Gender

Category: Fields of research

Gender refers to socio-cultural norms, values, and practices that are prescribed to members of a society, mostly based on their anatomical sex. Sociological and anthropological research has shown that the number of genders and their corresponding prescribed norms, values, and practices vary across time and societies.

French philosopher, writer, and feminist Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) in her most famous book, The Second Sex (2021, in French 1949), presented key ideas that would make her the bellwether of the second wave of feminism. In this book, the author presents the idea that "one is not born a woman, but becomes one", that is, that women grow up in a world that gives men an active role and restrains women, and forces them to accept a subordinate role. In this sense, the role of women (female gender) is a social and cultural construct. Dominant culture defines a woman as "Other" - something that is different from the male standard. Simone de Beauvoir advocated the rejection of imposed gender roles and a change in the way the sexes treat each other, overcoming the roles of domination and subordination. Roles that are imposed on the sexes always contain the aspect of acting and performance in themselves. Beauvoir argues that religion serves as a tool of men’s subjugation of women. Men control and shape religious beliefs in order to use divine authority to justify their dominance. On the other hand, religion gives women compensation for their subordinate position. In modern society, religion serves as a means of deception to make women believe that they are equal to men. Women were once portrayed in religion as closer to God, but for religions, their role as mothers is paramount. Women should be passive and thus closer to God. Religion also offers women a reward in the next life for all the suffering they go through in this life. Religion is hostile to any attempt to emancipate women, while, on the other hand, women play a key role to play in maintaining religion, as they are mostly responsible for educating children in a religious spirit. de Beauvoir studied the position of women through themes of menstruation, frigidity, pregnancy, and menopause, but also through the ideals of beauty and the aging process. She also explored feelings of love and desire.

American sociologist Jesse Bernard (1903-1996) studied the impact of sexism on women's experience of marriage, parenthood, education, and economic activity. Bernard believed that women and men live in separate worlds, so the experience of marriage is completely different for the two sexes. The women's world, in the structural sense, represents the community - Gemeinschaft, while in the cultural sphere, it represents the ethos of love and/or commitment. The women's sphere is a sphere of solidarity and understanding, so women are left out of professions that require aggression and competition. Bernard conducted serious sociological studies of family, marriage, and divorce. She studied the positions of women, both in the family and marriage, as well as in public life. In The Future of Marriage (1972), she argues that men and women should reject their traditional gender roles (men earn, women do household chores, and care for children) and share those roles and jobs equally.

Russian-American sociologist Mirra Komarovsky studied gender and gender relations. She wanted to determine the functional significance of gender roles, as well as the contradictions that arise from those roles. She focused on the difficulties in taking on and performing the gender role, as well as on the conflicts that gender roles cause. The main changes in gender roles that took place in the 1940s were an increase in the share of men who were doing household chores, as well as women's emancipation, primarily in the spheres of education and employment. Komarovsky studied how these new gender roles conflict with earlier views of gender roles. Using William Ogburn's theoretical approach to “cultural lag”, she argued that the conflict over gender roles is due to the different rates at which norms, attitudes, and institutional arrangements change in different environments and social groups.

Danish economist and gender theorist Ester Boserup (1910-1999) studied the Neolithic agricultural revolution in the book The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change Under Population Pressure (1965). By analyzing different agricultural systems, she found that, although the gender division of economic roles exists in every society, those roles, as well as the social importance attached to them, are very different in different types of agriculture. Gender roles are always a product of culture, but in societies where women's work has more economic weight, men's and women's gender roles are less unequal.

American philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler (1956-) is one of the most eminent theorists in the field of gender studies, feminism, and queer theory. Her work has intellectual roots, except in feminism, in the works of Sigmund Freud, Foucault, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Schütz, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, and Derrida. In Gender Trouble (1990), Butler argues that feminism, by embracing the concept of coherent gender identity, has influenced the strengthening of the binary gender order, although feminism has been very critical of that same binary gender order. The uncritical adoption of the norms of heterosexuality is the basis of the binary order and the dualism it produces. Sex is always gendered, and the reason for that is that every observation and interpretation of the human body takes place within a socially determined context and through gendered language.

