Gender roles

A gender role is a set of societal norms dictating the types of behaviors which are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for people based on their actual or perceived sex or sexuality. Gender roles are usually centered on conceptions of femininity and masculinity, although there are exceptions and variations. The specifics regarding these gendered expectations may vary substantially among cultures, while other characteristics may be common throughout a range of cultures. There is ongoing debate as to what extent gender roles and their variations are biologically determined, and to what extent they are socially constructed.

Various groups, most notably the feminist movement, have led efforts to change aspects of prevailing gender roles that they believe are oppressive or inaccurate.

The term gender role was first coined by John Money in 1955, during the course of his study of intersex individuals, to describe the manners in which these individuals expressed their status as a male or female in a situation where no clear biological assignment existed.

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines gender roles as "socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women". Debate continues as to what extent gender and its roles are socially constructed (i.e. non-biologically influenced), and to what extent "socially constructed" may be considered synonymous with "arbitrary" or "malleable". Therefore, a concise authoritative definition of gender roles or gender itself is elusive.

Some systems of classification, unlike WHO's, are non-binary or gender queer, allowing for more than two possible gender classifications. Gender roles are culturally specific, and while some cultures distinguish only two (Boy and Girl or Man and Woman), others recognize more. Androgyny, for example, has been proposed as a third gender. Other societies have claimed to identify more than five genders, and some non-Western societies have three genders – man, woman, and third gender. Some individuals (not necessarily being from such a culture) identify with no gender at all.

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