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Original poster

When did people stop saying "sex" and start saying "gender"?

61 replies

drspouse · 06/09/2018 10:59

Just that really.
I am meaning when they started using it to mean "men and women" rather than when did the term "gender" emerge to refer to sex stereotyped roles etc.
Does anyone know if there's anything interesting/scholarly written about this (though I'd also be interested to know if anyone remembers being specifically told to use the term, or if they have seen a change through their working life)?
I cannot remember what was standard practice when I was younger (I'm early 50s) or if there was a change though my vague memory is that things used to say "sex: m/f".

OP posts:
ErrolTheDragon · 06/09/2018 11:55

I remember thinking Essex was rude when I was little (1970s) - we’d snigger about our ‘Essex cousins’ because anything S.E.X was naughty!

But Essex kids could laugh louder at the preposterous 'middlesex'!

ErrolTheDragon · 06/09/2018 11:54

There are some academic papers which scrupulously use 'sex' relating to biology and 'gender' to social matters.

There's some interesting advice here, I think.

www.editage.com/insights/should-i-use-the-word-sex-or-gender-in-my-scientific-research-paper

Re the 'gender pay gap' - Thats arguably appropriate usage. The gap appears mostly because of gendered thinking about women's role as nurturers and in the workplace. There is of course, a strongly biological underpinning to part of it - men's utter crapness at bearing offspring and milk production. But the fact that care for children past infancy (and adult dependents eg elderly parents) largely falls to women is pure gender. Biases against women in leadership roles is pure gender.

hazeyjane · 06/09/2018 11:53

I remember thinking Essex was rude when I was little (1970s) - we’d snigger about our ‘Essex cousins’ because anything S.E.X was naughty!

I have drummed into the dds, that ‘gender’ is all the made up stuff that people tell you you should do or shouldn’t depending whether you are a boy or girl (you’re a girl, you must like pink....you’re a boy you must like football) and sex is what you’ve got between your legs that makes you a boy or girl.

ScreamingBird · 06/09/2018 11:51

I didn't know that about Durex, dr, but I'm glad to learn :)

MistOnTheWater · 06/09/2018 11:49

That graph was interesting. I do find it annoying when people conflate sex and gender - cos they don't mean the same thing. I bet the last 10 years data shows an increase in the use of the word gender. Just a wild guess.

Original poster
drspouse · 06/09/2018 11:46

(just outed myself as a geek and therefore NOT POSSIBLY a woman, according no doubt to the BACP.

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Original poster
drspouse · 06/09/2018 11:46

I'd love to have the last 10 years' data!

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hackmum · 06/09/2018 11:45

Sorry, I missed drspouse excellent graph, which pretty much settled it!

Original poster
drspouse · 06/09/2018 11:43

Screaming I was at school in the 80s and a few people knew that "rubber" was rude in the US but most of us didn't, and we all just said "rubber" because it was silly that it had another meaning (like Australians using Durex to mean sellotape - some of us knew but few of us cared).

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DolorestheNewt · 06/09/2018 11:43

I googled "Google tool to trace word usage over time". Well, I never said I was bright... Grin

hackmum · 06/09/2018 11:43

I'm quite old and I agree with Moveable. Back in the 70s you'd say "sex" to refer to men and women - official forms would always ask for your "sex". Gender, a term previously mostly used in language teaching, began being used by feminists in the 70s and 80s to refer to socially constructed ideas about masculinity and femininity, and explicitly different from biological sex. It was a very useful distinction.

Hard to remember exactly when it started to change, but I think the 90s. I have always found it intensely annoying, and these days it seems universal.

CesiraAndEnrico · 06/09/2018 11:43

Plausible?

Very. Lexical choices are influenced by people's desire to sound posher, more educated, more informed, and generally better than their peers.

Mr PARKLIFE of the floppy long hair and dubious radio high jinx being a more extreme example.

DolorestheNewt · 06/09/2018 11:43

drspouse THAT'S IT! Thank you!

ScreamingBird · 06/09/2018 11:42

trends.google.com/trends/

Original poster
drspouse · 06/09/2018 11:42

dolores I googled "Google tool to trace word usage over time".

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Original poster
drspouse · 06/09/2018 11:41

WOW!

Here you go

Female sex vs female gender in Google books.

Female sex hasn't actually declined since 1920 but "female gender" appeared from nowhere in about 1970 and increased till about 1995 when it's remained steady (they don't do past 2008). It's still not as common as "female sex".

"Male gender" appeared at exactly the same time and has almost exactly the same trajectory.

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Miladymilord · 06/09/2018 11:41

I think they just dont like the word sex. It annoys me, I change it on forms.

DolorestheNewt · 06/09/2018 11:41

Isn't there a Google tool that traces word popularity over time? Yes. I bet someone over on Academics' Corner knows what it is. I've been trying to find it, but I can't remember how. (the Google tool, not Academics' Corner.)

Miladymilord · 06/09/2018 11:41

Sex Benders made a less snappy headline than Gender-Benders

Well, no, Boy George et al were actually gender benders, not sex benders. They were men who wore the trappings of femininity.

DolorestheNewt · 06/09/2018 11:39

I suspect it may sometimes be part of the tendency to use words that sound Latinate rather than plain English because people think it sounds better or more educated or "posher", ignoring the fact (in this instance) that they aren't the same word. Permit, rather than let; endeavour, rather than try; comprehend, rather than understand; gender, rather than sex.
Plausible?

CesiraAndEnrico · 06/09/2018 11:39

The was a point when it shot up a bit more.

Sex Benders made a less snappy headline than Gender-Benders.

Boy George at al were making headlines and I think there was a definite rise in the word's visibility and therefore popular use from around that point.

CesiraAndEnrico · 06/09/2018 11:36

I remember an uptick in the mid-late 80s. Not to the degree that exists now, but people were starting to jump on gender to mean sex, so they didn't have to say the word sex. And by degrees it crept in so it wasn't uncommon.

In retrospect that was a terrible idea. But hindsight is 20/20.

ScreamingBird · 06/09/2018 11:36

It kind of reminds me of that thing, where if you asked a kid in your class to 'use your rubber' you'd get sniggers, so whole swathes of 80s/90s kids referred very properly to erasers. Now everyone calls them rubbers again.

Original poster
drspouse · 06/09/2018 11:34

I've always thought that the use of 'Gender' on forms and suchlike was because people were writing 'Yes please' and 'More' when asked about sex.
Oh I do remember those very tedious jokes... especially in secondary school.

silentcrow very interesting, I'll see if I can find anything like that!

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AndYetItMoves · 06/09/2018 11:33

It feels recent to me. I remember referring to the sex of my baby at the 20 week scan 16 years ago.