What is Gender Analysis? "Sex and Gender"

HOME

UNIT 1: CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Sex and Gender

Exercise 1: What is "gender" as opposed to "sex"?
Exercise 2: "Because I am... I can... If I were... I could... "

Sex and Gender

To understand what gender analysis is, it is useful to first understand the conceptual difference between the terms "sex" and "gender".

Sex - refers to biologically determined differences between men and women; they are universal
Gender - refers to the social differences between men and women; they are

Learned
Changeable over time
Very widely within and accross cultures
Gender is a socio-economic variable for analysing roles, responsibilities, constraints, opportunities, and needs of men and women in a given context.

The following exercises help clarify the conceptual differences between the terms "sex" and "gender".

Exercise 1: What is "gender" as opposed to "sex"?
Exercise 2: "Because I am... I can.... If I were... I could...."

Updated by MR. Approved by WKB. Last update: 8 February 2005.