GENDER AND TRANSGENDER 

Gender Role refers to a pattern of appearance, personality, and behavior that, in a given culture,  associated with being a boy/man/male or being a girl/woman/female. A person’s gender role may or may not conform to what is expected based on a person’s sex assigned at birth. Gender role may also refer to the social role one is living in (e.g., as a woman, a man, or another gender), with some role characteristics conforming and others not conforming to what is associated with girls/women or boys/men in a given culture and time.

Characteristics of Gender

 1. Gender is socially constructed

2. Gender involves an array of rights roles Responsibilities and relationships 

3. Gender involves learned behavior or an acquired identity 

4. Gender includes personality traits, attitudes, behaviors, values 

5. Power relationships are driven by gender

6. Access to resources is determined by one's gender 

7. Gender roles and norms can change over time 

8. Gender roles vary across cultures

Transgender: 

Transgender is an umbrella term that incorporates differences in gender identity wherein one’s assigned biological sex doesn’t match their felt identity. This umbrella term includes persons who do not feel they fit into a dichotomous sex structure through which they are identified as male or female. Individuals in this category may feel as if they are of the wrong gender.

Transgender people are individuals whose gender identities do not pertain to their biological sex, and thus they differ from the stereotype of how men and women normally are. ‘Transgender’ does not include sexual orientation or physical sex characteristics, but is in fact a less clinical term that pertains to gender identity and gender expression. Thus transgender people encompass those people whose identity and behavior do not adhere to the stereotypical gender norms. They may be gay, transsexual, transvestite, or genderqueer.

Key features of Transgenders in India

1. Transgenders a socially diverse group

2. Socially ostracized and discriminated

3. Family stigma

4.Low education due to social stigma 

5. Low economic participation.

6. Transgenders face a gender identity crisis in gender-specific societies. 

7. Minimal access to justice 

8. Barriers to healthcare

9. Lack of Identity Documents