What Has Gender Ever Done for Women? : Considering the Potential of Gender as a Legal Concept

Balogh, Lídia (2024) What Has Gender Ever Done for Women? : Considering the Potential of Gender as a Legal Concept. In: Reassessing Feminist Legal Theories. Gender Perspectives in Law (5). Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, pp. 121-142. ISBN 9783031754227; 9783031754234

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Abstract

What we understand by “gender” has become increasingly complex since the beginning of the 2010s. Currently, it is used with various meanings in academic and political discourse, as well as in public discourse and legal and public policy documents. In the past, within the latter areas, the constructivist interpretation of gender meant that it was primarily used as an analytical concept: it encompassed the social roles of women and men, as well as the social expectations, stereotypes, and power dynamics associated with female and male roles. However, recently, it has been increasingly used as an activist concept to articulate movement-related goals and with a different meaning than previously: to refer to gender identity experienced and defined by the individual. This shift has created new challenges for those who seek to conceptualize women’s equality. This study concludes that gender as an analytical concept can still be useful in social science research and theory for understanding the relative positions of women and men and, in the realm of public policy, alleviating the specific social problems faced by women and men. However, as a legal concept, in contrast to the expectations of many, gender has proven to be rather irrelevant to women’s rights, and as a political and movement slogan, it has instead done a disservice to women’s issues. The study discusses the tumultuous history of the Istanbul Convention and, in connection with this, the heated debates about gender and women’s rights. To put gender as a legal concept into perspective, the study presents an analogous phenomenon: the development history of intersectionality, with the aim of questioning whether a thing should be used as a legal concept simply because it has proven to be a useful tool for social science analysis and achieved remarkable success in the realm of activism.

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