LESSON 1 • Hermes (a male Greek god) and

Aphrodite (a female Greek goddess)

D E F I N I T I ON O F T E RMS
• Refers to the conglomeration of male
• Sex - the biological aspect of sex;
and female organ
maleness or femaleness
• It is a naturally occurring variation in
• Gender- the social interpretation of
humans and animals (1 in every 1,500
sex; masculinity; femininity, etc.
births) according to the American
• Sexuality- the totality of our own Psychological Association (APA) (2006).
experience of sex and gender
G E ND E R
• Sex chromosomes- chromosomal
• Social dimension of one’s sexuality
markers that distinguish females (XX)
from male (XY) species • Masculine for males/ Feminine for
females
• Intersex- individuals with composite
genitals (possessing some • Parents or families attached cultural
characteristics of both male and female and social meanings to their child’s sex,
genitals) they also set an expectation in terms of
how their child should behave and how
SEX
they should treat their child.
• Biological dimension of your gender
• Heteronormativity- phenomenon of
and sexuality
determining the normality of a behavior
• Also referred as biological sex or based on whether it conforms or not the
physical sex expectations relative to one’s biological
sex
• Determined by examining your genitals
• There are people who do not follow
• It is often assigned at birth.
culturally- based standards of
• Male (XY) and Female (XX) masculinity and femininity.
• Human males tends to have higher • How we expressed our gender is
levels of testosterone, which is largely based on our social and cultural
associated to sex drive and aggressions. setting.
• Human females tend to have higher GENDER IDENTITY
levels of estrogen and progesterone,
• One important aspect of our gender is
which are associated to lactation,
our sense of who we are
menstruation and other female
reproductive organ functions. • Do we experience ourselves as a man
or a woman, or neither
Hermaphroditism or Intersexuality
• There are cases wherein a person’s outdated way to describe people who
biological sex does not align with one’s are attracted to the same or similar
gender identity. gender as themselves

• Transgender people have a gender • Lesbian

identity or gender expression that differs
The term lesbian refers to the feminine
from the sex that they were assigned at
version of homosexuality. It’s used to
birth.
identify two women who are attracted to
• Transgender woman- a male who does each other.
not feel comfortable identifying himself
• Bisexual
as man
This type of sexual orientation describes
• Transsexual- some transgender people
people who are attracted to more than
who desire medical assistance to
one gender. Some people also refer to
transition from one sex to another
bisexuality as pansexuality, as it
identify themselves as transsexual
denotes an attraction to a broader
SEXUAL ORIENTATION spectrum of sexual orientation than just
the two stereotypical genders.
• Sexual orientation is another aspect of
our gender pertains to our emotional • Asexual
and sexual attraction to a person.
• Asexual people are not sexually
• According to the Psychological attracted to anyone. Although they may
Association of the Philippines, typically experience romantic attractions to any
at ages 6 or 8, we experience or develop gender, they’re not interested in getting
attraction to other people. physical in the more traditional sense.

• By adolescence, we already know we • Queer

are attracted to and would experiment
The term queer used to be derogatory, a
through dating and relationships.
slur used against anyone different,
• Everyone’s sexuality is different and meaning weird and bizarre, but the
deeply personal. LGBTQ+ community has adopted and
transformed the word to create an
• Heterosexual
umbrella term that encompasses
Heterosexual, also known colloquially everyone who isn’t exclusively cisgender
as straight, is a term that describes or heterosexual.
those that are attracted to the opposite
• Demisexual
sex.
This sexual orientation type often falls
• Gay
along the spectrum of asexuality. Most
While homosexual is a technical term, of the time, demisexual individuals only
many people see it as a formal and feel a sexual bond towards another
person after they’ve established an LESSON 2
emotional or romantic connection.
Divine Feminine

• The sacredness of the woman due to

• Pansexual her ability to conceive children

People who identify as pansexual prefer • Because of this concept, women are
not to limit their romantic or sexual treated equally with men.
attraction to others in any way. They
• Egalitarian society (men and women
don’t feel defined by specific gender
have equitable power and roles)
identities or sexual orientations.
• During the dawn of civilization

Paternity

• Fatherhood/ role of the father in

conception

• During Agricultural era, where

societies began to establish
communities and tame rear cattle and
stocks
APPRECIATING DIVERSITY
• Change how societies have viewed
• According to the American
women and men
Psychological Association (APA), nature
and nurture play a complex role in • Since then societies have privileged
shaping our sexual orientation. men over other genders, mainly
because of the preferential given to
• Homosexuality and heterosexuality are
them in the productive sphere (world of
part of the human sexuality and is a
public work).
large part of the human experience.
• Women who have been revered due to
• Personal process
their ability to conceive have been
• “We can truly tell if the person is gay, viewed as solely capable of
lesbian, or bisexual if the person shares reproductive affairs (world of the home
with us his or her experiences and and related tasks such as feeding the
feelings of attraction towards them” baby, child rearing, and home
(PAP) management).

