מִגְדָּר (migdar) — gender (social/cultural construct)

Etymology

The concept of gender as distinct from biological sex was introduced into academic discourse by the American psychologist Madison Bentley in 1945, in an article titled "Sanity and Danger in Childhood" published in the American Journal of Psychology. Bentley defined gender as "the societal complement of sex," noting that social animals have sex but not gender in this sense. The word gender itself had existed in English since the 14th century (borrowed from Old French), but previously referred only to grammatical gender — the classification of words, not of people.

The concept spread slowly until the New Zealand-American psychologist John Money began researching gender academically in the 1950s. With the second wave of feminism in the 1960s–70s and the establishment of Women's Studies as an academic field in the US, the term gained wide currency. Israeli women who studied abroad brought the concept home, and by the 1980s, gender studies programs were being established at Hebrew University (1982), Haifa University (1983), and Tel Aviv University (1987).

Hebrew had no single word for the concept. The awkward phrase "הבדלים בין המינים" (differences between the sexes) was used, along with the transliterated לועזית גֶּ׳נְדֵּר. The sociologist and feminist activist Dafna Izraeli petitioned the Academy of the Hebrew Language for a Hebrew equivalent but was told "תפקידי מינים" (sex roles) would suffice.

The breakthrough came in 1994, when the academic director of Tel Aviv University's gender studies division, Hanna Herzog, complained to colleagues about their program's cumbersome name and the need for a single Hebrew word. Varda Bikovitzky, head of student affairs in the social sciences faculty, went home that evening and coined מִגְדָּר. The word has several virtues: it is a blend of מִין (sex) and גָּדֵר (fence/boundary/definition), echoes הַגְדָּרָה (definition), resembles other social-category terms like מִגְזָר (sector) and מַעֲמָד (class), easily generates derivatives like מִגְדָּרִי (gendered) and לְמַגְדֵּר (to gender), and sonically recalls the English word it translates.

The word spread through Israeli academia while the Academy debated it. The Terminology Committee for Sociology rejected it in 1995. At the January 1996 Academy plenary, linguist Uzi Ornan mocked the coinage and proposed אֶנֶשׁ instead. The matter went to the Committee for General Terminology; in 1997, the plenary voted on מִגְדָּר versus גִּדְרָה and approved מִגְדָּר by 14 to 6. In 2002, two senior Academy members — Yehoshua Blau (age 83) and Ze'ev Ben-Ḥayyim (age 95) — attempted to reverse the decision and substitute מִסְוָג ("categorized by type"). The attempt was voted down overwhelmingly. מִגְדָּר has since entered universal usage.

Key Quotes

"On ne naît pas femme: on le devient" — סימון דה בובואר, המין השני, 1949

"gender (שהינו המשלים החברתי של מין)... שאלה הם עניינים חברתיים של gender ניתן להראות בהשוואה לחיות בית, שם יש מין אבל אין gender" — מדיסון בנטלי, 1945

"יש מורָה בתל-אביב המתעקשת על החידוש הזה שהיא חידשה. אינני חושב שאנחנו צרכים להיכנע למעשים מהסוג הזה" — עוזי אורנן, מליאת האקדמיה ללשון, 1996

Timeline

• 1945: Madison Bentley coins gender in its new sociological sense in the US
• 1949: Simone de Beauvoir publishes The Second Sex (uses Sexe, not a separate term)
• 1950s–70s: John Money and second-wave feminism spread gender as academic concept
• 1982–1987: Gender studies programs established at Israeli universities
• ~1990: Academy told petitioner that "תפקידי מינים" is sufficient
• 1994: Varda Bikovitzky coins מִגְדָּר at Tel Aviv University
• 1994–1996: Word spreads through Israeli academia
• January 1996: Academy plenary debates the term; no decision
• March 1997: Academy votes 14–6 to approve מִגְדָּר
• April 2002: Blau and Ben-Ḥayyim attempt to reverse decision; voted down
• Present: מִגְדָּר and its derivatives (מִגְדָּרִי, לְמַגְדֵּר) in universal use

Related Words

• מִין — sex, biological sex; also grammatical gender
• גָּדֵר — fence, boundary
• הַגְדָּרָה — definition
• מִגְזָר — sector (morphological parallel)
• מַעֲמָד — social class (semantic parallel)
• מִגְדָּרִי — gendered (derived adjective)
• לְמַגְדֵּר — to gender (derived verb)