Gender: a word for deconstructing meaning and constructing political uses

Abstract

This article aims to discuss how gender has been used with the purpose of undoing or deconstructing the connection between women and nature and thus to make equality between women and men in history symbolically possible. Gender is also a useful concept to delimit research objects and to analyze the most diverse social situations. In other words, besides being a deconstruction tool, gender is a concept that can be used to distinguish and describe social categories – empirical use – and to explain the relations that are established – analytical use. The empirical or analytical use of the term gender is politicizing, it is a deconstruction tool, an instrument to produce effect in society. The challenging potential of the concept of gender only became politically strong after starting to name the social and historical construction of femininity and masculinity. The word is strong because, as many others, it is useful in daily life due to the fact that, being significant, it becomes an object that produces effects. The questions discussed in this article are: to what extent do we, researchers, non-governmental organizations, universities, educators, like the way of destroying certainties that is implied in the concept of gender? Do we know how to deal with this? How can we better understand and apply this concept in our practice?

Key words: gender, deconstruction, feminine, history, politics.