Gender

xTATTEREDx  · +FINE+  · *SUPERIOR*  · ≡EXCEPTIONAL≡  · ☼MASTERWORK☼

v50.14 · v0.47.05 This article is about the current version of DF. Note that some content may still need to be updated. More Info · V

Gender, along with orientation, determines if two creatures can breed. Gender may also influence the size, attacks, or other characteristics of very dimorphic creatures (e.g. elephant seal, moose) - for instance, female giant mosquitos alone can suck blood from other creatures. On the other hand, intelligent species are generally not very dimorphic. For instance, the only difference between male and female dwarves - apart from breeding ability - is the presence of a beard. This means that, apart from the occasional (and infamous) soldier giving birth mid-fight, the player can pretty much treat male and female citizens interchangeably. (A notable exception is animal people, whose dimorphism (and other attributes) reflect that of the animal they're inspired from.)

If a creature is genderless, the game will simply refer to that creature as "it".

Determining gender

When viewing a unit, a symbol appears below its name:

Gender	Symbol	Common names	Other uses
Male	♂	Boar	Bags
Female	♀	Sow	Amulets

Clicking on the creature will bring up an informative character sheet, where the creature's gender (or lack thereof) can be seen.

A gelded male's gender will appear as x♂x.

If mods give a female a body part marked GELDABLE then when "gelded" that creature will display the gender x♀x.

Raws

In the raws, genders are defined using generalized caste tokens (not to be confused with casts). Castes are often just defined as "male" or "female", but there are a few notable exceptions.

Trivia

• Transgender dwarves were confirmed to be a planned future feature on the Bay 12 Games twitter in March 2019. Intersex dwarves were confirmed in the same tweet.
• There is no symbol in the game for creatures without gender, however, in real life, the symbol is "⚲" or "∅".