Gender Studies Glossary

The practice of centering male perspectives and experiences as the norm or default, marginalizing women's experiences.

A person whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.

The social enforcement of heterosexuality as the default and only legitimate sexual orientation.

Unpaid work performed within the household, including childcare, cooking, and cleaning, disproportionately performed by women.

A range of social, political, and economic movements and ideologies advocating for equality of the sexes and the dismantling of gender-based oppression.

The socially constructed roles, behaviors, activities, and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for different sexes.

A classification system that divides gender into only two mutually exclusive categories: male/masculine and female/feminine.

A sense of distress or discomfort that may occur when a person's gender identity differs from their sex assigned at birth.

The external presentation of gender through clothing, behavior, hairstyle, voice, and other characteristics.

A person's internal sense of their own gender, which may or may not correspond to the sex assigned at birth.

A public policy strategy that integrates gender perspectives into the design, implementation, and evaluation of all policies and programs.

Butler's theory that gender is produced through repeated enactment of gendered behaviors rather than being an innate quality.

The lifelong process of learning and internalizing the norms and behaviors associated with one's assigned gender.

An invisible barrier that prevents women and minorities from advancing to top leadership positions.

The culturally dominant ideal of masculinity that sustains gender hierarchy and marginalizes alternative expressions of manhood.

The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender that create overlapping systems of discrimination.

Hatred of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women, functioning as the enforcement mechanism of patriarchal norms.

A gender identity that does not fit exclusively into the categories of male or female.

The treatment of a person as an object or thing, particularly the reduction of women to their physical appearance or sexual function.

A social system in which men hold primary power and authority in political, economic, and domestic spheres.

A critical theory challenging normative categories of gender and sexuality, arguing that identities are fluid and socially constructed.

Legal rights concerning reproduction and reproductive health, including access to contraception and abortion services.

Biological attributes such as chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive anatomy typically categorized as male, female, or intersex.

A person whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

The right of women to vote in political elections, a central demand of first-wave feminism achieved through sustained activism.