Gender 2A

1

• Gender and sex
• Alebachew Alemnew
• Research scholar
• Tezpur University
• alebachew_1975_at_yahoo.c
  om

2
Sex ---?

• What do you understand when we say sex?
• What characteristics do we consider to categorize
  the sex of an individual ?

3
Sex

• The terms sex and gender are used
  interchangeably, but their usage is quite
  different.
• Sex is with the biological and physiological
  characteristics
• Sex is determined by genetic makeup
• Sex refers to male or female
• Sex doesn't change where ever we are in the
  world.
• Example
• Organs like vagina, penis
• Breast
• Pregnancy
• Females can get pregnant
• Ovary, testicles  

4
Gender ---?

• What do you understand when we say gender ?
• What characteristics do we consider to categorize
  the gender of an individual ?

5
Gender

• Gender refers to social classification in terms
  of behavior, role, expectation, and activities
  in a society.
• It can be masculine or feminine
• The gender of an individual vary throughout the
  world.
• Example
• Women do housework in Ethiopia than their
  spouses do
• Most of the public transport drivers are men
• Teaching at kindergarten is often seen as a
  woman's job although men rarely enter the
  profession
• women dress cloths having buttons on the left
  side and for men it is on the right side
• Secretarial service is mostly womens job in
  Ethiopia

6
Summary

• Sex is a natural or biological feature.
•  "The biologic character or quality that
  distinguishes male and female from one another as
  expressed by analysis of the person's
  chromosomal, and hormonal characteristics.
• Gender  is a cultural or learned features of
  sex
•  "The category to which an individual is assigned
  by self or others, on the basis of sex."

7
Exercise

• A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class
  that in Spanish, unlike in English, nouns are
  designated as either masculine or feminine.
  House, for instance, is feminine la casa.
  Pencil, however, is masculine, el lapis.
• (Alexander R. Margulis (2011). How to Rise to
  the Top...and Stay There! A Leadership Manual ,
  pp 28-29, )
•  
• A student asked What is the gender of a
  computer?  
• Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split
  the class into two groups, one male and one
  female, and asked them to decide for themselves
  whether computer should be a masculine or a
  feminine noun. Each group was asked to give four
  reasons for its recommendations.  

8
Male Group

• The mens group decided that computer should
  definitely be of the feminine gender, because
• Reasons
• No one but their creator understands their
  internal logic.
• The native language they use to communicate with
  other computers is incomprehensible to everyone
  else.
• Even the smallest mistakes are stored in
  long-term memory for possible later retrieval.
• As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find
  yourself spending half of your paycheck on
  accessories for it.
• Funny !

9
Female Group

• The Females' group, concluded that computers
  should be Masculine, because
• Reasons
• In order to do anything with them, you have to
  turn them on.
• They have a lot of data, but still cant think
  for themselves.
• They are supposed to help you solve problems, but
  half the time they are the problem.
• As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if
  you had waited a little longer, you could have
  gotten a better model.
•  

10

• Funny yet informative about attitudes we have
  about each other , males and females !

11

• Thank you
• alebachew_1975_at_yahoo.com