• People who experience prejudice and • Gender disparity intensified during the
discrimination suffer negative Industrial era
psychological effects (APA)
PATRIARCHY Egypt

• From Greek word Patriarkhes which Herodotus, a Greek historian, observed

means “the rule of the father” the Egyptian civilization citing that
Egyptian women enjoyed higher social
• It is a social system where men
status than Greek women because they
primarily holds power in the political
can inherit property and engage in trade
and private spheres
and politics.
• The society is organized and
China
maintained in a way that men rule over
women and their children. • Confucianism has. stringent written
rules that dictate how women should
• In the social, legal, political, and
conduct themselves
economic spheres, men are expected to
lead while women are expected to obey. • The written documents titled "Three
obedience's and four virtues" and
Friedrich Engels
"Precepts of women" states that women
• German philosopher and sociologist should obey their father, when married
she is to obey her husband, and when
• Argues that patriarchy came about
widowed she is to obey her son.
when people started having private
property instead of a communal living Gendered biases in ancient patriarchal
development societies were very strict, heavily
enforced, and often violent.
• The development in agriculture and
domestication of animals led to creating Women have come a long way since the
product surplus which allows people to ancient times through the feminist
have private property. movement, however, patriarchy has
taken on subtle forms of oppression that
HISTORICAL VIEWS ON GENDER
often go unnoticed such as:
Greek
• sexism - prejudice, stereotypes, and
• Aristotle, Plato, and other Greek discrimination based on sex;
philosophers viewed women as the
• gender pay gap - men earn more that
inferior sex and are properties of men
women;
whose only job was to obey their
husbands, bear children, and take care • underrepresentation in politics,
of the household. military, executive positions, etc;

• They were forbidden to learn • rape on women and the stigma making
philosophy, politics, and science. women ashamed to report the crime;
• very conservative expectations on is not born, but rather becomes, a
women on how they behave; woman".

• unrealistic depictions of women in Le Mouvement de Liberation des

fiction, often very sexualized; Femmes or the Women’s Liberation
Movement
• women do more housework and
childcare; • Formed in Europe and they sought the
right to education, right to work, and
• boys were trained to be leaders while
right to vote in the 1940s.
women were trained to do house
chores. • Later, they also won women's right to
decide on their own bodies and their
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT
sexualities.
• Women's liberation movement,
• This liberation movement views the
women's movement, or feminism is a
intersectionality of economic status or
continuing series of social movements
class to patriarchy
that aim to challenge the patriarchal
society that creates these oppressive • Inspired by Beauvoir's book, second-
political structures, beliefs, and wave feminism in 1960's through the
practices against women. 8o's, women drew attention to various
social and cultural domestic violence
• During the 19th and early 20th century,
especially marital inequalities such as
first-wave feminism spread across the
rape, reproductive rights, wage
western countries as women demanded
inequality, and etc.
for their right to vote or participate in
elections and to be able to legally own • The 90's gave birth to the 3rd wave and
property 2012 started the fourth wave.

In France, Simone de Beauvoir wrote The United Nations reports that women
book titled "The Second Sex" in do more work than men because even
when they work at the office, they are
1949
still expected to do household tasks.
• Betty Friedan (The Feminine Mystique, Another report from UN Women states
2963) that "women perform 66 percent of the
worlds work, produce 50 percent of the
• Kate Millet (Sexual Politics, 1969),
food, but earn 10 of the income and own
• Germaine Greer (The Female Eunuch, 1 percent of the property".
1970)
To put simply, feminism demands
• Beauvoir's book was instrumental in equality. Here are a few salient points
awakening women about their plight as that feminism demands. Women
the "wife-servant" to their husbands in suffrage
her famous quote "one
• women were not allowed to vote Other rights include the right to divorce
before because they were viewed as their husbands, the right to make
irrational and temperamental and decisions on her pregnancy, equitable
therefore, not able to make rational wages, and equal employment
decisions. opportunity.

