gendered

1 of 2

past tense and past participle of gender entry 2, gender entry 3

gendered

2 of 2

adjective

gen·​dered ˈjen-dərd 

1

a

: reflecting or involving gender differences or stereotypical gender roles

… evidence that women used their teeth as basketry or weaving tools suggested a gendered division of labor in Bronze Age … culture.

—Rafil Kroll-Zaidi

However, when discussing the intricacies of married life, medieval Europeans often spoke quite specifically about the role of wife and mother as a form of work. … [W]omen were then expected to perform domestic labor that was expressly gendered and acknowledged as backbreaking.

—Eleanor Janega

Through their demeanor, from the way they wear their clothes, stand, move, and even hold their schoolbooks, they are continually constructing who they are as gendered beings.

—Heather A. Blair

Gendered dating tropes are entirely absent, with the [video] game leaning instead on the inherent awkwardness of early romantic relationships for both comedic and sweet moments.

—Eric Ravenscraft

The good news is that you don't need to rely on tired gendered stereotypes to find the best gifts online that your loved ones will thank you for. No more wading through guides where it seems like all men do is grill and shave, and all women do is spritz perfume.

—Sage Anderson

For example, words such as competitive, dominant or leader are associated with male stereotypes, while words such as support, understand and interpersonal are associated with female stereotypes. Including gendered words in job advertisements could make the position seem less appealing to a certain gender, thereby limiting the applicant pool for these jobs.

—Danielle Gaucher et al.

b

: reflecting the experiences, prejudices, or tendencies of one sex more than the other

Since any reading of a student essay is also a rewriting, we need to work harder to sort out the role our own biases and unconscious associations play in our interpretation of and response to any heavily gendered narrative.

—Lad Tobin

2

a

: specifying a sex or sexes

One of the things that we did at the request of our team was to remove all gendered language from our website—being really intentional and creating an inclusive space.

—Joanna Griffiths, quoted in The Toronto Star

b

: using grammatical gender (see gender entry 1 sense 1a)

While learning Hindi, a gendered language, I realised that I was expected to show respect to men, sometimes more than women. I wasn't allowed to speak to my male and female classmates in the same way: With men, I was taught to use the honorific plural (Aap kya kar rahe hain? over Tu kya kar raha hai? to ask 'What are you doing?'), but could only show respect to women using feminine endings (Aap kya kar rahin hain? over Tu kya kar rahi hai?).

—Nayantara Dutta

compare genderless

Examples of gendered in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Many noted that gendered wedding traditions are outdated, while others pointed out that the groom is 30 years old and doesn't need to heed his father. —Rachel Raposas, People.com, 1 Jan. 2025

Many went far further, including gendered, aggressive, and vicious comments. —Callum Booth, Forbes, 2 Dec. 2024

Dads play an integral role in changing the narrative about child-rearing and gendered household responsibilities but, for many years, researchers didn’t know exactly how. —Nafeesah Allen, Parents, 23 Sep. 2024

The real question is whether a language itself has features that affect how its speakers think: Does conversing in Spanish for a month make objects seem more gendered? —Manvir Singh, The New Yorker, 23 Dec. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Adjective

gender entry 1 + -ed entry 1

First Known Use

Adjective

1719, in the meaning defined at sense 2b