Sex is biology. Gender is social. Gender refers to the roles, behaviors, and expectations that a society attaches to being male or female, or to other categories. It is learned, performed, and enforced through socialization, institutions, and everyday interaction.

Ann Oakley and other feminist sociologists distinguished sex from gender in the 1970s. Since then, scholars have recognized that gender is not binary for everyone. Some societies have long recognized third genders, such as the hijra in South Asia or Two-Spirit people in some Indigenous North American cultures.

Dimensions of gender

• Gender identity: how a person sees themselves
• Gender expression: how they present outwardly
• Gender roles: expectations for behavior
• Gender inequality: differential access to resources and power

Gender is not fixed. It varies across cultures and changes over time. What it means to be a man or woman in 2025 is not what it meant in 1925. Institutions like schools, workplaces, and media actively produce gender norms, not just reflect them.