After the birth of a baby, the sex is determined, and the gendered language shapes the gender patterns of that person. Butler believes that gender identity always grows out of performance. Performative repetition of the gender role is strictly regulated and limited by norms, and it produces a gender identity and creates the illusion of the existence of natural behavior inherent in gender. Butler believes that the construction of gender identity should be subverted and the social and imitative nature of gender itself should be revealed. This will lead to the "denaturalization" of the body and gender. She believes that within the LGBT context, gender is not necessarily derived from sex, desire, or sexuality. Gender identity performance and gendered language serve to reproduce heterosexuality.

American gender theorist Janet Chafetz (1942-) is famous for using Gerhard Lensky's macro-evolutionary approach to explain gender stratification. She argues that there are two types of forces that perpetuate gender inequality: coercive and voluntary. Coercive forces depend on the ability of men to control resources at the macro level, control gender relations at the micro level, secure elite positions, diminish the economic and cultural significance of women's work , and create gender ideologies and norms. Voluntary forces follow coercive ones, because women, through socialization, adopt gender ideologies and stereotypes, and thus maintain the gender order. Gender stratification continues to function stably until change occurs. Changes can be caused by spontaneous demographic, technological, or political processes, or they can come as a result of organized efforts to change gender relations. Industrialization and urbanization were the most important processes for improving the position of women. The position of women also improves when male members of the elite realize that their survival depends on the recruitment of women into the elite. Her theory of gender stratification enables not only the understanding and prediction of gender relations but also shows how they can be influenced.

Australian sociologist Reawyn Connell (1944-) is best known for her contribution to the sociology of gender, which she presented in the books Gender and Power (1987), Masculinities (1995), and The Men and Boys (2001). She believes that approaches that explain gender roles through biologically innate predispositions are wrong. On the other hand, those approaches that emphasize the impact of socialization do not fully explain gender relations, identities, and roles. Individuals can reject, accept, or change the social patterns that shape gender roles. Deviations from traditional gender roles may be overt and complete, and may contain minor deviations, but may also be disguised when the deviation occurs in secret or may occur only in the imagination. In her approach, Connell integrates the concepts of patriarchy, masculinity, and femininity into the general theory of gender relations. Masculinities and femininities are always present and interconnected, and together they form a key part of the gender order. There are different forms of masculinity and femininity, even in the same society, and they function at different levels, from the individual to the institutional. Both patterns serve to maintain male dominance over women.

Gender order and gender relations are the product of everyday interactions and practices that are reproduced over time but are also subject to change. Gender order almost always contains inequalities in three areas: work, power, and personal relationships (cathexis). These three areas are interconnected, and changes in one area cause changes in the other two areas. The field of work refers to the gender division of labor in the household and at work. Unequal relations of power are expressed through the relations of authority, violence, ideology, institutions, state, etc. Inequality in personal relationships appears in marriage, sexuality, and the raising of children. Each gender order contains a large number of gender relationships.

The concept of “gender regime” refers to the structure of gender relations in specific institutions (family, state, neighborhood). Connell sees the gender order in a dynamic context because it is subject to change due to the actions of actors (human agency). In modern Western societies, there is a "gender crisis" that manifests itself on three levels. The first level is the crisis of institutions because there is a change in legal regulations concerning marriage, divorce, domestic violence, and economic relations. The second area is the crisis of sexuality because forced hegemonic heterosexuality ceases to function. The third area is the disintegration of traditional masculinities, especially through the emergence of the masculine pattern of a caring and dedicated father who cares for children and the home.

Connell also introduces the concept of "gender hierarchy" into her theory. This concept refers to a hierarchy of different forms of masculinity and femininity. At the top of the hierarchy is "hegemonic masculinity," which is associated with physical strength, firmness, and heterosexuality, but also with a well-paid job. This type of masculinity is achieved by a minority of men, but it benefits other men who exhibit "complicit masculinity" because they also enjoy the privileges of the patriarchal order. The lowest form of masculinity is homosexual masculinity. All femininities are below hegemonic masculinity. Emphasized femininity that reflects the classic image of a woman - beautiful, takes care of appearance, listens to men, raises children - is a complement to hegemonic masculinity. Femininities that deviate from the emphasized femininity - feminists, lesbians, prostitutes, manual workers - are isolated and silenced. This form of femininity she calls "resistant femininity."

