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Cited by 241Gender Studies in LanguageGender and Feminist StudiesGender, Sexuality, and Education

The inexorable rise of gender and the decline of sex: social change in academic titles, 1945–2001

Haig, David·2004·Archives of Sexual Behavior
DOI 10.1023/b:aseb.0000014323.56281.0d
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Abstract

More than 30 million titles of "academic" articles, from the years 1945-2001, were surveyed for occurrences of the words sex and gender. At the beginning of this period, uses of gender were much rarer than uses of sex, and often used in the sense of a grammatical category. By the end of this period, uses of gender outnumbered uses of sex in the social sciences, arts, and humanities. Within the natural sciences, there was now more than 1 use of gender for every 2 uses of sex. The beginnings of this change in usage can be traced to Money's introduction of the concept of "gender role" in 1955 (J. Money, 1955). However, the major expansion in the use of gender followed its adoption by feminists to distinguish the social and cultural aspects of differences between men and women (gender) from biological differences (sex). Since then, the use of gender has tended to expand to encompass the biological, and a sex/gender distinction is now only fitfully observed.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1023/b:aseb.0000014323.56281.0d

Cites

60 of 60 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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Claims the paper makes

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Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Authors using gender in the 1960s were mostly publishing in psychological journals and dealing with phenomena that did not conform with the heteronormative matrix.

    “These authors were mostly publishing in psychological journals and were dealing with phenomena that did not conform with the heteronormative matrix (hermaphrodites, transvestites, homosexuals, etc.).”

    From Gender: Gendering of Categories (2015) · cites this paper as Haig, 2004

  • Based on a survey of academic articles from 1945 to 2001, Haig (2004) found that authors using gender in the 1960s seem to derive the term from Money.

    “Based on a survey of academic articles from 1945 to 2001, Haig (2004) found that authors using gender in the 1960s seem to derive the term from Money.”

    From Gender: Gendering of Categories (2015) · cites this paper as Haig, 2004

  • The nongrammatical use of the term gender began with John Money's 1955 article, which introduced the concept of 'gender role'.

    “The history of the nongrammatical use of the term gender starts with an article by psychologist and sexologist John Money from 1955 in which the concept of ' gender role ' was introduced (Haig, 2004).”

    From Gender: Gendering of Categories (2015) · cites this paper as Haig, 2004

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Related

Authors
Haig, D.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Haig, David
ORCID
Haig, David
Venue
Archives of Sexual Behavior
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2004-04
Volume
33
Issue
2
Pages
87-96
ISSN
  • 0004-0002 (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-2800
DOI
10.1023/b:aseb.0000014323.56281.0d
OpenAlex
W2005725500
Cited by
241
References
69
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 15 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 7
FWCI
6.13
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Archives of Sexual Behavior (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender Studies in Language
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender and Feminist Studies
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Sexuality, and Education
Keywords
gender, sex, academic titles, language change, feminist theory, gender roles, biological sex, gender construction, history of gender concepts
MeSH terms
Cultural Characteristics, Female, Gender Identity, Humans, Male, Terminology as Topic, Sex, Sexual Behavior, Social Perception, Time Factors, United States, Journalism, Medical, History, 20th Century

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