Editing Gender role (section)

== In politics ==

===Political ideologies===
Modern [[social conservatives]] tend to support traditional gender roles. [[Right wing]] political parties often oppose [[Antifeminism|women's rights]] and [[LGBT rights opposition|transgender rights]].<ref>{{cite journal |first1=Lynn |last1=Cooper |title=The Attack on Women's Rights |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/29766113 |journal=Crime and Social Justice |date=1981 |issn=0094-7571 |pages=39–41 |issue=15 |jstor=29766113}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Paisley |last1=Currah |first2=Richard M. |last2=Juang |first3=Shannon |last3=Minter |title=Transgender Rights |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FUwOKayHVwcC |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |date=2006 |isbn=978-0-8166-4312-7 |via=Google Books}}</ref> These [[familialist]] views are often shaped by the religious [[fundamentalism]], traditional [[family values]], and [[Traditional society|cultural values]] of their voter base.<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert B. |last=Smith |title=Social Conservatism, Distractors, and Authoritarianism: Axiological versus instrumental rationality |editor-first=Harry F. |editor-last=Dahms |series=Mediations of Social Life in the 21st Century |date=2014 |publisher=Emerald Group Publishing |isbn=978-1-78441-222-7 |page=101 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C5V1BQAAQBAJ&pg=PA101 |language=en}}</ref>{{better source needed|reason=source is about a single 2008 survey of just the United States|date=July 2022}}

Modern [[Cultural liberalism|social liberals]] tend to oppose traditional gender roles, especially for women. [[Left wing]] political parties tend to support [[women's rights]] and [[transgender rights]]. In contrast to social conservatives, their views are more influenced by [[secularism]], [[feminism]], and [[progressivism]].<ref name="wars">{{Cite web |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/religion/legal-and-political-magazines/culture-wars |title=Culture Wars |website=[[Encyclopedia.com]]}}</ref>

=== In political office ===
Even though the number of women running for [[elected office]] in the United States has increased over the last decades, they still only make up 20% of U.S. senators, 19.4% of U.S. congressional representatives and 24% of statewide executives.<ref>{{cite web |title=Current Numbers |quote=This page contains current numbers of women officeholders serving in 2017 with links on the right to basic fact sheets for each level of office. |url=http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/current-numbers |website=www.cawp.rutgers.edu/current-numbers |publisher=Center for American Women and Politics |access-date=6 February 2017 |date=12 June 2015}}</ref> Additionally, many of these political campaigns appear to focus on the aggressiveness of the female candidate which is often still perceived as a masculine trait.<ref>{{cite journal |author1-link=Leonie Huddy |last1=Huddy |first1=Leonie |last2=Terkildsen |first2=Nayda |title=Gender Stereotypes and the Perception of Male and Female Candidates |journal=[[American Journal of Political Science]] |date=February 1993 |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=119–147 |doi=10.2307/2111526 |jstor=2111526}}</ref> Therefore, female candidates are running based on gender-opposing stereotypes because that predicts higher likelihood of success than appearing to be a stereotypical woman.{{citation needed|date=March 2023}}

Elections of increasing numbers of women into office serves as a basis for many scholars to claim that voters are not biased towards a candidate's gender. However, it has been shown that female politicians are perceived as only being superior when it comes to handling women's rights and [[poverty]], whereas male politicians are perceived to be better at dealing with [[crime]] and [[foreign affairs]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sanbonmatsu |first1=Kira |title=Stereotypes and Vote Choice |journal=[[American Journal of Political Science]] |date=January 2002 |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=20–34 |doi=10.2307/3088412 |jstor=3088412}}</ref> That view lines up with the most common gender stereotypes.

