Gender Studies

The theory that gender categories and the behaviors associated with them are not natural or biologically inevitable but are produced and maintained through social interaction, cultural norms, and institutional practices.

Judith Butler's theory that gender is not an innate identity but is constituted through repeated performances of gendered behaviors, speech, and presentation. Gender exists only insofar as it is continually enacted.

A framework developed by Kimberle Crenshaw showing that systems of oppression based on gender, race, class, sexuality, disability, and other categories do not operate independently but intersect and compound one another, producing unique experiences of discrimination.

A social system in which men hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege, and control of property. Feminist theory analyzes how patriarchal structures are maintained and reproduced across institutions.

R.W. Connell's concept describing the dominant form of masculinity in a given society that legitimizes men's power over women and subordinates alternative masculinities. It is an ideal that few men fully embody but that shapes expectations for all men.

The analytical separation between sex (biological characteristics such as chromosomes, hormones, and reproductive anatomy) and gender (the social roles, behaviors, and identities that societies assign to different sexes). This distinction allows scholars to study how biology is interpreted through cultural lenses.

An epistemological perspective arguing that knowledge is socially situated and that marginalized groups, including women, can achieve a more complete understanding of social relations because their position provides insight into both dominant and subordinate perspectives.

The classification of gender into two distinct, opposite categories of masculine and feminine, which many cultures treat as exhaustive and mutually exclusive. Gender studies critiques this binary as an oversimplification that erases nonbinary, genderqueer, and gender-fluid identities.

Adrienne Rich's concept that heterosexuality is not simply a natural orientation but a political institution that is enforced through social norms, economic structures, and legal frameworks, making it appear as the only legitimate form of sexuality.

The difference in average earnings between men and women, which persists across most economies and occupations. Gender studies examines how the pay gap results from occupational segregation, discrimination, differences in work experience shaped by caregiving responsibilities, and undervaluation of female-dominated professions.