British sociologist Rosemary Crompton (1942-2011) primarily researched issues of class and gender. Crompton showed that inequalities caused by class and gender are related. In her research on the work of white-collar workers presented in the book White-Collar Proletariat: Deskilling and Gender in Clerical Work (1984), Crompton concluded that women working as white-collar workers had little chance of upward career mobility. In addition, research has shown that most white-collar workers have experienced a decline in expertise and that promotions to middle positions have often been more formal than actual career advancement.

In her book Gendered Jobs and Social Change (1990), Crompton uses the theoretical framework of Giddens' structuration theory to show that gender differences in the labor market must be explained in different ways, depending on the type and structure of a particular profession. Although gender differences persist in almost all professions, in some professions these differences are declining much faster than in others. The success of middle-class men depends on women's domestic work, as well as on the fact that women, on average, do worse jobs and progress in their careers more slowly. To understand economic inequalities, it is necessary to understand gender inequalities. During her fieldwork, Crompton noted that fewer and fewer young women are willing to accept traditional gender roles. Women are the bearers of social change and the transformation of class relations. She has studied class, household, and gender relations in several European countries. She placed more emphasis on data obtained by qualitative methods than on data provided by official statistics.

British sociologist Ann Oakley (1944-) was probably the first author to introduce the concept of "gender" into the social sciences with her book Sex, Gender, and Society (1972). In her opinion, a distinction should be made between biological sex (which in itself has no clear biological distinction) and culturally defined notions of "masculinity" and "femininity", which differ between cultures and change over time. Gender differences are key to understanding material inequalities and values attributed to the sexes. Oakley began her study of gender differences with a doctoral dissertation on domestic work, and two books, Sociology of Domestic Work (1974a) and Housewife (1974b), emerged from this research. She concluded that housework, which is primarily performed by women, is physically and emotionally exhausting. She also quantified the time women spend working in the household. Oakley studied the relationship between medicine and women, especially in the context of childbirth and motherhood. Studying the relationship between doctors and female patients, through observations and interviews, she discovered the existence of an "innate" attitude of the medical profession towards pregnant women and young mothers.

In the article "Interviewing Women" (1981b), Oakley pointed out the differences between what she called the male and female ways of interviewing. The male approach to interviewing emphasizes objectivity and distance between the interviewer and the interviewee. There must be a hierarchy in the relationship itself because only the interviewer is allowed to ask questions. On the other hand, in female or feminist interviewing there should be a relationship of cooperation, understanding, and friendship. In this relationship, the interviewer enters into an intimate relationship with the interviewed woman, allows her to ask questions, and shares her own experiences. Thus, not only is a higher degree of cooperation and less exploitation of the interviewee achieved, but also better data are obtained, thanks to a more open approach to the subjective and personal experiences and attitudes of these persons. Oakley openly criticized the masculinity of sociology itself because most sociologists were men, and most topics and the way they were treated were imbued with masculinity, while topics that did not correspond to that approach were pushed aside.

In the book Experiments in Knowing: Gender and Method in the Social Sciences (2000), Oakley advocates a methodological approach that emphasizes the development of sociological knowledge that calls into question established myths. Empirical research needs to be conducted that will reveal real-life situations of women, the results of which will have emancipatory potential. She believes that the false dilemma about the advantages of a qualitative or quantitative approach should be overcome, so her position is that both approaches should be used in empirical research and that meta-research and the experimental method should also be applied.

American sociologist Barbara Reskin (1946-) focuses her scientific research on gender and racial segregation in professions. In the book Job Queues, Gender Queues: Explaining Women’s Inroads into Male Occupations (1990), co-authored by Barbara Reskin and Patricia Roos, the authors conclude that since 1970, women have succeeded in entering some professions that, until then, were exclusively male. Based on research conducted for ten case studies of women from different professions, they came up with a "queuing theory" that refers to the gender composition of a profession. The queuing theory starts from the assumption that employers, in most professions, prefer to hire men. Workers of both genders, on the other hand, also make lists of the most desirable professions. The result of these two lists of preferences is that the best-ranked workers take the most desirable jobs. Only when there is a shortage of qualified men for a profession can women "get their turn" to enter that profession. Even when entering a profession, advancement in the hierarchy is still limited for women. Reskin and Ross also concluded that race and ethnicity, in addition to gender, also affect professional segregation and differences in wages.

