by Bayla Maya

Created on: February 24, 2008   Last Updated: February 25, 2008

What is Gender?

The word gender is so often confused with the physical sexual differences of males and female. Society is so conditioned to think wearing pink means a person is female and blue means male. What people wear isn't what determines if they are female or male. It is their sexual organ which makes this determination. Gender is the emotional, social and cultural differences between the sexes. Therefore determining the differences between a man and woman are not only caused naturally by birth. Gender is a conditioning or nurturing of society as to what makes a boy a man and a girl a woman.

All humans are naturally born as either a boy or girl depending on their parts. However, it is the society surrounding them which makes the child act like a boy or a girl. Many times before a baby is even born the parents are planning how their going to raise them depending on their sex. Before the baby arrives home its bedroom is often decorated in pink or blue. It's not unusual for the mother to pick out a pretty pink dress or blue outfit for the day the baby leaves the hospital. This is representative of how parents mold the baby's gender to the way they think it should be. The parents do not play the only influential role in the conditioning of gender.

As a child grows up they are often nurtured to follow the norms of the community they reside in. Everyone in this community plays a role in forming the gender of the child. Friends, teachers, relatives and strangers may all impact the child's thoughts on what is feminine and masculine. Sometimes a neighbor who thinks they are being helpful may recommend that "little Suzie" takes a dance class. It's funny how this occurs even though the parent and "little Suzie" had no interest in dance. So often people make the assumption if a child is a girl they like dancing, cooking, playing dolls, dressing pretty and if they are a boy they like sports, rough housing, and playing with cars. Society tends to nurture the child's gender to what they think is the natural or biological determination of their sex.

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