ABSTRACT
Sex and gender represent two fundamental constructs for human communication that are relevant to nearly all aspects of social science and communication research. At the same time, the constructs remain vastly disjointed and often suffer from a lack of thorough explication to yield effective conceptualizations, operationalizations, and a priori hypotheses. This chapter provides an explication of sex and gender, including a theoretical differentiation of the two. Then, the methodological and theoretical mistreatment of sex and gender as key variables of interest is discussed. Finally, implications and suggestions for future researchers looking to include more precise and valid measures of sex and/or gender are offered.
