If a robot is designed to look like a person, it is given distinct secondary sex characteristics. Even AI, not housed in human(oid) bodies, become man or woman at their creator’s whim. It may seem a silly quirk that we insist on sorting the computer people by a trait applicable only to humans, but I don’t think that’s the full story. In fact, I would argue that gender relations have shaped our very concept of what AI and robots should be.