Sex vs. Gender: What the Body Gives, What Society Adds

Everyday speech uses the two words interchangeably; forms ask for one and mean the other. Sociology keeps them apart, and the reason is practical. Sex is a set of bodily facts — chromosomes, gonads, hormones, anatomy. Gender is the meaning a society attaches to those bodies: the roles, expectations, wages, and penalties it hands out on their basis. The first is studied by biology. The second is studied by sociology, because it varies — across societies and across centuries — and anything that varies that fast has a social cause. Explore the four axes, then sort fifteen traits.