How do I get the var and value for a selected dropdown menu item in a form?

Question

I have a dropdown menu in a form labeled "Gender" with options for "Male" and "Female". I don't know how to enter the var and value line. I am using it in a form that will be emailed so I need whatever choice the person selects to show in the email.

HTML

<select name="Gender" id="gender">
    <option value="male">Male</option>
    <option value="female">Female</option>
</select>

PHP

$sentMail = mail($to_Email, "Insurance Verification", $_POST["userFirstName"]." ".$_POST["userMiddleName"]." ".$_POST["userLastName"]." ".$_POST["userDate"]." ". $_POST["userGender"]." ".$_POST["userMember"]." ".$_POST["userInsurance"], $headers);

JS

var user_firstname  = $('input[name=firstname]').val()
var user_middlename = $('input[name=middlename]').val()
var user_lastname   = $('input[name=lastname]').val()
var user_email      = $('input[name=email]').val()
var user_date       = $('input[name=date]').val()
var selectedVal     = $('#gender option:selected').val('male, female')
var user_member     = $('input[name=member]').val()
var user_insurance  = $('input[name=insurance]').val()

//data to be sent to server
post_data = {'userFirstName':user_firstname, 'userMiddleName':user_middlename, 'userLastName':user_lastname, 'userEmail':user_email, 'userGender':selectedVal, 'userMember':user_member, 'userInsurance':user_insurance, 'userDate':user_date}

Answer 1

If its just an html form, you use

<select name="gender">
<option value="Male">Male</option>
<option value="Female">Female</option>
</select>

Answer 2

When you use jQuery with select , and you want to extract the selected value, you can simple use this:

var gender = $("#gender").val();

And you can retrieve the selected value. :)