Many people assume that the word “gender” is synonymous with the word “gender”. But this opinion is wrong. Gender affiliation is a set of psychosocial and sociocultural characteristics that are usually assigned to one or another biological sex. That is, a person will be a man according to his biological sex, he may well feel and behave like a woman, and vice versa.

What does the term gender mean?

As mentioned above, this concept defines both social and cultural signs of belonging to the biological sex. Initially, a person is born with certain physiological sexual characteristics, and not with gender. The baby simply does not know the norms of society, nor the rules of behavior in it. Therefore, the gender of a person is determined by himself and brought up by the people around him already at a more conscious age.

The upbringing of gender identity will largely depend on the views on the relationship of the sexes of those people who surround the child. As a rule, all the postulates and foundations of behavior are actively inculcated by parents. For example, a boy is often told not to cry because he is a future man, just like a girl is dressed in colorful dresses for the reason that she is a representative of the female biological sex.

Formation of gender identity

By the age of 18, a person, as a rule, already has his own idea of ​​\u200b\u200bwhich gender he considers himself to be. This happens both at an unconscious level, that is, the child himself at an early age determines the group to which he wants to belong, and at a conscious level, for example, under the influence of society. Many people remember how in childhood they were bought toys that match their gender, that is, boys received cars and soldiers, and girls received dolls and cooking sets. Such stereotypes live in any society. We need them for more comfortable communication, although in many ways they limit the personality.

The formation of gender and family affiliation is necessary. Special classes are held in kindergartens aimed at developing this process. With their help, the child learns about himself, and also learns to classify himself as a certain group of people. These subgroups are formed both by gender and by family. In the future, this helps the child to quickly learn the rules of behavior in society.

However, it may also be that gender is different from gender. In this case, the process of self-identification will also occur, but will require an individual approach.

How to determine gender by words?

There are various test methods to determine the sexual and gender identity of a person. They are aimed at identifying a person’s self-identification, as well as at determining his gender role in society.

One of the common methods suggests answering 10 questions, with the help of which the characteristics mentioned above are revealed. The other is based on drawings and their interpretation. The validity of different tests varies quite a bit. Therefore, to say that today there is at least one method that allows 100% to determine the sexual identity of a person does not exist.

Sandra Behm Questionnaire