Paul DuBois wrote:
I won't. It's silly to switch terms when the sentence has already been reworded. The original post was based on an old version of the manual.Gender is more correctly used for behavior or culture, not biology.
I hate to dissapoint you, but according to dictionary.com at least, they are exactly equivalent. In fact, definition 3.a) is "The condition of being female or male; sex."
Gender is a much less loaded term and for that reason alone should be used in place of 'sex' for any such occurrence in public documentation. For the sake of non-native English readers, gender is also much more obvious in meaning as the nuances of the meaning of the overused word 'sex' can be difficult to distinguish.
There are, incidentally, 7 entries for 'gender' on dictionary.com and 11 for 'sex'. Which word has more obvious usage is somewhat clearer right there; using the more concise term should always be a goal of a good writer. Also note that defintinition 3 for 'sex' mentions "The condition or character of being female or male; the physiological, functional, and psychological differences that distinguish the female and the male. See Usage Note at gender <http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=gender>."
I think 'sex' was poorly chosen in the first place and the fact that the documentation was already reworded once is partial proof of that. The reuse of 'sex' instead of 'gender' isn't my fault, and I suggest it be reworded _again_ to use the more correct term 'gender'.
--
Michael T. Babcock
C.T.O., FibreSpeed Ltd. SQL
http://www.fibrespeed.net/~mbabcock
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