'gender-imbalanced' originates from the combination of 'gender' and 'imbalanced', where 'gender' refers to the state of being male or female, and 'imbalanced' means lacking balance or equality.

'Gender' comes from the Latin word 'genus', meaning 'kind' or 'type', and 'imbalanced' is derived from the prefix 'im-' meaning 'not' and 'balanced', from the Latin 'balancia', meaning 'scales'.

Initially, 'gender' referred to grammatical categories, but over time it evolved to denote biological and social categories.