The Politics of Sexual Difference in Feminism and Gender Theories

From Equality to Diversity

Abstract

This paper reviews the broad topic of gender theory and feminism as a movement. Modern theories of feminism have struggled over how best to resolve the tensions between “sexual difference” and “equality.” The reason why women are not afforded “human rights” is that womenʟs bodies have “differences” from men's. In first-wave feminism, which arose at the beginning of modern society, feminists insisted on the rights of the individual woman as a mother. Second-wave feminism at the end of modern society criticized the role of mother as the basis of rights and insisted upon rights as being based on women's bodies.

One way to argue against the proposition that “anatomy is destiny” is to point out that “gender role divisions” are socially constructed. One may further suggest that “gender” is also constructed by society. A post-structuralist approach makes it possible to think that “biological sex” or “the body” is also constructed linguistically, leading to the notion of “intersectionality.” Today we face the different problem of how to grasp the “body” in the controversy of the definition of “woman” or “women.”