American sociologist Barbara Risman (1956-) is best known for her theoretical approach to gender, where she sees gender as an aspect of social structure. She takes Giddens' theory of structuration as a macro-theoretical framework for her theory. Risman emphasizes that according to the theory of structuration, there are causal feedback relations between individuals and structures - structures affect individuals, but individuals as conscious, reflective, and competent actors change the structure by their behavior. The theory of gender as a social structure adopts this view of social structure. The relationship between the structure, which operates through cultural patterns, on the one side, and the reflective causality of individual behavior, on the other side, should be observed at several levels of analysis to understand the social structure of gender.

Risman singles out three main levels of analysis: 1) individual level of analysis (socialization and identities); 2) interactional level (cultural expectations, common sense attitudes); 3) institutional level (distribution of material values, forms of formal organization, ideological discourse). Gender structure provides different opportunities and constraints, in different ways, at each of these three levels. At the individual level, the gender structure influences the creation of gender selves; at the interactional level, the gender structure creates different cultural expectations for each gender, even when individuals of both genders are in the same structural positions; at the institutional level, the gender structure, through cultural patterns and legal regulations, creates a different, gender-specific, distribution of material and other resources.

At the individual level, socialization in childhood leads to the internalization of gender roles in members of both genders and thus leads to the creation of gender (innate) selves. At the interactional level, the gender structure creates different status expectations for men and women, women are expected to be filled with empathy and care, while men are expected to be more active and successful in society. Cognitive prejudices enable the reproduction of gender inequalities in everyday life. Social institutions and organizations reproduce gender inequalities at the institutional level. The most important are economic structures that create and maintain different expectations and opportunities for women and men in employment and other aspects of work (earnings, advancement, commitment). The different distribution of material resources between the two genders also maintains structural gender inequalities. Formal legal inequalities are becoming rarer, but even when official laws are formally gender neutral, institutions and organizations (courts, churches, companies) still have different attitudes towards men and women. And, finally, often the official ideology, long after the introduction of formal legal gender equality, retains androcentrism.

American sociologist Alice Rossi (1922-2009) is known as a gender theorist. In her essay "An Immodest Proposal" (1964), she expressed the view that there was no "antifeminism" in the society of the time, not because there was no sexism, but because there was no widespread feminist consciousness. She stated that for most women, motherhood has become a full-time job, which negatively affects not only women but also the whole society, and that is the reason why women must start the fight for gender equality again. In her book The Feminist Papers (1973), Rossi took a very different view, arguing that the biological differences between men and women make women better suited to caring for children. It follows that gender equality should be achieved through social recognition of this biologically innate advantage for caring for children, and not by men taking on this role. Rossi later, in several books, explored how different aspects of life develop and change during a woman's life: work, family, sexuality, child-parent relationships, and community relationships.

American philosopher Sara Ruddick (1935-2011) studied maternal practices and believed that this practice produces a specific form of consciousness and way of thinking. She states that maternal consciousness can be a resource for feminist pacifism, as well as for shaping social relations at the local, national, and global levels. She rejects biological determinism in shaping gender differences and believes that men are capable of caring for children, as well as women. However, she believes that it is wrong to use the gender-neutral notion of parenthood. Pregnancy itself and the act of giving birth are shaped by "natal reflection," which is characterized by a specific understanding of oneself and other people. She believes that motherhood shapes the "ethical singularity of women”. In “Woman of Peace: A Feminist Construction” (1997), Ruddick opens a discussion on whether violence is sometimes necessary or whether feminists must always advocate for peace. She sharply criticizes Western thought because it focuses on abstract thinking that is separate from any particularist, emotional, or bodily experience.

British-Canadian sociologist and gender theorist Dorothy Smith (1926-2022). Smith believes that patriarchy is a dominantly organized structure of modern capitalism that exists at both the institutional and discourse levels. Although there are multiple places of power, power is always concentrated in specific institutions and practices that maintain the capitalist social order. Discourse and text mediate power in a subtle and hidden way - the state retains power through tax refunds, social security forms, and the like. Smith sees sociology as an ideological project that marginalizes the concept of gender order to maintain the patriarchal nature of society.

In her book Theorizing Patriarchy (1990b), Walby argues that patriarchy continues to be an excellent basis for explaining gender inequality. Her view of patriarchy is flexible, as she believes that patriarchy changes over time, and that it acts differently among different classes or ethnic groups. Walby defines patriarchy "as a system of social structures and practices in which men dominate, oppress and exploit women" (Walby, 1990b). She believes that patriarchy represents the institutional coexistence of both the patriarchal and capitalist modes of production. Throughout history, these two systems have gone through periods of harmony, but also tension, which is influenced by different historical circumstances. Capitalism has great benefits from patriarchy because the latter creates a gender division of labor.

