Okay so there are two ways categories can be put on a page via wikitext and they do different things...
-
[[Category:CATEGORYNAME|SORTKEY]]
- where this appears the page it is on will be added to the category called CATEGORYNAME; the entry in the category list will sort based on the SORTKEY (using just a space character: like
[[Category:CATEGORYNAME| ]]
, will sort it above everything else rather than putting it under a number or letter); nothing will be seen on the page itself where this wikitext is included
-
[[:Category:CATEGORYNAME|LINK_TEXT]]
- this just creates a link to the category page at Category:CATEGORYNAME
So, if you want to include a page where the template is used in a category, use the first type and if you just want a link, use the second type. If you want to do both, you need to use both types, i.e. [[:Category:{{{gender}}}|{{{gender}}}]][[Category:{{{gender}}}|{{{gender}}}]]
and only a link {{{gender}}}
(whatever is in the variable) will actually be visible.