Gender studies

What are gender and Gender Studies?

The term "gender" was introduced in Sweden in 1988 by Professor Yvonne Hirdman in the scholarly journal Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift 1988:3. She translated the English term "gender" into "genus" and developed a theoretical approach to the gender system of society. Since then, Gender Studies ("genusvetenskap/genusforskning") have been used in parallel with other names such as Women's Studies ("kvinnovetenskap") , which stems from the birth of the research field in the academic setting as an extension of the women's movement of the 1970s.

In international feminist research, the English terms "sex" and "gender" have been used to distinguish between biological sex and socioculturally constructed gender. The original purpose of the distinction was to demonstrate the myriad interpretations, preconceptions and sociocultural constructions that govern our interpretations of sex/gender, feminine/masculine, female/male, transsex/transgender, bisexual etc. The distinction came under fire in the 1980s and 1990s, when it was criticized for reflecting a problematic dichotomy between Nature and Culture, and for the conservation of a two-gender-model and a normative heterosexuality. Many theories on the interplay and connection between sexed bodies and sociocultural gender systems have evolved against the backdrop of that critique.

The normative relationship between body, desire and sexual identity has been problematized in "Queer Theory", a field related to Gender Studies. Some theoreticians have emphasized that sexual difference is a difference that makes difference ("Sexual Difference Theory"). As a sub area of Gender Studies, critical studies of men and masculinity have focused on how masculinity and masculine hegemony are culturally and socially constructed. Finally, one of the hallmarks of Gender Studies is that it often focuses on power relations that are not based solely on gender, but on intersections between gender and other sociocultural categories such as class, nationality, ethnicity, race, age, sexuality, etc. (intersectionality).