Sex, Gender, and September 11

The October 2001 issue of the American Journal ofInternational Law contained several editorials on the international law implications of the hijackings of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath.\u27 In one respect these editorials resemble other writings on these events in academic and popular media: questions of sex and gender are largely overlooked.\u27 In our view, however, concepts of sex and gender provide a valuable perspective on these devastating actions.\u27 We use the term sex here to refer to issues about women as distinct biological beings from men, and the term gender to encompass social understandings of femininity and masculinity. Although the value of this distinction is much debated among feminist scholars, we find it helpful in this context