ABSTRACT
People who study the differences and similarities between women and men have sometimes made a distinction between sex and gender. One dimension is gender role or gender expression: behaving in ways considered appropriate for women or men in the surrounding culture. The role of biology in producing gender-related behavior is complex and fascinating. However, biology always works in interaction with the environment, and that interaction is always a "work in progress" as each individual develops. It may appear that gender socialization involves fitting people into a relatively arbitrary division of activities and qualities labeled masculine and feminine. When people violate gender norms, they are sometimes also challenging the gender hierarchy. There is more to gender than the basic, private experience of belonging to a gender category. The ways in which that category is defined and expressed may vary a great deal across social and cultural environments.
