Surveys with options other than M or F, gender-reveal parties, and the politicization of gender-reassignment surgeries raise questions about the presumed binaries of biological sex and socially constructed gender as well as their connection. Explore the absence of a strict sex binary and take an expansive look at gender not only as an identity, but also as something we do in interaction with other people, as shaped by gendered social norms, and as a social status, exploring some of the complexities surrounding what used to be deceptively simple concepts: sex and gender.

Instructor: Jan Yoder learned her Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Buffalo in 1979 and spent her academic career teaching and researching the psychology of women. Her scholarship has been published in national and international psychology journals, and she has been the recipient of professional awards for both her research and teaching. She served as the editor-in-chief of two top-ranked, peer-reviewed journals that publish gender research. She currently holds a courtesy position at Penn State as an academic affiliate professor of psychology and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.