Associate Program Material

Gender and Sex Worksheet

Answer the following questions in 50 to 150 words each. Provide citations for all the sources you use.

• What is gender? What is sex in biological terms? Are gender and sex the same thing? Explain why or why not?
Gender can be defined as the behaviors, attributes and roles associated with being either a woman or a man (Flintoff & Squires, 2008, para. 1), whereas sex refers to the atypical combinations of features that usually distinguish male from female (American Psychological Association, 2011). Sometimes gender and sex can be used interchangeably to some, but to me, I do not think they have any significance between the two. Such as in the case of a transgendered person, they may have the same attributes to that of a woman, like behavior (gender), but yet they present physical features of a man (sex).

• How do gender and sex contribute to the concepts and constructions of masculinity and femininity?
Gender and sex contribute to the concepts and constructions of masculinity in ways that feature strength and courage to name a few. As to femininity, gender and sex can come in forms of nurturing or emotional. These characteristics can be switched as I mentioned in my example of transgendered individuals.

• Do our concepts of gender and sex contribute to the ways we embrace gender and sex in diversity?
I believe so. Our concepts of gender and sex have been embedded into our culture for many years to where it has always come to a point where seeing men doing something that is considered “girly” is something out of the ordinary and vice versa for women. But, I also believe that people can embrace different forms of gender and sex because of the way they grew up. For example, if a child was adopted by a gay couple, they may not view the oddities of seeing a man doing something out of their