It has also been predicted that gender highly matters only for female candidates that have not been politically established. These predictions apply further to established candidates, stating that gender would not be a defining factor for their campaigns or the focal point of media coverage. This has been refuted by multiple scholars, often based on [[Hillary Clinton]]'s multiple campaigns for the office of [[President of the United States]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carroll |first=Susan J. |author-link=Susan J. Carroll |year=2009 |title=Reflections on Gender and Hillary Clinton's Presidential Campaign: The Good, the Bad, and the Misogynistic |journal=Politics & Gender |volume=5 |pages=1–20 |doi=10.1017/s1743923x09000014 |s2cid=143560740 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Carlin |first1=Diana B. |last2=Winfrey |first2=Kelly L. |title=Have You Come A Long Way, Baby? Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Sexism in 2008 Campaign Coverage |journal=Communication Studies |date=2009 |volume=60 |issue=4 |pages=326–343 |doi=10.1080/10510970903109904 |s2cid=145107322}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=McGinley |first1=Ann C. |title=Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and Michelle Obama: Performing Gender, Race, and Class on the Campaign Trail |journal=[[Denver University Law Review]] |date=2009 |volume=86}}</ref>

Additionally, when voters have little information about a female candidate, they are likely to view her as being a stereotypical woman which they often take as a basis for not electing her because they consider typical male qualities as being crucial for someone holding a political office.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Huddy |first1=Leonie |last2=Terkildsen |first2=Nadya |title=The Consequences of Gender Stereotypes for Women Candidates at Different Levels and Types of Office |journal=[[Political Research Quarterly]] |date=1993 |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=503–525 |doi=10.1177/106591299304600304 |s2cid=144560550}}</ref>

===Feminism and women's rights===
{{Main|Feminism}}
{{see also|Women's rights}}
[[File:US Navy 080123-N-3385W-028 Cmdr. Adrienne Simmons, medical provider for Provincial Reconstruction Team Khost and only woman on the team, speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony for a women's mosque and park in downtown Khost City.jpg|thumb|Cmdr. Adrienne Simmons speaking at the 2008 ceremony for the only women's mosque in Khost City, a symbol of progress for growing women's rights in the Pashtun belt]]

Throughout the 20th century, women in the United States saw a dramatic shift in social and professional aspirations and norms. Following the [[Women's suffrage in the United States|Women's Suffrage Movement]] of the late-nineteenth century, which resulted in the passage of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]] allowing women to vote, and in combination with conflicts in Europe, [[WWI]] and [[WWII]], women found themselves shifted into the industrial workforce. During this time, women were expected to take up industrial jobs and support the troops abroad through the means of domestic industry. Moving from "homemakers" and "caregivers", women were now factory workers and "breadwinners" for the family.

However, after the war, men returned home to the United States and women, again, saw a shift in social and professional dynamics. With the reuniting of the nuclear family, the ideals of American [[Suburb]]ia boomed. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, [[middle-class]] families moved in droves from urban living into newly developed single-family homes on former farmland just outside major cities. Thus established what many modern critics describe as the "private sphere".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rotman |first1=Deborah L. |year=2006 |title=Separate Spheres? Beyond the Dichotomies of Domesticity |journal=[[Current Anthropology]] |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=666–674 |doi=10.1086/506286 |s2cid=145576707}}</ref> Though frequently sold and idealized as "perfect living",<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Dodson |first1=Dan W. |year=1958 |title=Suburbanism and Education |journal=[[Journal of Educational Sociology]] |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=2–7 |doi=10.2307/2264228 |jstor=2264228}}</ref> many women had difficulty adjusting to the new "private sphere". Writer [[Betty Friedan]] described this discontent as "[[The Feminine Mystique|the feminine mystique]]". The "mystique" was derived from women equipped with the knowledge, skills, and aspirations of the workforce, the "public sphere", who felt compelled whether socially or morally to devote themselves to the home and family.<ref>Friedan, Betty. "The Feminine Mystique". New York:W.W. Norton, 1963.</ref>

One major concern of feminism, is that women occupy lower-ranking job positions than men, and do most of the housework.<ref name="Gender differences in perceptions of household labor">{{cite journal|author1=Kiger, Kiger|author2=Riley, Pamela J.|date=1 July 1996|title=Gender differences in perceptions of household labor|url=http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-18658547.html|journal=The Journal of Psychology|volume=130|issue=4|pages=357–70|doi=10.1080/00223980.1996.9915024|pmid=8756271 |url-access=subscription |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100118012046/http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-18658547.html |archive-date= Jan 18, 2010 }}</ref> A recent (October 2009) report from the Center for American Progress, "The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything" tells us that women now make up 48% of the US workforce and "mothers are breadwinners or co-breadwinners in a majority of families" (63.3%, see figure 2, page 19 of the Executive Summary of The Shriver Report).<ref name="The Shriver Report">{{cite web|title=The Shriver Report: A Woman's Nation Changes Everything|url=http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/10/womans_nation.html/#executive_summary|author=Maria Shriver |date=19 October 2009|publisher=Center for American Progress|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091020003755/http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2009/10/womans_nation.html/|archive-date=20 October 2009|access-date=23 October 2009}}</ref>

