Chapter 2

1. Chapter 2 Gender in Relationships Key Terms

2. Sex • The biological distinction between females and males. • Gender • The social and psychological characteristics associated with being female or male.

3. Hermaphrodites (Intersexed individuals) • Individuals with mixed or ambiguous genitals. • Gender identity • The psychological state of viewing oneself as a girl or a boy, and later as a woman or a man.

4. Transgendered • Expressing characteristic different from one’s biological sex. • Cross-dresser • A broad term for individuals who may dress or present themselves in the gender of the other sex.

5. Transvestite • Another term for crossdresser; commonly associated with homosexual men who dress provocatively as women to attract men. • Transsexual • Persons with the biological/anatomical sex of one gender but the self-concept of the other sex.

6. Transgenderist • An individual who lives in a gender role that does not match his or her biological sex but who has no desire to surgically alter his or her genitalia. • Transgenderism • A political movement seeking to challenge the belief that very person can be categorized simply as a woman or as a man.

7. Gender roles • Social norms that dictate what is socially regarded as appropriate female and male behavior. • Sexroles • Sex roles are defined by biological constraints and can be enacted by members of one biological sex only—for example, wet nurse, sperm donor, child bearer.

8. Gender role ideology • Refers to beliefs about the proper role relationships between women and men in any given society. • Biosocial theory • Emphasizes that social behaviors (e.g., gender roles) are biologically based and have an evolutionary survival function.

9. Parentalinvestment • Any investment by a parent that increases the offspring’s chance of surviving and thus increases reproductive success.

10. Androgyny • Refers to a blend of traits that are stereotypically associated with both masculinity and femininity. • Positive androgyny • Devoid of the negative traits associated with masculinity and femininity.

11. Female circumcision • Encompasses a wide range of procedures, ranging in severity from a nick on the clitoral hood to cutting off all the external genitals and sewing up the vaginal opening.

12. Female genital mutilation • Comprises all surgical procedures involving partial or total removal of the external genitalia or other injuries to the female genital organs for cultural or other non-therapeutic reasons.

13. Gender role transcendence • Involves abandoning gender schema so that personality traits, social/occupational roles, and other aspects of our lives become divorced from gender categories.

14. Feminization of poverty • Refers to the disproportionate percentage of poverty experienced by women living alone or with their children.