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A critical examination of the concept of gender

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Abstract

Although psychologists have become increasingly interested in such areas as sex differences, gender identity, and sex roles, the concept of gender remains ill defined. We undertake a critical review of this concept and try to show that (a) if the term gender is taken to refer to a set of biological and psychological variables which are related to one another in a complex way, and (b) if gender differences are treated as differences in degree and not in kind, then the concept of gender can be used in a meaningful way to make sense of the things we observe about people.

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Freimuth, M.J., Hornstein, G.A. A critical examination of the concept of gender. Sex Roles 8, 515–532 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00287716

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