Walby distinguishes between private and public patriarchy. Private patriarchy refers to gender relations in the household and family and was most pronounced in earlier periods when women were forbidden to enter the public sphere. Public patriarchy refers to gender relations in the wider society. The state and the labor market are becoming the most important factors of oppression, exploitation, and the subordinate position of women. Although Walby recognizes that there has been a reduction in gender inequalities in Britain, she still believes that all structures and forms of patriarchy continue to exist and function and that women are isolated and subjugated in all areas of public life. She believes that among women from all ethnic groups in Britain, Muslim women are most likely to be oppressed by private patriarchy. In countries of market capitalism, the market plays the biggest role in public patriarchy. In welfare states, the state and the market are equally responsible, while in the former socialist states, the state and its institutions played the greatest role in public patriarchy.

Walby continued to study patriarchy, and in his book Sex Crime in the News (1991), she revealed how the media reported on the dangers of public places, and paid attention to the pathology of rapists, while completely avoiding reporting on marital rape and the patriarchal system that incites sexual violence against women. In the book Gender Transformations (1997), Walby noted some small positive developments but concluded that older women are still subject to domination within private patriarchy. In addition, post-Fordist changes in the economy have led to the emergence of a large number of poorly paid and insecure jobs, most often performed by women. Relatively speaking, women are very underrepresented in the most important positions, both in public jobs and private sector jobs. Since the 2000s, Walby began studying feminism, gender inequality, and violence against women on the global level, in the context of globalization, and one of her many works on that subject is Gendering the Knowledge Economy: Comparative Perspectives (2007).

Gender from the Perspective of Marxist Feminism

British sociologist and feminist Michèle Barrett (1949-) in the book The Politics of Truth: From Marx to Foucault (1991) uses Marxist and Foucault's concepts to examine the complex matrices of women's subordination. Barrett examined contemporary feminist theory in her book Destabilizing Theory: Contemporary Feminist Debates (1992). She notes that modern feminists are increasingly rejecting major theoretical systems such as liberalism and Marxism, and instead adopting a poststructuralist and postmodernist approach. She calls this process of rejecting macro-theoretical systems "destabilization of theory". In her later work, she identifies female subordination in the family-household system as something that serves to organize the relations of production of a social formation as a whole. Thus, the family-domestic system of subordination provides a uniquely effective mechanism for ensuring the maintenance of the continuity of the entire social system. Barrett believes that the concept of patriarchy has analytical limitations. Gender inequality is not simply a product of women's experience, but it springs from ideology, that is, the way women and the family are represented in the media and culture.

Gender from the Perspective of Psychological Feminism

American psychologist Carol Gilligan studies gender order from a psychological perspective. In her book In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women’s Development (1982), Gilligan criticized the theories of the stages of moral development of Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, and Lawrence Kohlberg, as too male-oriented. Gilligan, instead, believes that women's gender identity develops through personal relationships, while men's gender identity develops through separation and autonomy. This way of developing one's self and identity affects the differences in morals between women and men. These differences are most pronounced in moments when there are moral dilemmas. Women develop ethics and morals focused on caring for others and maintaining personal relationships; while men develop ethics focused on justice and individual rights issues. Both ethical approaches are key to maintaining morality in society, as they form the basis for political and social change. Gilligan also believes that patriarchy, in addition to representing a hierarchical system, forces people to focus on heterosexual love relationships, and influences them to neglect other forms of human connection. She calls her approach to the relationship between gender identities and ethics "development of voice". She also studies topics of ethnicity and ethnic relations.

American sociologist and gender theorist Nancy Chodorow combines sociology, anthropology, and psychoanalysis in her approach to the study of gender and sexuality. In her book The Reproduction of Mothering (1978), she studies strategies created to maintain and strengthen existing social hierarchies. She states that gender roles and norms are not adopted by imitation or coercion, but are a consequence of the early relationship between a mother and a child (especially regarding attachment and separation). Both sexes identify with the mother after birth, but that relationship changes later. Likewise, mothers begin, over time, to treat children of different genders differently. Girls build their identity by maintaining a connection with their mothers, while boys build a sense of identity by separating from their mothers.

