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Gender essentialism is a theory which attributes distinct, intrinsic qualities to women and men. [1] [2] Based in essentialism, it holds that there are certain universal, innate, biologically (or psychologically) based features of gender that are at the root of many of the group differences observed in the behavior of men and women.
There is an ongoing debate on whether a feminist critique should be incorporated in the sciences, especially biology. Some argue [weasel words] that feminist biology is a form of politicization of science, calling to question the legitimacy of feminist biology altogether. On another level, there is debate even within the feminist community on ...
Sometimes such essentialism leads to claims of a praiseworthy national or cultural identity, or to its opposite, the condemnation of a culture based on presumed essential characteristics. Herodotus, for example, claims that Egyptian culture is essentially feminized and possesses a "softness" which has made Egypt easy to conquer. [53]
By 1980, most feminist writings had agreed on using gender only for sociocultural adapted traits. Feminist theory is a broad term for a variety of theories which all emphasize women's experiences and the belief that society is subordinate to women.
Biological essentialism may refer to: Biological determinism, the belief that human behavior is biologically predetermined; Gender essentialism, the belief that human genders are biologically innate; Essentialism#Biological essentialism, the belief that species are unchanging throughout time
Second-wave feminists, influenced by de Beauvoir, believed that although biological differences between females and males were innate, the concepts of femininity and masculinity had been culturally constructed, with traits such as passivity and tenderness assigned to women and aggression and intelligence assigned to men.
In philosophy, essentialism is the belief that "(at least some) objects have (at least some) essential properties". [14] In the case of sexual politics, essentialism is taken to mean that "women" and "men" have fixed essences or essential properties (e.g. behavioral or personality traits) that cannot be changed.
Unlike radical feminism or socialist feminism, cultural feminism was not an ideology widely claimed by proponents but was more commonly a pejorative label ascribed by its opponents. In 1975, Brooke Williams was the first to describe the "depoliticization of radical feminism" as "cultural feminism". [ 5 ]