Debatten om begreppen - "genus" i Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift 1980-1998

Abstract

This article concerns a lively conceptual debate that took place in Kvinnovetenskaplig tidskrift during 1980-1998. When Yvonne Hirdman, a Swedish historian, in 1988 introduced the concepts of gender and gendersystem in KVT (in Swedish: genus och genussystem), this sparked off intense discussions and caused theoretical divisions within Swedish feminism. Opinions were divided on the direction that one believed the theori/.ation should take. Should one strive for something like a new Grand Theory on women's subordination or should the aspirations be somewhat smaller? In this article the author illustrates the shifting emphases in the journal on such theoretical problems as essentialism versus social constructivism and "agents versus structures". The article also lakes into account the new challenges that different theories of a more or less postmodern nature put forward. The ongoing feminist theoretical development has included an expansion, both in terms of a broadening of the investigatory horizon and research delving deeper into various fields. Nowadays Women's Studies is only one part of the larger field of Gender Studies. Genus, today, signifies the growing amount of knowledge about sex and gender, femininity and masculinity, and is often conceptualized, not as a system, but as an ongoing process of historically changing ideas.