A defence of the category 'women

Bibliographic Data

ID4367045
AuthorsLena Gunnarsson (0000-0002-7766-8696, Örebro University, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume12
Issue1
Pages23-37
Publication date2011-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminist Theory (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1464-7001 • E-ISSN: 1741-2773
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1464700110390604
OpenAlexW2118041612
LanguageEN
Citations received49
References cited25

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

Abstraction · Epistemology · Essentialism · Nothing · Realism · Sociology · Feminism, Gender, and Sexuality Studies · Gender Politics and Representation · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics

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