A different experiment, for instance, would be if mice reacted differently to per-hormone-therapy-transgendered researchers versus cisgendered researchers of the same sex.
Moreover, in the past decade a large segment of the left has been actively pushing back against these distinctions and attempting to essentialize (i.e. root in biology) normative gender behaviors. In the eyes of some trans activists essentializing gender norms would reduce anti-trans prejudice. I personally think it's misguided and goes too far, but it does reveal some flaws in the logic of the dichotomy. Some normative gender behaviors undoubtedly are rooted in biology, notwithstanding individual variation. But all such dichotomies are flawed--either intrinsically, or because of how they frame the relevant questions; it's the nature of the simplifications we humans make, and must make, to impose order on the natural world. I haven't seen any good alternatives to the sex/gender dichotomy, and I fail to see how anything constructive can come about from tearing it down.
To the Editor:
The term "gender" is increasingly misused as a substitute for "sex." Does "gender" appear to reflect a greater sophistication, or reluctance to use a term with a possible indecent connotation?
"The Gender Gulf" by Louis Harris (Op-Ed, Dec. 7) misuses the term three times (not counting the headline), including this: "the generation gap is less evident and the gender gap more acute." Among the same day's letters, one ("Sexism on Sesame St.") misuses gender five times including "gender imbalance."
"The Careful Writer: A Modern Guide to English Usage" by Theodore M. Bernstein (New York, 1965) states, "gender is a grammatical term, denoting (in English) whether words pertaining to a noun or pronoun are classed as masculine, feminine or neuter. It is not a substitute for 'sex' (but then, what is?). Indeed, in some foreign languages 'gender' often disregards sex. In German, for example, 'Weib,' The word for woman, is neuter; in French 'plume,' the word for pen, a sexless article, is feminine. To use 'gender' as if it were synonymous with 'sex' is an error, and a particularly unpardonable one in scientific writing."
From Fowler's "Modern English Usage" edited by Sir Ernest Gowers (Oxford, second edition, 1965):
"Gender, n., is a grammatical term only. To talk of 'persons' or 'creatures of the masculine or feminine gender,' meaning 'of the male or female sex,' is either a jocularity (permissible or not according to context) or a blunder."
I can only assume you have elected to permit this misuse, despite a valid and useful distinction between the terms.
SIDNEY WEINSTEIN Danbury, Conn., Dec. 10, 1990
The writer is editor in chief, International Journal of Neuroscience.
https://archive.ph/2020.06.11-213210/https://www.nytimes.com...
Here's William Safire talking about it in 1984 ("On Language; Goodbye Sex, Hello Gender"):
https://archive.ph/2022.07.07-142246/https://www.nytimes.com...
Webster's 1828: https://webstersdictionary1828.com/Dictionary/gender
Webster's 1913: https://www.websters1913.com/words/Gender
Both include "sex, male or female" as a definition; the 1913 marks it as "[Obs. or Colloq.]" while the 1828 does not.
That's how language changes over time.
Incidentally, we don't have the concept of "homogender" and "heterogender" to this day - at least in English. I can't speak for other languages. This also demonstrates a clear difference between "sex" and "gender."
Anyway, I got used to it because it's a useful distinction when applied to people.
I'm pretty sure in a 20th century dictionary you'll find gender was a purely grammatical term. And it was an uncommon word in English because all of our nouns are not gendered like so many other languages.
Old french/vulgar latin had a neuter gender, which pronoun sounded a lot like the male pronoun, and with nominative ending who were the same. Hence male pronouns are the default pronouns.
"The term gender role is used to signify all those things that a person says or does to disclose himself or herself as having the status of boy or man, girl or woman, respectively. It includes, but is not restricted to, sexuality in the sense of eroticism."
Some decades on, he noted that the rationale for introducing the term was to "make it possible to write about people who came into one's office as either male or female, but of whom it could not be said that their sex role in the specific genital sense was either male or female insofar as they had a history of birth defect of the sex organs. The majority of people who contributed to this new meaning of gender were hermaphrodites or intersexes. To them, social science and social history overall owe a debt of gratitude."