Questions of gender and social justice

Abstract

Questions of identity, and deconstructionist methods, have characterised gender theory in the global North in recent decades. But the key issues about gender in the global South are social issues, which require a different approach to understanding gender. Social theories of gender and justice now recognize the multiple dimensions of gender issues, such as organization, violence, recognition and problems of embodiment. We move beyond dichotomies to questions of change, multiplicity (e.g. of masculinities) and the different gender orders across the world. As the pioneering work of Heleieth Saffioti showed, gender analysis deals with large-scale structures. The dominant economy of knowledge privileges theory from the global North. But increasingly we recognize the coloniality of gender and the gender analysis that come from the post-colonial majority world. This includes different approaches to identity, to power and the state, and new thematics such as the relation between gender and the land. In developing the gender perspectives that are needed for the pursuit of gender on a world scale, South/South relations will be vital.