[[File:Louise Weiss.jpg|thumb|right|[[Louise Weiss]] along with other Parisian [[suffragette]]s in 1935. The newspaper headline reads "The Frenchwoman Must Vote".]]
Another recent article in ''[[The New York Times]]'' indicates that young women today are closing the pay gap. [[Luisita Lopez Torregrosa]] has noted, "Women are ahead of men in education (last year, 55 percent of U.S. college graduates were female). And a study shows that in most U.S. cities, single, childless women under 30 are making an average of 8 percent more money than their male counterparts, with Atlanta and Miami in the lead at 20 percent."<ref>{{cite news|last=Torregrosa|first=Luisita|title=They Call It the Reverse Gender Gap|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/us/14iht-letter14.html |url-access=subscription |newspaper=New York Times|access-date=30 November 2012|date=13 December 2011}}</ref>

Feminist theory generally defines gender as a social construct that includes ideologies governing feminine/masculine (female/male) appearances, actions, and behaviors.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Case|first=Mary Anne C.|date=October 1995|title=Disaggregating Gender from Sex and Sexual Orientation: The Effeminate Man in the Law and Feminist Jurisprudence|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/797140|journal=The Yale Law Journal|volume=105|issue=1|pages=1–105|doi=10.2307/797140|jstor=797140}}</ref> An example of these gender roles would be that males were supposed to be the educated breadwinners of the family, and occupiers of the public sphere whereas, the female's duty was to be a homemaker, take care of her husband and children, and occupy the private sphere. According to contemporary gender role ideology, gender roles are continuously changing. This can be seen in [[Londa Schiebinger]]'s ''Has Feminism Changed Science'', in which she states, "Gendered characteristics – typically masculine or feminine behaviors, interests, or values-are not innate, nor are they arbitrary. They are formed by historical circumstances. They can also change with historical circumstances."<ref>''Has Feminism Changed Science?'', Cambridge: Harvard University Press 2001, {{ISBN|978-0-674-00544-0}}</ref>

One example of the contemporary definition of gender was depicted in [[Sally Shuttleworth]]'s ''Female Circulation'' in which the, "abasement of the woman, reducing her from an active participant in the labor market to the passive bodily existence to be controlled by male expertise is indicative of the ways in which the ideological deployment of gender roles operated to facilitate and sustain the changing structure of familial and market relations in Victorian England."<ref>Shuttleworth, Sally. "Female Circulation: Medical Discourse and Popular Advertising in the Mid-Victorian Era." Body/Politics: Women and the Discourses of Science. Eds. Mary Jacobus, Evelyn Fox Keller and Sally Shuttleworth. New York: Routledge, 1990. 47–70</ref> In other words, this shows what it meant to grow up into the roles (gender roles) of a female in Victorian England, which transitioned from being a homemaker to being a working woman and then back to being passive and inferior to males. In conclusion, gender roles in the contemporary sex gender model are socially constructed, always changing, and do not really exist since they are ideologies that society constructs in order for various benefits at various times in history.

===Men's rights===
{{Main|Men's rights movement}}
{{see also|Fathers' rights movement}}
[[File:Save Indian Families protest (New Delhi, 26 August 2007).jpg|thumb|250px|Protest in New Delhi for men's rights organized by the [[Save Indian Family Foundation]]]]

