Why do we need a
Gender Equity Network?

Lived disparities still happen every day. They creep into our daily life – at work, home, school, court, applying for a job or loan or scholarship, the doctor’s office, even in data & research studies. They can happen anywhere to anyone and they persist nationwide for a wide variety of Americans of every sex and gender identity. They ensure a host of unmet needs & establish unfair obstacles to the basic civil and human rights many of us take for granted.

The Gender Equity Network works to educate the public & policymakers about lived disparities and to end sex and gender-based discrimination for all.

Why do we need a
Gender Equity Network?

Lived disparities still happen every day. They creep into our daily life – at work, home, school, court, applying for a job or loan or scholarship, the doctor’s office, even in data & research studies. They can happen anywhere to anyone, and they persist nationwide for a wide variety of Americans of every sex and gender identity. They ensure a host of unmet needs & establish unfair obstacles to the basic civil & human rights many of us take for granted.

The Gender Equity Network works to educate the public and policymakers about lived disparities and to end sex and gender-based discrimination for all.

Aren’t sex and gender the same thing?

While there is a widespread social tendency to use the words “sex” and “gender” interchangeably, gender is quite different than biological sex. Assumed characteristics of gender often include cultural norms, behaviors, and roles associated with a specific biological sex. Gender and gender identity are fostered more by an individual’s cultural, social, psychological, sexual, and personal experiences rather than the simple biology of sex assigned at birth.

What are “gender issues,” anyway?

This is a cursory, frequently-updated list of every day issues that concern, involve, impact, or are impacted by sex and gender.  This is only the beginning of where sex and gender intersect in our daily lives…

DEFINITIONS / COMMON LANGUAGE

With so many different meanings of the same words, here is what GEN means when it uses various terms in our work.

Discrimination

\ di-ˌskri-mə-ˈnā-shən \
Make an unjust or prejudicial distinction in the treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability

Gender

\ ˈjendər \
The characteristics of women, men, girls, and boys that are socially constructed. This includes norms, behaviors and roles associated with being a woman, man, girl, or boy, as well as relationships with each other. Gender is different than biological sex, as it is fostered and developed more by “nurture” than simply “nature.”

Justice

\ ˈjə-stəs \
The maintenance or administration of what is just, especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments.

Equity

\ ˈe-kwə-tē \
Justice according to natural law or right. Specifically, freedom from bias or favoritism.

Compassion

\ kəmˈpæʃ.ən \
Sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.

(Source: Merriam-Webster)