Gender vs. sex
The general population is commonly uneducated about the difference between sex and gender. The two terms are frequently lumped into the same category and assumed to be one in the same. This assumption is completely inaccurate. The World Health Organization defines sex as the biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women. They define gender as the socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. Sex can be described using the terms male or female, whereas gender is described as masculine or feminine with an enormous variety of descriptors in between. Gender is influenced and formed by culture, and by one's innate sense of self. In terms of nature versus nurture, sex is nature because it is biological and gender is nurture because of its (partially) cultural influence. While sex is fairly cut and dry, gender exhibits a spectrum of variety far greater than simply male and female. Below is a video featuring Anne Fausto-Sterling, gender studies expert, speaking about the differences between sex and gender and the importance in distinguishing between the two.
For more information on the resources used in this article, visit the following links:
http://www.who.int/gender/whatisgender/en/.
http://www.who.int/gender/whatisgender/en/.