The men's rights movement (MRM) is a part of the larger [[men's movement]]. It branched off from the [[men's liberation movement]] in the early-1970s. The men's rights movement is made up of a variety of groups and individuals who are concerned about what they consider to be issues of male disadvantage, [[discrimination]] and oppression.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/fatherhoodpoliti00gava |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/fatherhoodpoliti00gava/page/11 11] |last=Gavanas |first=Anna |title=Fatherhood Politics in the United States: Masculinity, Sexuality, Race, and Marriage |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |location= Urbana |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-252-02884-7 |quote=All these cases of perceived discrimination make up the men's rights view that men are considered, by government and society, to be more expendable than women.}}</ref><ref name="BoydLongwood1996">{{cite book |title=Redeeming men: religion and masculinities|editor1-first=Stephen Blake |editor1-last=Boyd |editor2-first=W. Merle |editor2-last=Longwood |editor3-first=Mark William |editor3-last=Muesse |publisher=[[Westminster John Knox Press]] |year=1996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VSrhNzWb6sIC&pg=PR17 |isbn=978-0-664-25544-2 |page=17 |quote=In contradistinction to pro-feminism, however, the men's rights perspective addresses specific legal and cultural factors that put men at a disadvantage. The movement is made up of a variety of formal and informal groups that differ in their approaches and issues; Men's rights advocates, for example, target sex-specific military conscription and judicial practices that discriminate against men in child custody cases.}}</ref> The movement focuses on issues in numerous areas of society (including [[family law]], [[parenting]], [[reproduction]], [[domestic violence]]) and government services (including [[education]], [[compulsory military service]], social safety nets, and health policies) that they believe discriminate against men.

Scholars consider the men's rights movement or parts of the movement to be a [[backlash (sociology)|backlash]] to feminism.<ref name=backlash>See, for example:
* {{cite journal |last=Maddison |first=Sarah |year=1999 |title=Private Men, Public Anger: The Men's Rights Movement in Australia |journal=Journal of Interdisciplinary Gender Studies |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=39–52 |url=http://newcastle.edu.au/Resources/Schools/Humanities%20and%20Social%20Science/JIGS/JIGSV4N2_039.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020163216/https://newcastle.edu.au/Resources/Schools/Humanities%20and%20Social%20Science/JIGS/JIGSV4N2_039.pdf |archive-date=20 October 2013}}
* {{cite book |last1=Doyle |first1=Ciara |editor1-first=Peter |editor1-last=Herrman |title=Citizenship Revisited: Threats or Opportunities of Shifting Boundaries |year=2004 |publisher=[[Nova Publishers]] |location=New York |isbn=978-1-59033-900-8 |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=HdLVGgJQ0mUC&pg=PA61 61–62] |chapter=The Fathers' Rights Movement: Extending Patriarchal Control Beyond the Marital Family}}
* {{cite book |last1=Flood |first1=Michael |author-link1=Michael Flood |editor1-first=Michael S. |editor1-last=Kimmel |editor1-link=Michael Kimmel |editor2-last=Hearn |editor2-first=Jeff |editor3-last=Connell |editor3-first=Raewyn |title=Handbook of Studies on Men and Masculinities |year=2005 |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |location=Thousand Oaks |isbn= 978-0-7619-2369-5 |page=459 |chapter=Men's Collective Struggles for Gender Justice: The Case of Antiviolence Activism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UvAZD45BMDoC&pg=PA459}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.salon.com/2011/03/29/scott_adams_mens_rights_movement/ |title=Is the men's rights movement growing? |last1=Finocchiaro |first1=Peter |date=29 March 2011 |work=[[Salon (website)|Salon]] |access-date=10 March 2013}}
* {{cite book |last=Messner |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Messner |year=2000 |title=Politics of Masculinities: Men in Movements |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nG8MGcopgWQC&pg=PA41 |location=Lanham |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |page=41 |isbn=978-0-8039-5577-6}}
* {{cite book |last1=Solinger |first1=Rickie |title=Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gfem7O38h6MC&pg=PP130 |year=2013 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-981141-0 |page=130}}
* {{cite book |last1=Menzies |first1=Robert |editor1-first=Susan B |editor1-last=Boyd |title=Reaction and Resistance: Feminism, Law, and Social Change |year=2007 |publisher=[[University of British Columbia Press]] |location=Vancouver |isbn= 978-0-7748-1411-9 |chapter=Virtual Backlash: Representation of Men's "Rights" and Feminist "Wrongs" in Cyberspace |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ASc568aunFoC&pg=PA65 |pages=65–97}}
* {{cite book |last1=Dunphy |first1=Richard |title=Sexual Politics: An Introduction |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=NVPQkt0bVpAC&pg=PA88 |year=2000 |publisher=[[Edinburgh University Press]] |location=Edinburgh |isbn=978-0-7486-1247-5 |page=88}}
* {{Cite journal |last=Mills |first=Martin |title= Shaping the boys' agenda: the backlash blockbusters |year=2003 |journal=International Journal of Inclusive Education |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=57–73 |doi=10.1080/13603110210143644 |s2cid=144875158}}</ref> The men's rights movement denies that men are privileged relative to women.<ref name="clatter">{{cite book |last=Clatterbaugh |first=Kenneth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JfG8qCLMP9EC |title=Contemporary perspectives on masculinity: Men, women, and politics in modern society |date=1996 |publisher=[[Westview Press]] |isbn=978-0-8133-2701-3 |edition=Reissued 2nd. |location=Boulder, Colorado |page=11 |quote=Indeed the premise of all men's rights literature is that men are ''not'' privileged relative to women... Having denied that men are privileged relative to women, this movement divides into those who believe that men and women are equally harmed by sexism and those who believe that society has become a bastion of female privilege and male degradation.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317231546/https://books.google.com/books?id=JfG8qCLMP9EC|archive-date=17 March 2015}}</ref> The movement is divided into two camps: those who consider men and women to be harmed equally by sexism, and those who view society as endorsing the degradation of men and upholding female privilege.<ref name=clatter/>

