The term “gender” has been in the news a lot, with the question of just how many genders are there? Gender is not sex. Here is a quote from the National Institute of Health on the difference between gender and sex. “Sex is a biological fact, gender is a social and cultural construction.” Sex refers to the genetic component of the individual along with the secondary sex characteristics, the hormones produced, and the production of gametes… eggs or sperm. Seems simple, right? Nope. Sexual reproduction, all by itself, can get really complicated even without all the social sexuality issues.
Let’s start with “Parthenogenesis”. This is the process of an unfertilized egg developing into an adult. This is common in insects, think honeybees. The fertilized eggs all hatch into female worker bees, and…