ABSTRACT
Since the late 1960s, scholars and practitioners in psychology have engaged in sustained evaluation of the discipline’s representation of women and gender. Psychology’s interest in sex differences and gender waned with the rise of behaviourism. The new psychology of women and gender is rich and varied. Feminist psychology makes a conceptual distinction between sex and gender. The influence of gender-based social distinctions is pervasive. Gender-related processes influence behaviour, thoughts, and feelings in individuals; they affect interactions among individuals; and they help determine the structure of social institutions. In the broadest sense, gender is a classification system that shapes the relations among women and men. Gender stereotypes are brought to bear in social interaction, where the influence of sex and gender interact. Sexuality, the most intimate aspect of the self and the most private of experiences, is shaped by a social order where issues of status, dominance, and power affect that which is personal.