Men's rights groups have called for male-focused governmental structures to address issues specific to men and boys including education, health, work and marriage.<ref name="toi">{{cite news |url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bangalore/What-about-tax-and-fathers-custody-rights/articleshow/5244920.cms |title=What about tax, and father's custody rights? |work=[[The Times of India]] |date=17 May 2011 |access-date=22 December 2011}}</ref><ref name="Northbourne"/><ref name=wt>{{cite news |url=http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/may/17/guys-got-it-made-think-again-say-advocates/ |title=Guys got it made? Think again, say advocates |first=Wetzstein |last=Cheryl |work=[[The Washington Times]] |access-date=22 December 2011}}</ref> Men's rights groups in India have called for the creation of a Men's Welfare Ministry and a National Commission for Men, as well as the abolition of the National Commission for Women.<ref name=toi/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-india-husbands-idUKTRE5AJ0TZ20091120 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181125033234/https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-india-husbands-idUKTRE5AJ0TZ20091120 |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 November 2018 |title=Indian husbands want protection from nagging wives |work=[[Reuters]] |date=20 November 2009 |access-date=22 December 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url= https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/relationships/man-woman/Boys-fight-for-freedom/articleshow/4859757.cms |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020060318/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-08-09/man-woman/28177085_1_indian-law-law-minister-siff |url-status=live |archive-date=20 October 2012 |title=Boys fight for freedom! |last=Manigandan |first=K. R. |work=[[The Times of India]]|date=9 August 2009 |access-date=22 December 2011}}</ref> In the United Kingdom, the creation of a [[Minister for Men]] analogous to the existing [[Minister for Women (United Kingdom)|Minister for Women]], have been proposed by [[David Amess]], MP and [[Lord Northbourne]], but were rejected by the government of [[Tony Blair]].<ref name="Northbourne">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/bbc_parliament/3522631.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |title=FHM: For Him Minister? |date=3 March 2004 |access-date=22 December 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1343276/Yesterday-in-Parliament.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1343276/Yesterday-in-Parliament.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |location=London |title=Yesterday in Parliament |first=Michael |last=Kallenbach |date=16 June 2000 |access-date=5 May 2010}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/2004/mar/08/minister-for-men#S6CV0418P2_20040308_CWA_745 |title=Minister for Men |publisher=Hansard, UK Parliament |access-date=24 November 2011}}</ref> In the United States, [[Warren Farrell]] heads a commission focused on the creation of a "White House Council on Boys and Men" as a counterpart to the "White House Council on Women and Girls" which was formed in March 2009.<ref name=wt/>

