另一方面，性别是基于一个人的身份，自我表现，行为和与他人互动的社会分类。社会学家将性别视为学习行为和文化产生的身份，因此，它是一种社会范畴。当人们比较男女在不同文化中的行为方式，以及在某些文化和社会中，其他性别如何存在时，性别是一种社会结构变得尤为明显。在像美国这样的西方工业化国家，人们倾向于以二分法来看待男性气质和女性气质，将男性和女性视为截然不同和对立的人。然而，其他文化挑战了这种假设，对男性气质和女性气质的看法不那么明显。例如，历史上纳瓦霍文化中有一类人称为berdaches，他们在解剖学上是正常的男性，但被定义为被认为属于男性和女性之间的第三种性别。 Berdaches与其他普通人（不是Berdaches）结婚，虽然他们都不像今天的西方文化那样被认为是同性恋者。
On the other hand, gender is a social classification based on one’s identity, self-expression, behavior, and interaction with others. Sociologists regard gender as the identity of learning behavior and culture, so it is a social category. When people compare how men and women behave in different cultures, and how other genders exist in certain cultures and societies, gender is a social structure that becomes more apparent. In Western industrialized countries like the United States, people tend to look at masculinity and femininity by dichotomy, treating men and women as distinct and opposing people. However, other cultures have challenged this assumption, and the perceptions of masculinity and femininity are less obvious. For example, historically there was a class of people in the Navajo culture called berdaches, who were anatomically normal males but were defined as being considered to be the third gender between men and women. Berdaches marries other ordinary people (not Berdaches), although they are not considered homosexuals like Western culture today.