"Gender studies is an interdisciplinary academic field devoted to analyzing gender identity and gendered representation. Gender studies originated in the field of women's studies, concerning women, feminism, gender, and politics. (...) Its rise to prominence, especially in Western universities after 1990, coincided with the rise of deconstruction."
Gender studies interlink popular culture, politics, and other aspects of our lives in the study of issues related to identities.
Patriarchy: The system of societal and cultural values and practices that prioritize men and masculinity and subjugate women and femininity.
Feminism: The collection of theories and movements aimed at identifying, challenging, and ultimately remedying gender inequality and oppression.
Sex and Gender: The distinction between sex, which is biologically determined, and gender, which is socially constructed and performed.
Intersectionality: The recognition that people's experiences of gender inequality are shaped by other intersecting identities, such as race, class, sexual orientation, and disability.
Queer Theory: Theory that examines the construction and performance of sexuality and gender in non-normative ways.
Gender and Language: The ways in which language reflects and reinforces gendered power dynamics and social norms.
Masculinity and Femininity: The cultural expectations and norms around gendered behavior and expression.
Body Politics: The ways in which social norms and practices around the body are shaped by gender.
Women's History: The history of women's contributions to society and the ways in which these have been marginalized or erased.
Reproductive Rights and Health: Policies and practices concerning women's access to contraception, abortion, and other reproductive health services.
Domestic Labor: The gendered division of labor within the home, including unpaid household work and caregiving responsibilities.
Sexual Violence: The gendered nature of sexual violence, including rape culture and victim blaming.
Gender and Education: The ways in which education reflects and reinforces gendered power dynamics and social norms.
Media Representations: The ways in which media reflects and reinforces gendered power dynamics and social norms.
Men's Studies: The study of masculinity, and the ways in which men's experiences are shaped by gendered power dynamics.
Trans and Nonbinary Identities: The experiences, challenges, and activism of individuals who identify as trans or nonbinary.
Global Feminism: The ways in which gender inequality and oppression manifest differently in different regions, cultures, and societies.
Work and Employment: The gendered division of labor in the workplace, including issues of pay, promotion, and sexual harassment.
Body Image and Beauty Standards: The ways in which societal norms and expectations around beauty reflect and reinforce gendered power dynamics.
Gender and Politics: The role of gender in politics, including the representation of women in government and policies affecting gender equality.
Liberal Feminism: This type advocates for women's equal rights and opportunities through political and legal reforms. It aims to overcome legal and cultural barriers to gender equality, such as employment discrimination and unequal pay.
Radical Feminism: This type holds that the patriarchal system oppresses women by perpetuating gender-based inequalities in power, status, and social norms. It advocates for dismantling this system through collective action, such as protests, strikes, and radical feminist theory.
Marxist Feminism: This type blends Marxist ideology with feminist theory, arguing that capitalist exploitation of labor is intertwined with the oppression of women. It focuses on class struggle and economic inequalities in the context of gender.
Intersectional Feminism: This type recognises that different identities interact to create unique experiences and oppressions. It highlights how gender intersects with other identities, such as race, class, religion, and sexual orientation, to shape women's experiences and social status.
Ecofeminism: This type sees the exploitation of nature as linked to the exploitation of women, enmeshed in the tradition of patriarchal capitalism. Ecofeminism examines the connections between the environment, women's roles, and social justice.
Postmodernism Feminism: This type emphasises on the subjective experience of feminism and explores how the meanings of sex, gender, and sexuality vary depending on cultural, historical, and social contexts.
Queer Feminism: This type challenges traditional heterosexual norms and assumptions about gender and sexuality, advocating for the rights of different minorities to love and live freely. It views issues from the perspective that masculinity and femininity are constructed and that traditional gender roles are unnecessary and even oppressive.
Transfeminism: This type has come to light in recent years and focuses on the intersection of trans and feminist issues, with an aim to reduce transphobia in the feminist movement and fight for equal rights and recognition for individuals who identify as transgender.
"Disciplines that frequently contribute to gender studies include the fields of literature, linguistics, human geography, history, political science, archaeology, economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, cinema, musicology, media studies, human development, law, public health, and medicine."
"Gender studies also analyzes how race, ethnicity, location, social class, nationality, and disability intersect with the categories of gender and sexuality."
"In gender studies, the term 'gender' is often used to refer to the social and cultural constructions of masculinity and femininity, rather than biological aspects of the male or female sex."
"However, this view is not held by all gender scholars."
"Gender is pertinent to many disciplines, such as literary theory, drama studies, film theory, performance theory, contemporary art history, anthropology, sociology, sociolinguistics, and psychology."
"However, these disciplines sometimes differ in their approaches to how and why gender is studied."
"In politics, gender can be viewed as a foundational discourse that political actors employ in order to position themselves on a variety of issues."
"Feminist theory of psychoanalysis, articulated mainly by Julia Kristeva and Bracha L. Ettinger, and informed both by Freud, Lacan and the object relations theory, is very influential in gender studies."
"The field now overlaps with queer studies and men's studies."
"Gender studies also analyzes how race, ethnicity, location, social class, nationality, and disability intersect with the categories of gender and sexuality."
"Its rise to prominence, especially in Western universities after 1990, coincided with the rise of deconstruction."
"Its rise to prominence, especially in Western universities after 1990, coincided with the rise of deconstruction."
"Gender studies also analyzes how race, ethnicity, location, social class, nationality, and disability intersect with the categories of gender and sexuality."
"Disciplines that frequently contribute to gender studies include the fields of literature, linguistics, human geography, history, political science, archaeology, economics, sociology, psychology, anthropology, cinema, musicology, media studies, human development, law, public health, and medicine."
"Gender studies is also a discipline in itself, incorporating methods and approaches from a wide range of disciplines."
"Many fields came to regard 'gender' as a practice, sometimes referred to as something that is performative."
"Gender studies also analyzes how race, ethnicity, location, social class, nationality, and disability intersect with the categories of gender and sexuality."
"Its rise to prominence, especially in Western universities after 1990, coincided with the rise of deconstruction."
"Feminist theory of psychoanalysis, articulated mainly by Julia Kristeva and Bracha L. Ettinger, and informed both by Freud, Lacan and the object relations theory, is very influential in gender studies."