Definitions of gender and sex: The subtleties of meaning

Definitions of the word "gender" were collected from 137 participants, who also completed questionnaires designed to determine aspects of the usage of the words "gender" and "sex." The majority of participants were European A merican (86.9%), followed by Latino/a (3.6%), Asian/Asian American (2.9%), African American (2.2%), Native American (1.5%), and West Indian (1.5%). Mo st participants (70.9%) had attended at least some college and occupations included students (43%), professionals (27.8%), health care-workers (4.3%), technical workers (1.4%), and business owners (1.4%). Data were examined t o see which common themes emerged from the free form "define gender" questi on, the amount of interchangeability of "sex" and "gender" in a sentence co mpletion task, and the varieties of beliefs about the relation between the terms "gender" and "sex." Results indicate a variety of understandings and beliefs about gender that range from the common response that "gender" is t he same as "sex" to some less common responses that associate gender with f emales or discrimination. Implications of the ambiguous meaning of "gender" are discussed with an emphasis on the responsibility of researchers to cla rify their own understanding of the terms when they discuss gender or sex i n their research and publications.