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10 - Women and Their Changing Positions

from II - Applications

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Lisa A. Keister  and
Darby E. Southgate
Lisa A. Keister
Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
Darby E. Southgate
Affiliation:
Los Angeles Valley College
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Summary

Is There a Difference between Sex and Gender?

Before we discuss the sociology of sex stratification, we first must address the definitions of sex and gender. Some might ask, “Are the two not the same? There are two sexes and men are masculine and women are feminine, right?” This common perception fails to acknowledge the complexities associated with both sex and gender.

The birth of a child is most often a glorious occasion. Modern technology provides the opportunity to know the sex of the child before it is born, allowing family members to adorn the world of the newborn child in pink or blue. We take for granted that children are born either a boy or a girl, that there are only two possible sex categories. It seems simple: According to modern biology, a child is born with two sex chromosomes. If the chromosomes are XX, the child is female; if they are XY, the child is male – but what about babies that are born with a different chromosomal composition?

Type
Chapter
Information
Inequality
A Contemporary Approach to Race, Class, and Gender
 , pp. 381 - 416
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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