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gender gap

Definition of Gender Gap

(noun) The differences between women and men on a range of topics; typically applies to the difference between what men and women are paid in their jobs.

Example of Gender Gap

Gender Gap Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: gen·der gap

Audio Pronunciation

– American English
– British English

Phonetic Spelling

  • American English – /jEn-duhr gAp/
  • British English – /jEn-duh gAp/

International Phonetic Alphabet

  • American English – /ˈʤɛndər gæp/
  • British English – /ˈʤɛndə gæp/

Usage Note

  • Plural: gender gaps

Related Quotations

  • “Over the last 20 years or so, however, newspapers and magazines have increasingly used gender to cover both biological differences and social behavior. For example, it is now common to see descriptions of male and female voting patterns as gender difference, when they are actually sex differences. In popular culture, generally, sex seems now to refer almost exclusively to sexual intercourse, whereas gender applies to the participants. Adding to the confusion, many scholars deliberately refer to biological sex as gender to underscore that it is socially constructed much as masculinity and femininity is” (Rosenblum and Travis 2012:30).
  • “There is an ordering of versions of femininity and masculinity at the level of the whole society, in some ways analogous to the patterns of face-to-face relations with institution. the possibilities of variation, of course, are vastly greater. The sheer complexity of relationships involving millions of people guarantees that ethnic differences and generational differences as well as class patterns come into play. But in key aspects the organization of gender on the very large scale must be more skeletal and simplified than the human relationships in face-to-face milieux. The forms of femininity and masculinity constituted at this level are stylized and impoverished. Their interrelation is centred on the single structural fact, the global dominance of men over women” (Connell 1987:183).

Additional Information

Related Terms

References

Connell, R. W. 1987. Gender and Power: Society, the Person, and Sexual Politics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Rosenblum, Karen Elaine, and Toni-Michelle Travis. 2012. The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions of Race, Sex and Gender, Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and Disability. 6th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Works Consulted

Andersen, Margaret L., and Howard Francis Taylor. 2011. Sociology: The Essentials. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Ferrante, Joan. 2011. Seeing Sociology: An Introduction. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Kimmel, Michael S., and Amy Aronson. 2012. Sociology Now. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Macionis, John, and Kenneth Plummer. 2012. Sociology: A Global Introduction. 4th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson Education.

Oxford University Press. (N.d.) Oxford Dictionaries. (https://www.oxforddictionaries.com/).

Shepard, Jon M., and Robert W. Greene. 2003. Sociology and You. New York: Glencoe.

Wikipedia contributors. (N.d.) Wiktionary, The Free Dictionary. Wikimedia Foundation. (http://en.wiktionary.org).

Cite the Definition of Gender Gap

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “gender gap.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved September 17, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/gender-gap/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

gender gap. (2014). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/gender-gap/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2014. “gender gap.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed September 17, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/gender-gap/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“gender gap.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2014. Web. 17 Sep. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/gender-gap/>.