Terms

• Androgyny


  Cultural definitions of gender that recognize some gender differentiation, but also accept "gender bending" and role-crossing according to individual capacities and preferences
• Binary model of gender


  Cultural definitions of gender that include only two identities–male and female
• Biologic sex


  Refers to male and female identity based on internal and external sex organs and chromosomes. While male and female are the most common biologic sexes, a percentage of the human population is intersex with ambiguous or mixed biological sex characteristics
• Biological determinism


  A theory that biological differences between males and females leads to fundamentally different capacities, preferences, and gendered behaviors. This scientifically unsupported view suggests that gender roles are rooted in biology, not culture
• Cisgender


  A term used to describe those who identify with the sex and gender they were assigned at birth
• Dyads


  Two people in a socially approved pairing, e.g. a married couple
• Gender


  The set of culturally and historically invented beliefs and expectations about gender that one learns and performs. Gender is an "identity" one can choose in some societies, but there is pressure in all societies to conform to expected gender roles and identities
• Gender ideology


  A complex set of beliefs about gender and gendered capacities, propensities, preferences, identities and socially expected behaviors and interactions that apply to males, females, and other gender categories. Gender ideology can differ among cultures and is acquired through enculturation. Also known as a cultural model of gender
• Heteronormativity


  A term coined by French philosopher Michel Foucault to refer to the often-unnoticed system of rights and privileges that accompany normative sexual choices and family formation
• Legitimizing ideologies


  A set of complex belief systems, often developed by those in power, to rationalize, explain, and perpetuate systems of inequality
• Matrifocal


  Groups of related females (e.g. mother-her sisters-their offspring) form the core of the family and constitute the family's most central and enduring social and emotional ties
• Matrilineal


  Societies where descent or kinship group membership is transmitted through women, from mothers to their children (male and female), and then through daughters, to their children, and so forth
• Matrilocal


  A woman-centered kinship group where living arrangements after marriage often center around households containing related women
• Patriarchy


  Describes a society with a male-dominated political and authority structure and an ideology that privileges males over females in domestic and public spheres
• Patrifocal


  Groups of related males (e.g. a father-his brothers) and their male offspring form the core of the family and constitute the family's most central and enduring social and emotional ties
• Patrilineal


  Societies where descent or kinship group membership is transmitted through men, from men to their children (male and female), and then through sons, to their children, and so forth
• Patrilocal


  A male-centered kinship group where living arrangements after marriage often center around households containing related men
• Third gender


  A gender identity that exists in non-binary gender systems offering one or more gender roles separate from male or female
• Transgender


  A category for people who or people who identify as a different gender than the one that was assigned to them at birth. This may entail a social transition or a physical one, using a number of methods