Defining Gender

                          Dr. Keshab Chandra Mandal

                                         E-Mail: mandalkeshab2013@gmail.com

The concept of ‘gender’ is now a global phenomenon.  It is a cross cutting issue too. The word gender does not only evoke debate in the development discourse; rather it raises hot debate in the international platform and academia. It is observed that, prior to the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995) various members of the US Congress raised their concern over the term gender. They said that, “Perhaps the most amazing thing about the word gender is that it simultaneously appears so clear and yet under scrutiny it proves either ambiguous or contentious.”¹¹ Traditional writers have used the term gender to refer to the grammatical categories masculine, feminine, neuter as was used in languages like French or Spanish. But the anthropologists maintain a distinction between the words gender and sex. They consider sex as the biological categories of male and female, and use gender to refer to social or cultural categories.

    Now let us look at some of the definitions given by scholars from different fields and some meanings designed in different dictionaries. The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1982) defines the term gender as ‘grammatical classification of objects roughly corresponding to the two sexes and sexlessness.’ According to Compact Oxford Refresher Dictionary (2001) gender is ‘the state of being male or female (with reference to social or cultural differences)’, and ‘the members of one or other sex.’ The word gender is found in English-Bengali Dictionary (1989) meaning ‘a distinction of words answering to sex.’ According to the Chambers 20^th Century Dictionary (1983) the verb form of gender is ‘to beget’, ‘to generate’, ‘to copulate’, and the noun form of gender is ‘a mind’, a distinction of words roughly answering to sex (gramm.); loosely or jocularly.’ On the other hand, the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED, Volume 4, 1900) puts the original meaning of gender as ‘kind’, but this meaning is obsolete now.

    According to Aristotle, the Greek philosopher Protagoras used the terms ‘masculine’, ‘feminine’ and ‘neuter’ to classify nouns and introduced the concept of grammatical gender. In English the word became attested more widely in the context of grammar than in making sexual distinctions as it is evidenced in the Fowler’s Modern English Usage. In 1926 Henry Watson Fowler stated that, “Gender…is a grammatical term only. To talk of persons…of the masculine or feminine gender, meaning of the male or female sex…”¹² However, the term gender has been using to refer to masculinity and femininity as these types are found throughout the history of Modern English from about the 14^th century.

But in modern time the meaning of the word gender has been altered, and now it indicates a set of perceptions of the people of a given society that ascribes some attributes to male, female and transgender. Gender is basically a set of experimental and presentational characteristics associated with and culturally arising from pairing with a particular sex. Hence, to define the term it can be said that, “Gender refers to the social attributes and opportunities associated with being male and female, the relationships between women and men and girls and boys, and the relations between women and between men.”¹³ The attributes, opportunities and relationships between men and women and boys and girls are socially constructed and learned through the socialization process. However, these are context specific or time-specific and changeable. The concept ‘gender’ determines what is expected, allowed and valued in a women or a man in a given context. In most societies – may it be North or South - there are differences and inequalities between women and men in decision-making opportunities, responsibilities assigned, activities undertaken, and access to and control over resources. Further, it can be said that gender is basically a part of the broader socio-cultural context. There are other important criteria for socio-cultural analysis that include class, race, poverty level, ethnic group and age.

    However, it is also necessary to understand the concept gender as a cross-cutting socio-cultural variable. In this context “Gender refers to the socially constructed characteristics of women and men – such as norms, roles and relationships of and between groups of women and men. It varies from society to society and can be changed. While most people are born either male or female, they are taught appropriate norms and behaviors – including how they should interact with others of the same or opposite sex within households, communities and work places. When individuals or groups do not “fit” into established gender norms they often face stigma, discriminatory practices or social exclusion – all of which adversely affect health.”¹⁴ However, UNESCO’s Gender Mainstreaming Implementation Framework also defines the concept gender. According to UNESCO, “Gender refers to the roles and responsibilities of men and women that are created in our families, our societies and our cultures. The concept of gender also includes the expectations held about the characteristics, aptitudes and likely behaviors of both women and men (femininity and masculinity).”¹⁵