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A defence of the category ‘women’
| Content Provider | SAGE Publishing |
|---|---|
| Author | Gunnarsson, Lena |
| Copyright Year | 2011 |
| Abstract | Against influential strands of feminist theory, I argue that there is nothing essentialist or homogenising about the category ‘women’. I show that both intersectional claims that it is impossible to separate out the ‘woman part’ of women, and deconstructionist contentions that the category ‘women’ is a fiction, rest on untenable meta-theoretical assumptions. I posit that a more fruitful way of approaching this disputed category is to treat it as an abstraction. Drawing on the philosophical framework of critical realism I elucidate the nature of the vital and inevitable process of abstraction, as a means of finding a way out of the theoretical and methodological impasse that the ‘ban’ on the category ‘women’ has caused. Contrary to many contemporary feminist theorists, I contend that, although the category ‘women’ does not reflect the whole reality of concrete and particular women, it nevertheless refers to something real, namely the structural position as woman. |
| Related Links | https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1464700110390604?download=true |
| Starting Page | 23 |
| Ending Page | 37 |
| Page Count | 15 |
| ISSN | 14647001 |
| Issue Number | 1 |
| Volume Number | 12 |
| Journal | Feminist Theory (FTY) |
| e-ISSN | 17412773 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1464700110390604 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Sage Publications UK |
| Publisher Date | 2011-05-03 |
| Publisher Place | London |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Rights Holder | © The Author(s) 2011 |
| Subject Keyword | ‘women’ intersectionality critical realism abstraction Chandra Talpade Mohanty Judith Butler essentialism social structure |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
| Subject | Gender Studies |
