Essay: Sex and Gender
Gender is said by many sociologists to be "socially constructed". But many feminists now insist that sex is socially constructed as well. This insight differs greatly from earlier feminist positions that saw sex as biological and gender as social/cultural. This is a fundamental difference in thinking, and thus has a wide range of implications, many of which are discussed below. In this discussion, very distinct definitions of "gender" and "sex" will be used - here, "gender" refers to "gender roles" (as coined by sexologist John Money (Money, 1955)) , and refers to "the array of socially constructed roles and relationships, personality traits, attitudes, behaviours, values, relative power and influence that society ascribes to the two sexes on a differential basis. ... gender is an acquired identity that is learned, changes over time, and varies widely within and across cultures" (Esplen & Jolly, 2006). "Sex",