has been criticized as a prudish way of avoiding the word ‘sex’. It is
true that gender has entered everyday speech in this sense, when people talk (for example) about
‘the opposite gender’. Some sociologists, too, are guilty of this when they refer to ‘gender roles’
or ‘gender discrimination’.

Biological Factors in Gender Differences: Hormones And Social Behavior
Sex- usually thought of as a biological term referring to ascribed genetic, anatomical, and
hormonal differences between males and females, but it is actually determined by socially
accepted biological criteria, e.g.: Intersexed- persons with ambiguous genitalia (usually ascribed
one or another sex in different cultures)
About 1 babies in 1,000 are born intersexed, or hermaphroditic, which means having an abnormal
chromosomal makeup and mixed or indeterminate male and female sex characteristics.
This is a function of biological sex. Gender is different because it relates to the way that a person
behaves based on their biological sex. In other words, we learn how to act manly or womanly
based on the sex that we’re born into and society’s expectations of that sex.
Human Studies: Girls who have received testosterone or testosterone-like hormones prenatally
have masculinized behavior. These girls are genetic females but their genetalia are typically
masculinized at birth (enlarged clitoris, fused labia that resemble a scrotum). They often receive
an operation to make her appear more feminine. These girls have masculinized behavior:
Tomboyish, liked vigorous athletic activities, simply utilitarian clothing; little interest in dolls,
babysitting, or caring for younger children, jewelry, cosmetics, or hair styles. They also had a
more male-type achievement pattern and male-type attitudes toward sexuality. They preferred
boys as playmates and boys' toys.
Hormones and Cognitive Skills
There is evidence for a critical period for brain organization and hemisphere lateralization (males
more lateralized). Testosterone surge prenatally is responsible. This surge makes females process
verbal information better and males process spatial information better. Female fetuses exposed to
abnormally high levels of androgens are better at spatial abilities.