During the past few years, we've witnessed how interconnected our world is. These instances of global interconnection-both positive and negative-have differing impacts on people based on gender while also creating and reinforcing the ways people experience gender. We see that experiences of gender are always shaped by nationality, race/ethnicity, sexual identity, social class, ability, age, and religion. This social construction of gender, its shaping of the world, and its effects on individuals and groups of people are at the core of this textbook.