On Fri, 14 Sep 2012 15:34:14 -0700 (PDT),
You do understand that the descriptor "female plug" is a contradiction? Plug is synonymous with male, and receptacle or socket is synonymous with female.
And then there's the issue of whether the gender refers to the contacts
or the overall connector body.
There isn't any consensus. Here are the results from one on-line survey
(that got it wrong, IMHO)
<
http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/workshop/challenge/maleorfemaleresults.html>
Plugs are on cables and are "mobile" while receptacles are on
bulkheads/panels/equipment and are "fixed."
Gender is usually associated with the conductive element, the actual
electrical contact. Thus a DB-9 female plug is on a cable with a
backshell (or overmolded equivalent) and has the conductive mating
surfaces in the form of open cylinders (sockets). The DB-9 male
receptacle is a panel mount on the equipment with, perhaps, a strain
relief inside but no backshell and the conductive mating surfaces are
closed cylinders with a tapered point (pins). The original IBM PC serial
cables (and their DB-9 progeny) have two plugs, one male and one female.
But it is also true that gender applies to the overall housing, so if
the housing of A fits into the shell of B then A is the "male" housing
side, even if it carries sockets vice pins. That is, this
<
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/865609SLTLF/609-1467-ND/1001781>
would be a "male receptacle" since the housing is inserted inside this
<
http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/5-747904-4/A102056-ND/2262185>
Of course, that's backwards from the usual terminology.
Long story short: There are eight possible states: plug or receptacle,
male or female housing, and male or female contacts.
Round MIL-style panel-mount receptacle housings are usually male (they
fit inside the shell housing on the mating cable plug) but they and the
plugs can usually (it depends on the series) be ordered with inserts
that carry either male or female (pins or sockets) contacts.