The Future of Gender

Standard opposition between sex and gender

These days it seems at best odd, at worst politically incorrect, to think sex has much to do with justice. On this now standard view, sex is a system of biological reproduction, a matter of natural fact. Gender, by contrast, is a culturally constructed role; gender roles, such as hunter or gatherer, breadwinner or homemaker, are socially imposed. Sex is a matter of nature, gender of nurture. Feminists argue that gender, not sex per se, raises concerns of justice between men and women. They deny that the inequalities and restrictions that go along with a traditional division of labour between the sexes result from the different natures of men and women. What is natural is relatively unalterable. Recognizing that traditional gender roles are culturally constructed radicalizes us: it allows us to see their injustice and empowers us to challenge it. So feminists tend to criticize evolutionary psychological explanations of gender roles for naively attributing too much to nature, too little to social conditioning.

The standard feminist view gets a lot right. Social conditioning does contribute to traditional gender roles. And the resulting unfairness is deeply embedded in the structure of human society. We do need to be radicalized, to recognize and challenge the gender role injustices we are still too often blind to.