Volume 17, No. 24.
Ofelia Uribe de Acosta
Feminist theories have developed the categories of patriarchy and gender, which provide elements for interpreting and revealing some aspects of what it means to be a woman and a man in patriarchal societies. They make it possible to examine the gender relations that have historically granted power and hierarchy to the masculine and that are manifested through the dominance of men over women in different spaces and in different ways. Gender, understood as a social construct, helps to understand how men and women have been socialized to assume certain roles in the public and private spheres, within patriarchal cultures. These approaches seek to differentiate sex from gender, although it is now considered that the latter is not only a cultural conception. Thus, the concept of gender has been enriched by the debates and contributions of feminism and women's diversity, which is why today it is accepted that there are several theories and meanings of gender, also incorporating intersections such as nationality, social class, race, ethnicity, age, sexual orientation, among others.