Boys build an identity by rejecting and suppressing the feminine side and by belittling femininity in women. Maintaining masculinity requires constant self-examination and struggle with oneself, which leads to its fragility. Femininity is more stable, but it involves the self-sabotage of women. Chodorow believes that there is a universal female self that transcends racial and class differences. Women's relationships within the family are relational institutions that include emotional and psychological interpersonal relationships, which serve to meet the needs of the domestic sphere. Women are defined, above all, through particular and affective relations in the family, while the definition of a man's gender role is based, first of all, on his role within the sphere of economic production.

In Psychoanalysis and Feminism (1974), Juliet Mitchell combines Althusser's view that ideology is relatively independent of economic relations with Jacques Lacan's psychoanalysis. The view of the relative independence of ideology enables Mitchell to create a theory of the subordination of women, which is independent of the analysis of the role of women in capitalist production. She believes that the role of women in the economy was key for women's position, while the whole society was based on kinship; however, in capitalism kinship ceased to be the basis of social and economic reproduction. The subordination of women in modern society is maintained more through ideology, and the ideology itself is reproduced on a subconscious level through the re-enactment of Oedipal drama between generations. That is why the struggle against patriarchy must take the form of a cultural revolution. Mitchell, unlike most feminists, was a supporter of psychoanalysis. She was a supporter of Freud's teaching and believed that he did not defend the symbolic order, but only described it.

Gender from the Perspective of Radical Feminism

Radical feminism arose in the late 1960s as the women’s liberation movement was revolutionary (as opposed to reformist) and demanded fundamental institutional and cultural changes in society. Three key beliefs guided radical feminist thought and activism: 1) gender was the primary oppression that all women face in society; 2) women were fundamentally different from men, either essentially or because of social constructions and socialization; 3) social institutions and norms are constructed to perpetuate gender inequality in all areas – politics, economy, culture, society, and individual identity. The most notable representatives of radical feminism are Shulamith Firestone, Kate Millett, Mary Daly, Andrea Dworkin, and Germaine Greer.

Shulamith Firestone was the founder of three associations of radical feminists: New York Radical Women, Redstockings, and New York Radical Feminists. In several articles, and the book The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for the Feminist Revolution (1970a), Firestone expounds on a feminist theory that views male domination over women as the most basic form of domination, while all other forms of exploitation and domination (capitalism, racism, imperialism) emanate and arise from patriarchal domination. The patriarchate used biological differences - pregnancy and childbirth - as a justification for domination. Biological differences between the sexes led to the creation of what Firestone calls the "biological family".

In all societies, no matter how different, the biological family has four common and universal characteristics: 1) biological "handicap" of women due to menstruation, menopause, childbirth, and child care; 2) a long period of growing up of children prolongs a woman's dependence on a man; 3) women's dependence on men produces power relations and the psychology that supports that power; 4) the biological family creates a full class order which forms the basis of the general class order. Women, on the other hand, consciously adapt to imposed social values to survive in the male world. Women function as a separate, ghettoized class, so it is necessary to spread "consciousness-raising" of women to overcome structural inequalities. Firestone advocates the elimination of sexual / gender inequality through the elimination of biological differences through artificial reproduction; the rearing of children within the wider community; the socialist economy; and the abolition of the nuclear family.

Kate Millett, in the book Sexual Politics (1969), introduces the difference between a biologically determined sex and the social construction of gender roles and sexual identities. Sexual politics, for Millett, represents the idea that gender is a status category within a stratified system of gender hierarchy, and therefore, gender has great political implications. The patriarchy establishes norms that regulate gender and sexuality and creates a distinction between the roles of both sexes in the public and private spheres. This causes the reproduction of inequality between men and women, both in the public, that is, the political sphere, and in the private sphere. She sees patriarchy as the most widespread ideology and as the most significant relationship of domination in every society. In her view, one of the main aspects of patriarchy is its regulation of sexual activity itself, and this is primarily done by defining which sexual practices are legal and which are not. Millett studies how literature, sociology, psychology, and anthropology are used to create a dominant theory that serves to strengthen existing gender hierarchies. These intellectual areas have always viewed and defined a woman as something different or inconsistent with the normal (man). She advocates the creation of a society free of culturally defined gender roles, where all people will be able to develop a complete personality and where everyone will have the freedom to express their gender or sexual identity, without any social restrictions.

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