Gender: Beyond Social and Biological Determinism

Abstract

For centuries, biological differences between men and women have been the determining factor in the ascription of social roles. Women’s biological capacity for childbirth and breastfeeding and their general lesser physical strength have been used to confine them to domestic chores and the upbringing of children. Supposedly ruled by emotion and judged less reasonable than men, they have been deemed unfit

to participate in politics, for example, and ostracised from large areas of the public arena. More often than not, decision-making has been seen as the sole prerogative of men. Even in many of the so-called democratic nations, the right of women to vote and to run for office is hardly a century old. As it stands, this biological determinism or social Darwinism has often been applied to the detriment of women, whose lot has largely been an oppressed and restricted form of life. Taken from this perspective, the feminization of the gender discourse is justifiable.