IB Philosophy 8.3.1 Nature of Gender Key Definitions

Gender refers to the socially constructed roles, behaviours, identities, and expectations that a given society associates with being male, female, or other categories.

Gender performativity is Judith Butler's thesis that gender is not an innate quality but a repeated performance of socially scripted acts, where there is no pre-existing identity behind these performances because the identity is constituted by the very acts said to express it.

Gendered socialisation describes the process through which children learn and internalise the behaviours, attitudes, and identities that their culture defines as appropriate for their sex. De Beauvoir argues this channels girls away from autonomy and self-assertion and toward passivity, compliance, and dependence.

Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the fundamental nature of reality, including questions about existence, substance, causation, and the relationship between mind and body. Ayer argues that metaphysical statements are cognitively meaningless because they are neither analytic nor empirically verifiable.

the biological classification of organisms as male, female, or intersex, typically based on chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive anatomy.

Social constructionism about gender is the thesis that gender categories and gender identity are produced by social practices, institutions, and cultural norms rather than determined by biology or nature.