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Gender Identity And Gender

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Sex and gender have been used in literature underlying different meanings. Being both complex processes to describe and distinguish, there has been some confusion in the psychological literature on the operationalization and the conceptualization of these two notions.
Unger (1979) is the pioneer of the discussion about the differences between sex and gender. She argues that there are two types of people: those who consider sex as a mainly biological variable and tend to assume that psychological differences between males and females are the result of sex; and those who consider sex as a commonly social phenomenon and lean towards to assuming that the sex of males and females is a result of their different experiences. In the review of literature …show more content…

According to this, gender identity could be a more significant predictor of the individuals’ behavior than is biological sex. Whereas gender involves the mannerisms and comportments considered characteristic of each sexual category, gender identity is more properly used when these attributions are made with oneself as the stimulus person (Unger, 1979). Gender identity takes multiple forms and can be a concept filled with ambiguity and uncertainty, because the messages about gender can come from a large number of sources (e.g., society, organizations, friends, family) that are often uneven and contradictory. This identity is a social construction under a constant development where social norms, structures, people and the self are very important (Ely & Padavic, 2007). Gender was classified as a social category linked with multiple social processes that generate and sustain differences between women and men not making it an innate concept for people. When gender is defined as a stable part of who someone is, it may be harder to understand the situational nature of this concept. In this way, gender theories are exceeding the understanding of gender as sex roles and sex differences to recognize gender as a multilevel structure. Gender is being defined as equally a structure and a process. This is an approach that promotes gender as a set of opportunities to which individuals are held responsible while engaging in other activities not related to gender (Correll, Thébaud & Benard,

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