Gender (creek)

The Gender is a stream in the Dutch province of Noord-Brabant. It originates in originally marshy flatlands near Steensel and flows for 20 kilometers through Veldhoven and Meerveldhoven to Eindhoven. Here, the Gender originally flowed towards and through the city centre to end in a confluence with the Dommel stream, but by the nineteenth century, the stretch within the old city had been filled and the Gender now ended in De Vest, the city moat (which itself was connected to the Dommel).

Twentieth-century channelisation and the emergence of post-War large-scale residential areas in the Gender basin have seen the last stretch before the city centre cut off with the stream's water flowing into the Afwateringskanaal (Water Regulation Canal), which connects the Dommel with the Beatrixkanaal and controls the water level of the Dommel.

The Gender is one of many small streams that drain what once was the marshy heath and moors land of eastern Noord-Brabant and the Kempen plateau. Similar streams include the Dommel, Kleine Dommel, Keersop, Tongelreep, Aa, Binnen-Dieze and De Run. All of these streams at one point or other flow together to finally form River Dieze in Den Bosch, which in turn flows into River Maas.