gender a grammatical category used in the analysis of nouns,pronouns,adjectives,and,in some languages,verbs that may be arbitrary or based on characteristics such as sex or animacy and that determines agreement with or selection of modifiers,referents,or grammatical forms sexual identity,especially in relation to society or culture Women entered graduate schools and encountered gender discrimination when they applied for the few academic positionsgender ❖ a grammatical category used in the analysis of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and, in some languages, verbs that may be arbitrary or based on characteristics such as sex or animacy and that determines agreement with or selection of modifiers, referents, or grammatical forms ❖ sexual identity, especially in relation to society or culture Women entered graduate schools and encountered gender discrimination when they applied for the few academic positions