ABSTRACT

Rosemary Auchmuty has emphasized the risk of trying to define what is meant by feminism – that inevitably in attempting to pin it down one loses as many supporters as opponents (2003: 377, footnote 1). Nonetheless, it is fair to say that the feminist project is often understood as both descriptive and normative: it takes women to have experienced discrimination on the basis of sex, gender and/or sexuality; and it applies a gendered analysis to what are largely understood as gender neutral legal and social arrangements, in order to improve the lives of women (Conaghan 2000). However, the key concepts of sex, gender and sexuality that feminists have employed as frameworks or tools for analysis of inequality have been the subject of much debate and disagreement. The way in which sex, gender and sexuality – and even the term ‘woman’ itself – have been conceptualized by feminists is the subject of this chapter. I will trace the course of the debates over the meaning and significance of sex, gender and sexuality to feminist theorizing. In doing so, the intention is not to summarize the work of every feminist theorist who has offered an analysis of these key concepts, but rather to identify themes that have arisen as feminist theorizing has evolved. Thus, what follows is not a linear inquiry, but rather a thematic analysis, or ‘history of ideas’, of those who have contributed to feminist debates on sexuality, sex and gender. In so doing, I hope to demonstrate that shifts in thinking are ‘connected and overlapping’ rather than ‘purely … action leading to acrimonious reaction’ (Garber 2006: 82).