Gender
Gender
Gender—a socio-cultural process—refers to cultural and social attitudes that together shape and sanction "feminine" and "masculine" behaviors, products, technologies, environments, and knowledges. "Feminine" and "masculine" describe attitudes and behaviors on a continuum of gender identities. Gender does not necessarily match sex.
(Gendered Innovations Website)
OTHER DEFINITIONS
1. Gender identifies the social relations between men and women. It refers to the relationship between men and women, boys and girls, and how this is socially constructed. Gender roles are dynamic and change over time. (EC, Strategy for equality between women and men 2010-2015)
2. Gender refers to the socially constructed differences and relations between males and females. These vary widely among societies and cultures and change over time. The term “gender” is not interchangeable with the term “sex”, which refers exclusively to the biological differences between men and women, which are universal and do not change. Statistical data are disaggregated according to sex, whereas gender characterizes the differing roles, responsibilities, constraints, opportunities and needs of females and males in all areas and in any given social context. (International Labour Organisation)
Notes
The highlighted definition was endorsed by the Consortium because it distinguished between “sex” and “gender” and avoids the binary distinction between men and women.