Gender of connectors and fasteners

In electrical and mechanical trades and manufacturing, each half of a pair of mating connectors or fasteners is conventionally designated as male or female,[1] a distinction referred to as its gender.

This gender distinction is implemented to enhance safety or ensure proper functionality by preventing unsafe or non-functional configurations from being set up.

This is an example where male and female connectors have been deliberately designed and assigned to physically enforce a safe network topology.

Correspondingly, a threaded nut, an alignment hole, a mounting recess, or sheet metal slot connector is considered to be female.

While some mechanical designs are "one-off" custom setups not intended to be repeated, there is an entire fastener industry devoted to manufacturing mass-produced or semi-custom components.

Mathematicians have begun to classify well-known construction sets using group theory to study the combinatoric possibilities of structures that can be built.

Hermaphroditic connections, which may include both male and female elements in a single unit, are used for some specialized tubing fittings, such as Storz fire hose connectors.

Interchangeable garden hose fittings made by GEKA are also hermaphroditic, relying on a rubber gasket to make the final connection.

Downspouts (also called downpipes, rain conductors, or leaders) are used to convey rainwater from roof gutters to the ground through hollow pipes or tubes.

The flow convention is usually loosely adhered to for simplicity of design, and to reduce the number of gender changer fittings required, but exceptions are made whenever expedient.

For example, the female D-subminiature connector body projects outward from the mounting plane of the chassis, and this protrusion could be erroneously construed as male.

The risk of damage is reduced by relegating the more exposed male contacts to connecting cables, which can be repaired or replaced at lower cost.

This confusing reversal of the RS-232 connector gender convention has caused many hours of frustration for ill-informed end users, as they tried to troubleshoot non-functional serial port equipment connections.

[citation needed] In electrical connections where voltage or current is sufficient to cause injury, the part permanently connected to the power source is invariably female, with concealed contacts, to prevent inadvertent touching of live conductors by people or animals, or by conductive items that may cause a short circuit.

Devices that need to be robust against mechanical damage may use a special male IEC 60320 C14 connector (see the gallery above), which is recessed below the surface of a mounting panel, providing the desired physical protection while conforming to safety regulations.

A double-ended male connector for utility-supplied ("mains") electrical power is extremely dangerous, and sometimes is called a "suicide cable" or "widowmaker cord".

[13] Some hardware shops explicitly refuse to make or sell them when asked by customers who have mistakenly hung a string of Christmas lights backwards and wish to connect the socket end to a wall socket,[14] or who intend to connect a generator or inverter to their home's electrical circuit in the event of a utility power outage.

[13] The exposed prongs on the live end of the cable pose serious electrical shock and fire hazards, and when improperly used in a generator setup may cause the equipment to burn out when utility power is restored.

[13] Similarly, an exposed connection on a jumper cable for a 12V automotive battery can be hazardous, because of the potentially high current and energy involved.

In low-voltage use such as for data communications, electrical shock hazard is not an issue, and male or female connectors are used based on other engineering factors such as convenience of use, cost, or ease of manufacturing.

For example, the common "patch cables" used for Ethernet (and the similar cords used for telephones) typically have male modular plugs on both ends, to connect to jacks on equipment or mounted in walls.

Depending on the design of the power adapter, it may react to a short circuit by shutting down temporarily, or instead by blowing out an internal safety fuse.

In this example, the marginal reliability of the connector choice was deemed to be acceptable by the equipment designer, since the power adapter supplies low voltage that does not pose an electric shock hazard.

The potential fire hazard from accidental short-circuiting is addressed by the internal safety fuse, although this requires that a failed power adapter be completely replaced.

Some electrical connectors are hermaphroditic because they include both male and female elements in a single unit intended to interconnect freely, without regard for gender.

By definition, a hermaphroditic connector includes mating surfaces having simultaneous male and female aspects, involving complementary paired identical parts each containing both protrusions and indentations.

Alternative names include hermaphrodite, androgynous, genderless, sexless, combination (or combo), two-in-one, two-way, and other descriptive terms.

Stackable mezzanine bus connectors are used on some modular microcomputer accessory boards for systems such as the Arduino add-on daughterboards called "shields".

Active cables may incorporate embedded systems for communications protocol or logic level changes, which technically makes them "adapters", but this distinction is sometimes neglected in marketing materials or common usage.