• This changed after World War I (1914 LESSON 3

to 1918) wherein women were uprooted
Gender Studies
from the household.
Field of study concerned about how
Equality in politics and society
reproductive roles areinterpreted and
• for hundreds of years, women's voices negotiated in the society through gender
were silenced, so society must make an
Gender is a big part of our individuality
effort to restore their rights.
and society; it is a form of social
• Representation is very important for organization, and it is often unnoticed.
women, so that their genuine concerns
Gender studies emerged from the need
are heard in politics and in society.
to analyze how gender, sex, and
Reproductive rights sexuality impact our lives, especially
• Means the woman is in control of her how it creates gender inequality
body, and she can decide for herself on Gender role or sex role are “sets of
what she sees is best for her. culturally defined behaviors such as
• Contraception, abortion, and other masculinity and femininity" according to
reproductive options should be the Encyclopedia of Sex and Gender
available to women because it is their (2019).
body. In a binary system of viewing gender
Domestic violence roles, we only see the male and the
female where men are expected to be
• Such as marital rape and physical masculine while women are expected to
abuse are often dismissed by society as be feminine
part of a "marriage".
• Gender studies is not jus t for women
• Although we have RA 9262 or Anti or all about women, it is about everyone.
Violence Against Women and their • It explores how our gender roles have
Children, our culture still dismiss such changed throughout our history and
incidents as "away mag-asawa". how it created inequalities.
Sexual harassment and sexual violence Gender studies would ask us to
The Center for Women's Resources in question “Is it still right to say that the
the Philippines estimates that one men are the providers of the family
woman or child is raped every hour
mostly by someone they know.
when both mothers and fathers now • phenomenology - conducting
work and earn money?” intensive interviews with individuals
who have experienced a particular event
Diversity and Inclusion
and understanding their "lived
Gender roles are socially constructed experience";
and are not something that we are "born
• hermeneutics - understanding the
with".
meaning of texts (literary works, art
• A young boy is always encouraged to works) and what they convey about
be brave, to play rough, to be loud, and human realities;
to not show signs of weakness such as
• ethnography and ethnomethodology -
crying.
immersing in a community and taking
• A young girl is discouraged from note of their experiences, beliefs,
playing rough and being loud, instead attitudes, and practices.
they are told to be gentle and soft.
Quantitative approach
• Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
• focuses more on characterizing a
transgender people often do not fit in
population (total number of individual in
the traditional binary gender roles so
a group) or a sample (a sub- group
they are often reprimanded, bullied, and
within the population), and in some
discriminated.
cases, making generalizations about the
Gender Studies and Research population based on the behavior of a
sample
Research process
For instance, if you want to know how
Gender Studies utilizes a systematic
many Filipino adolescents are engaged
approach in identifying problems,
in a romantic relationship or how many
making hypotheses and assumptions,
of them still believe in marriage
gathering data, and making
conclusions. • survey - collecting information from a
sample;
Approaches in Research
• experiment - creating actual set-ups to
Qualitative approach
observe behavior of people in an
• focuses more on the meanings experimental group (a group receiving
created and interpretations made by treatment such as training or a new
people about their own personal or experience) and comparing it to the
vicarious (observed) experiences. behavior of people in a control group (a
group without any treatment).
For example, if you want to know how
women, men, or LGBTQ + live their lives • mixed methods (combining qualitative
on a daily basis and how they make and quantitative methods to derive data
sense of their lived experiences from multiple sources).
Ethics in Gender and Sexuality Research The female external genitalia consists of
Ethical Principles make sure that people the following:
involved in the research are protected
• Vulva - all the external genital
from harm.
structures taken together
1. Informed consent
• Mons veneris - pads of fatty tissue
2. Confidentiality and anonymity between pubic bone and skin

3. Non-maleficence and beneficence • Labia majora - outer lips surrounding

all the other structures
4. Distributive justice
• Prepuce - clitoral hood (foreskin above
Gender, Sexuality, and Human Ecology
and covering clitoris)
• Human Ecology, as field, recognizes
• Clitoris - glans (head), shaft, and crura
the interplay among internal and
(root), the clitoris is particularly
external environments- physical, socio-
sensitive to stimulation
economic, cultural (Bronfenbrenner,
1994, Bubolz and Sontag 1983). • Labia minora - inner lips surrounding
the vestibule where sweat and oil
• In the context of gender and sexuality,
glands, extensive blood vessels; and
human ecological approach looks at
nerve endings are located
human sexual lives and experiences at
various levels and spheres of analysis.

