Sex and gender - all too often these words are used in correlation with each other without properly distinguishing how the two go hand in hand. As society often does, we have evolved and adapted over the last century, along with the ever changing world sex and gender are right at the top of concepts that do not mean the same thing as they have in the past. Gender roles are sets of behaviors and characteristics associated with men and women. Ever since the distinction of the two there has been an on going battle of how they should be viewed in society and what society deems as "acceptable". When taking a look back on the history of the sex and gender there are many similarities we find trending over the years, as well as contrasting differences that have helped shape the way sex and gender is viewed today.
Gender is a social construct, a term that was invented to explain a social and biological difference between men and women. Due to this fact, the way gender is viewed is subject to how society views it and just like a society itself, it is adaptable to change. .
The first major change in sex and gender I want to mention is the first U.S. birth control clinic opened in 1916 by Margaret Sanger in Brooklyn, NY. This unfortunately ended by the police shutting down the clinic shortly after it opened and Margaret Sanger received a 30-day jail sentence. This crime was a huge step for sex and gender with women as it challenged one of the most sacred things held by most people, sex. Up until this point sex was seen purely as pro-creation, meaning having sex solely to reproduce. With the opening of this clinic it presented the chance for women, along with everyone else, to see sex as more then pro-creation. This birth control clinic would give women the choice of being able to have sex for other reasons such as recreation and changed completely how sex was viewed. Despite the law putting a brief halt to Sanger's cause, she did not hesitate as she then helped organize the National Birth Control League of the United State, which we now know today as the Planned Parenthood Organization.
