There’s a lot more to being male, female, or of any gender than the sex assigned at birth. Your biological or assigned sex does not always tell your complete story. It’s common for people to confuse sex, gender, and gender identity. But they’re all different things.
Sex is a label—male or female—that you’re assigned by a doctor at birth based on the genitals you’re born with and the chromosomes you have. It goes on with your birth certificate.
What’s gender?
Gender is much bigger and more complicated than assigned sex. It’s a social and legal status and a set of expectations from society about behaviors, characteristics, and thoughts. Each culture has standards about the way that people should behave based on their gender.
Gender includes gender roles, which are expectations society and people have about behaviors, thoughts, and characteristics that go along with a person’s assigned sex.
For example, ideas about how men and women are expected to behave, dress, and communicate all contribute to gender. Gender is also a social and legal status for girls and boys, men and women.
It’s easy to confuse sex and gender. Just remember that biological or assigned sex is about biology, anatomy, and chromosomes. Gender is society’s set of expectations, standards, and characteristics about how men and women are supposed to act.
What’s gender identity?
Your gender identity is how you feel inside and how you express those feelings. Clothing, appearance, and behaviors can all be ways to express your gender identity.
Most people feel that they’re either male or female. Some people feel like a masculine female or a feminine male. Some people feel neither male nor female. These people may choose labels such as “genderqueer,” “gender variant,” or “gender fluid.” Your feelings about your gender identity begin as early as age 2 or 3.
Some people’s assigned sex and gender identity are pretty much the same or in line with each other. These people are called cisgender. Other people feel that their assigned sex is of the other gender from their gender identity (i.e., their assigned sex is female, but their gender identity is male). These people are called transgender or trans. Not all transgender people share the same exact identity.
Source: Ghana/MaxTV/MaxFM/max.com.gh/Belinda Quansah
