The gender perspective is an approach that makes it possible to study and address phenomena, links, activities, processes and social systems related to the sex-gender system. It is an approach that has been developed since the first feminist movements that question the relations of subordination in which many people who transgress the normativity of that system find themselves.

Next we’ll look in more detail at what a gender perspective is and in which fields it can be applied.

What is a gender perspective?

The word “perspective” refers to a way of understanding and representing something with respect to the eye of the beholder. In other words, a “perspective” is a way of looking at or considering any phenomenon; in other words, it is assuming a point of view. Thus, a “gender perspective” is the act of approaching a reality, paying attention to the construction of the category of “gender” and its power relations .

To explain it better, let’s imagine that we use a lens (glasses) with magnification that, as expected, allows us to look at things that without them we would not be able to observe. Since we see different things, but they exist in the same world, the lenses allow us to understand this world in a different way.

Likewise, they allow us to relate to their elements in a different way and intervene in them with multiple possibilities. In this metaphor, and for the case at hand, the lenses would be the gender perspective, and basically what they do is amplify our vision to attend to or highlight questions about gender , which at first sight seem inexistent or insignificant.

What is the focus of a gendered approach?

Assuming or applying a gender perspective involves recognizing different issues, especially those related to the way our social links and systems have been established through a certain understanding of sex, gender and sexual orientation.

Specifically, and according to Mata Lamas (1996), the gender perspective is based on the recognition of the cultural value of anatomical differences; a value established by means of particularly rigid and internalized norms during the socialization process.

For example, it implies considering that there is no necessary correspondence between sexual difference and the social attributes or representations built around such difference . In other words, one thing is the physical-biological constitution, and quite another are the values that are attributed to that difference (which in the case of Western culture are mainly “male or female”, “female” or “male” and “heterosexual” or “homosexual”).

Something that a gender perspective would pay attention to is that, in such dichotomy, the feminine has been constantly associated with the domains of nature, especially after understanding motherhood and related values (e.g., care), as a biological function and life destiny for women.

Among other things, those who have broken the rules of this association have traditionally been considered as “unnatural”, “male”, “crazy” women, etc. Homosexuality, on the other hand, has also traditionally been considered an unnatural, pathological issue, etc., as well as non-normative gender identities.

Based on these questions, the gender perspective considers that predisposition and physical-biological characteristics are not sufficient conditions to provoke behaviour , much less a personality with an exclusive gender identity. Therefore, the gender perspective recognizes that, as Simone de Beauvoir taught us, “biological is not destiny”.

Some key elements

In line with the above, Susana Gamba (2008) summarizes some elements that the gender perspective recognizes, analyzes and promotes:

  • To recognize gender as a social and historical construction , that is, that it may vary among societies and times.
  • Gender establishes forms of social relationship, that is, to link them in a certain way according to whether we have been assigned one gender or another, and according to what has been assigned or chosen by others. This also has to do with the processes of individual identification.
  • There is an asymmetric relationship based on the dominant sex-gender system. Often this relationship is one of female subordination and male domination . Although it is not the only possible relationship (there are also forms of reverse domination and egalitarian relationships), asymmetry has been the general or majority way of establishing these relationships.
  • Gender has an overarching and structural dimension, since it not only has to do with relations between men and women, but also with social processes and systems (institutions, economic systems, public policies, identities, etc.).
  • In line with the above, it is not an isolated category, but a transversal one, since is articulated with everyday elements such as education, social class, marital status , age, among others.
  • Gender is not only a category that accounts for a normative system, but it also makes it possible to question the same norms and promote inclusion .
  • Underlying the gender perspective is a commitment to the search for equity, which extends the exercise of power by those who have been systematically subordinated by the hegemonic sex-gender system.

In which fields can it be applied?

Returning to the lens metaphor, the gender perspective (like any other) can be used to analyse any system, phenomenon or relationship, including everyday life. Depending on the context in which it is assumed and applied, the same perspective must consider other variables, such as socio-economic conditions, social classes, ethnic origin, among others.

This is so because, from the very beginning, the gender perspective pays significant attention to the power relations and the conditions of inequality that cross any sphere of social life. Because, in its origins, the gender perspective was assumed by the movements that sought equal opportunities for women, as well as the questioning of the systems that were generating different opportunities among some people and others.

It is therefore a perspective that is not new but continues to generate rejection or resistance in many sectors, and because it is closely linked to the analysis and criticism of inequality and discrimination, the gender perspective often has important political components.

To give some more concrete examples, the gender perspective can be applied to research and intervention in the health system, to analyze public policies and social movements , to study and complement the educational system, to analyze organizational practices in business management, among many others.

As we have said, the specific elements that are observed, included or used in a gender perspective depend largely on the purposes and context in which it is applied. Some may pay attention to the specific needs of women, others may address conditions of inequality (Velasco, 2009), others to the construction of masculinity, others to the rights and needs of the lgbtiq community, to mention just a few.

Bibliographic references:

  • Gamba, S. (2008) What is the gender perspective and gender studies? Women in Network. The feminist newspaper. Recovered 30 October 2018. Available at http://www.mujeresenred.net/spip.php?article1395.
  • Lamas, M. (1996). La perspectiva de género. La tarea, Revista de Educación y Cultura de la sección 47 del SNTE, 8: 1-10.
  • Velasco, S. (2009). Sexes, gender and health. Theory and methods for clinical practice and health programs. Minerva: Madrid.