The Uses and Abuses of Gender

In: Tijdschrift voor genderstudies, Band 16, Heft 1, S. 63-77

Abstract

In the summer of 2011 a violent debate erupted in France over the meaning of the term gender. Catholics, parents and educators protested against a manual for biology students deemed to promote a 'theory of gender' that might endanger social order and corrupt young adults. The author traces the emergence of gender as a site for political strife in various context. As such the term seems to have replaced the term 'women' as a rallying cry for the mobilization of feminists. Gender has not only been a useful concept for feminist researchers and activists, Scott argues, but it has also been used in international politics. In the context of UN committees for policies on women, gender is used to plead for as well as against feminist policies. In addition to being used as an analytical concept, gender has become a contested political concept.