Distinguish between Sex and Gender issues with suitable examples. (2002)
Ann Oakley (Sex, Gender and Society, 1972) drew the classic distinction: sex refers to biological differences between males and females, and gender to the socially constructed roles, expectations and values attached to them. Simone de Beauvoir (The Second Sex, 1949) had already put it this way: “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” Sex issues therefore come from bodily difference, and gender issues from social inequality built on top of it.
Criteria-wise distinction
| Criterion | Sex issues | Gender issues |
|---|---|---|
| Basis | Anatomy, chromosomes, hormones, reproduction | Norms, roles, power relations |
| Nature | Largely constant across cultures | Vary across cultures, classes and periods |
| Source of the problem | Bodily needs and risks | Discrimination, hierarchy, socialisation |
| Examples | Maternal health, menstruation, cervical and breast cancer, intersex variations | Dowry, unpaid care, wage gaps, occupational segregation, honour crimes |
| Indian data | Maternal mortality ratio 88 per 1,00,000 live births (SRS 2021–23) | 289 vs 88 minutes of daily unpaid domestic work, women vs men (Time Use Survey 2024) |
| Response | Health services, reproductive rights | Changing norms, law, redistribution of work and power |
Examples in context
- Sex issues: pregnancy and childbirth, safe abortion (the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021, extended the limit to 24 weeks for specified categories), menstrual hygiene and sex-specific diseases.
- Gender issues: women’s labour force participation is 40.0% against 79.1% for men (PLFS 2025). In a Pew Research Center survey (2019–20), 87% of Indians agreed that a wife must always obey her husband. Dowry and honour killings enforce control over women’s marriage.
What the distinction reveals
- Sex issues are shaped by gender. Maternal mortality is biological, but early marriage, nutritional neglect and delayed care decisions made by in-laws are gendered. Menstruation is biological, while menstrual taboos, such as those at issue in the Sabarimala judgment (2018), are social.
- Gender issues often target sex. Sex-selective abortion acts on biological sex, but its cause is son preference, a gender norm. The result is a sex ratio at birth of 929 girls per 1,000 boys (NFHS-5).
- Biology used to justify hierarchy. George Peter Murdock and Talcott Parsons explained the sexual division of labour by sex. Oakley showed the arrangement was cultural, turning a “sex” explanation into a “gender” issue.
- Critique of the binary itself. Judith Butler (Gender Trouble, 1990) argues that “sex” is also socially read and performatively produced. The sprinter Dutee Chand won her 2015 challenge at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against hyperandrogenism rules that tested womanhood by hormones. India’s NALSA judgment (2014) recognised self-identified gender. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Act, 2026 instead requires medical-board verification, re-tying gender to the body. Its validity is now before the Supreme Court.
Conclusion
The sex/gender distinction remains analytically essential: it separates what is given by biology from what is made by society, and so what can be changed. In practice the two are intertwined, since societies decide what bodily difference means. Most “women’s issues” in India are therefore gender issues, requiring social transformation, not only medical or biological remedies.