LESSON 4

Anatomy and Physiology of

Reproduction

Humans experience various physical • Vestibule - area surrounding the

and emotional changes from childhood urethral opening and vagina, which is
to adulthood highly sensitive with extensive blood
vessels and nerve endings
THE BIOLOGICAL FEMALE
• Urethral opening - end of tube
• The female sexual anatomy is
connecting to bladder and used for
designed for the production and
urination
fertilization of ovum, as well as carrying
and delivering infant offspring. • Vaginal opening - also called introitus
• Perineum - area of skin separating the
• Puberty signals the final development
genitalia from the anus; distance is less
of primary and accessory organs that
in females than males
support reproduction
The female internal reproductive about 400,000 surviving to puberty. Of
structures consist of the following as these, only about 400-450 are typically
described and shown below: brought to maturity and released into
the fallopian tubes.
• Vagina - collapsible canal extending
from vaginal opening back and upward PUBERTY
into body to cervix and uterus. During
• The menstrual cycle marks the
arousal, it is engorged with blood. This
beginning of puberty in females.
aids its expansion and triggers the
release of lubricants from vaginal • The first episode occurs between 11 to
mucosa 15 years of age referred to as menarche.

• Cervix - small end of uterus to which • It may last within two to six days which
vagina leads. It is the opening in cervix follows a cycle ranging from 24 to 42
leading to interior of uterus days

• Uterus - womb, organ within pelvic • Regardless of the length of the cycle,
zone where fetus is carried menstruation begins about 14 days after
ovulation (plus or minus one to two
• Fallopian tubes - carry egg cells from
days).
ovaries to uterus, this is where
fertilization occurs; • The overall cycle is governed by the
hypothalamus as it monitors hormone
levels in the bloodstream.

Problems associated with menstruation

include:

• Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) - 80-

95% of women experience

Ovaries • Dysmenorrhea- painful menstruation

caused by overproductionof
• produce estrogen and progesterone.
prostaglandins, causing the uterine
• Estrogen influences female sex muscles to contract
characteristics and initiates menstrual
• Amenorrhea- disruption or absence of
cycle.
menstruation
• Progesterone aids in regulation of
• Menopause- usually around age 45-
menstrual cycle and promotes mature
50, a woman stops menstruating as ova
development of uterine lining to allow
are no longer brought to maturity
for zygote implantation

• Also produce ova, egg cells, and bring

them to maturity. As many as 1 million
immature ova are present at birth, with
Female secondary sexual male development and drive sexual
characteristics emerge after puberty: motivation; also produce sperm cells in
virtually unlimited quantity over the
• Widening of hips and pelvis -
entire course of the lifespan
accommodates giving birth, but also
results in downward shift in center of • Vas deferens - travels from testicle
gravity toward urethra carrying sperm

• Enlargement of breasts - at puberty, • Seminal vesicles - two glands that

both the glandular and fatty tissues of produce alkaline fluid rich in fructose
the breasts develop considerably. sugar, comprising some 70% of semen
Differences in breast size between volume
women are primarily due to differences
• Ejaculatory ducts - connect vas
in the amount of fatty tissue. The
deferens to urethra
glandular tissue produces milk toward
the end of pregnancy and after • Prostate - gland producing alkaline
childbirth in response to hormone secretions that account for about 30%
levels. of semen volume. Alkaline nature may
help counteract otherwise, acidic
More female characteristics:
environment of urethra and vagina
• generally shorter than men • greater making them more hospitable for
proportion of bodyweight composed of sperm.
fat than men;
• Urethra - tube within penis that carries
• two X chromosomes reduces sperm and semen the rest of the way to
expression of many sex-linked the opening of the penis.
conditions;

• lower mortality rate at every age and

longer projected lifespan than men.

THE BIOLOGICAL MALE

• The male sexual anatomy is designed

for the production and delivery of sperm
for fertilization of the female's ovum.

• Puberty signals the final development

of primary and accessory organs that
support reproduction.

The male internal reproductive organs:

• Testes - produce androgen,

particularly large quantities of
testosterone, which greatly influence
More Male Characteristics:

• generally taller and greater proportion

of body weight composed of water

• proportionately larger heart and lungs,

presumably to handle greater blood
fluid volume;

• exposure to greater levels of

testosterone resulting in heavier body
and facial hair, but also increased
frequency and degree of baldness;

• single X chromosome resulting in sex-

linked conditions such as
colorblindness and hemophilia.

Male Hormones

• The testosterone is the major hormone

produced mainly, but there are other
glands called the adrenal glands that
also produce some testosterone.

• Testosterone is responsible for growth

and development of a boy during
adolescence and for the development
of sperm and secondary sexual
characteristics.

Male secondary sexual characteristics

that emerge after puberty:

• No monthly cycle

• Elongation of vocal cords (lower voice)

• Broader shoulders

• Deeper chest cavity