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The Trump administration claims to be rooting out in the United States.

In a January 2025 , President Donald Trump decreed that there are only two genders—male and female—and that anyone who believes differently denies "the biological reality of sex."

Yet as a , I know what the science really says about gender and sex.

Most researchers in my field, as well as those in other disciplines such as sociology and biology, agree that than solely the two variants of male and female. , including humans.

Trump's claim otherwise is itself a gender ""—that is, a set of beliefs and values about gender.

Sex and gender are not the same thing

Experts in many disciplines have shown how . Sex refers to bodily attributes such as genitals, hormones and chromosomes; gender is made up of the norms, roles, behaviors and expectations people are supposed to comply with based on the culture and society they live in.

As such, gender is socially constructed—that is, defined by a community's beliefs and rituals. In other words, gender does not follow biology. Instead, people have what's called a ""—an internal sense of themselves as masculine, feminine or somewhere in-between.

There are many ways in which gender and sex don't necessarily line up.

Among humans, a conservative estimate by the United Nations suggests that , meaning their bodies vary from what has been labeled typical combinations of chromosomes, hormones and genitals.

have long pushed for medical treatment that reflects this fact, rather than common expectations of the human body. Recognition of gender and sex diversity can significantly reduce the .

In the animal kingdom, . .

It took biologists a long time to figure out that some male animals do things that defy socially determined understandings of masculinity. But once they did, groundbreaking insights into the have emerged.

By labeling the concept of gender identity as an "ideology," the Trump administration has reduced all people—but especially transgender and nonbinary people—to a belief system, ignoring their complex human identities.

What is gender ideology, really?

Trump's executive order on gender is itself based on a gender ideology called ""—the belief that there are only two genders and that the sex assigned at birth permanently determines one's role in society.

This ideology dismisses that document the complexity of human life. This can have serious social consequences.

Because adherents of biological determinism see sex and gender as one and the same, they generally want to . These are important and sometimes ; the Trump administration and other adherents of their ideology .

The executive order also claims that enforcing a rigid male-female divide will keep women and girls safe because bathrooms and domestic violence shelters become dangerous for women when transgender people are allowed to use them.

this notion. Privacy and safety problems have not increased due to the legal recognition of transgender individuals. There is no evidence that cisgender women—that is, those assigned female at birth—should fear violence committed against them by transgender women.

Biology is not destiny

Much of my has focused on how societies rooted in biological determinism tend to be patriarchal. They are designed by men for the benefit of men, and men hold most positions of authority.

Patriarchal countries, , tend to value masculinity over femininity. Political and religious leaders, the media and social norms suggest women are weaker than men, more emotional and better suited for care work. As a result, they .

Historically, these societies have limited women's sphere of influence to the household. That, in turn, , religious and political leadership positions, just to name a few.

the idea that a person's body should dictate what they can and cannot do with their life. Back then, patriarchal beliefs restricted women's participation in sports—they —and jobs, with fields such as practicing .

Women in the U.S. also lacked full bodily autonomy for much of the 20th century. , and .

By the 1980s, women had succeeded in convincing much of U.S. society that they had the as men. By the early 2000s, they had made great strides toward attaining equality in education, career choice and reproductive freedom, among others.

Trans people began in the 2010s.

Moving backward

As the Trump administration reverts to a simplistic interpretation of sex and gender, public debate on these basic social and political rights is reemerging.

There is legislation at the state and federal level participating in sports, bills that would and challenges to in the U.S. military.

Abortion, established as a constitutional right in 1973, had that constitutional protection reversed in 2022. Abortion is now .

To enforce Trump's "gender ideology" executive order, the Department of Veterans Affairs is phasing out . The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention temporarily scrubbed that has been vital in raising public awareness and fueling ongoing research into aspects of women's health, such as safe forms of contraception.

The administration's policies and ideas are ingrained in a gender ideology that predates the feminist movement of the mid-20th century.

When asked in court during proceedings in lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of Trump's executive order, lawyers representing the Trump administration have to define what exactly the administration is referring to with the term "radical gender ideology."

One lawyer, , replied that he was "loathe to speculate" what the president means by the phrase.

In my assessment, the administation's inability to define "gender ideology" is a meaningful signal. The Trump administration is pursuing, in essence, its own gender ideology masked as anti-gender ideology.

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