Related to this is the Father's Rights Movement, whose members seek social and political reforms that affect fathers and their children.<ref>{{cite book |last=Crowley |first=Jocelyn E. |date=2008 |title=Defiant Dads: Fathers' Rights Activists in America |publisher=[[Cornell University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8014-4690-0}}</ref> These individuals contest that societal institutions such as family courts, and laws relating to child custody and child support payments, are gender biased in favor of mothers as the default caregiver. They therefore are systemically discriminatory against males regardless of their actual caregiving ability, because males are typically seen as the bread-winner, and females as the care-giver.<ref>Baskerville, S (2007). Taken into Custody: The War Against Fatherhood, Marriage, and the Family. Cumberland House Publishing. {{ISBN|1-58182-594-3}}.</ref>

===Gender neutrality===
{{Main|Gender neutrality}}
[[Gender neutrality]] is the movement to end discrimination of gender altogether in society through means of [[gender neutral language]], the end of [[sex segregation]] and other means.

=== Transgender and cross-dressing ===
{{Main|Transgender|Legal status of transgender people}}
[[File:Camille Cabral pour les Trans.JPG|thumb|upright|[[Camille Cabral]], a transgender activist at a demonstration for transgender people in Paris, 1 October 2005]]

Transgender is the state of one's [[gender identity]] or gender expression not matching one's [[assigned sex]].<ref name="glaad.org">{{cite web |url=http://www.glaad.org/reference/transgender |title=GLAAD Media Reference Guide – Transgender glossary of terms |website=[[GLAAD]] |date=May 2010 |access-date=24 February 2011}}</ref> Transgender is independent of [[sexual orientation]]; transgender people may identify as [[heterosexual]], [[homosexual]], [[bisexual]], etc.; some may consider conventional sexual orientation labels inadequate or inapplicable to them. The definition of ''transgender'' includes:
* "Denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex."<ref>{{cite web |title=Definition of transgender in English by Oxford Dictionaries |url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/transgender |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160925144023/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/transgender |url-status=dead |archive-date=25 September 2016 |website=Oxford Dictionaries |access-date=18 June 2018}}</ref>
* "People who were assigned a sex, usually at birth and based on their genitals, but who feel that this is a false or incomplete description of themselves."<ref name="usi">"[https://web.archive.org/web/20080608075230/http://www.usilgbt.org/index.php?categoryid=35 USI LGBT Campaign – Transgender Campaign]". Retrieved 11 January 2012.</ref>
* "Non-identification with, or non-presentation as, the sex (and assumed gender) one was assigned at birth."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.stroud.gov.uk/info/gender_equality_scheme.pdf |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080227114158/http://www.stroud.gov.uk/info/gender_equality_scheme.pdf |url-status=dead |title=Stroud District Council "Gender Equality SCHEME AND ACTION PLAN 2007" |archivedate=27 February 2008}}</ref>

While people self-identify as transgender, the transgender identity umbrella includes sometimes-overlapping categories. These include [[transsexual]]; [[cross-dresser]]; [[genderqueer]]; [[Androgyny|androgyne]]; and [[bigender]].<ref name="ryan">{{Cite journal |title=Lesbian and Gay Youth: Care and Counseling |first1=Caitlin C. |last1=Ryan |first2=Donna |last2=Futterman |journal=Adolescent Medicine |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=207–374 |year=1998 |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0-231-11191-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/lesbiangayyouthc0000ryan/page/49 |pmid=10360017}}</ref> Usually not included are [[transvestic fetish]]ists (because it is considered to be a [[paraphilia]] rather than gender identification), and [[drag kings]] and [[drag queens]], who are performers who cross-dress for the purpose of entertaining. In an interview, celebrity drag queen [[RuPaul]] talked about society's ambivalence to the differences in the people who embody these terms. "A friend of mine recently did the ''[[The Oprah Winfrey Show|Oprah]]'' show about transgender youth", said RuPaul. "It was obvious that we, as a culture, have a hard time trying to understand the difference between a drag queen, transsexual, and a transgender, yet we find it very easy to know the difference between the [[American League|American baseball league]] and the [[National League (baseball)|National baseball league]], when they are both so similar."<ref name=DS>[[n:RuPaul speaks about society and the state of drag as performance art|Interview with RuPaul]], David Shankbone, ''[[Wikinews]]'', 6 October 2007.</ref>