Amelioration and Inclusion: Gender Identity and the Concept of Woman

Ethics 126 (2):394-421 (2016)
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Abstract

Feminist analyses of gender concepts must avoid the inclusion problem, the fault of marginalizing or excluding some prima facie women. Sally Haslanger’s ‘ameliorative’ analysis of gender concepts seeks to do so by defining woman by reference to subordination. I argue that Haslanger’s analysis problematically marginalizes trans women, thereby failing to avoid the inclusion problem. I propose an improved ameliorative analysis that ensures the inclusion of trans women. This analysis yields ‘twin’ target concepts of woman, one concerning gender as class and the other concerning gender as identity, both of which I hold to be equally necessary for feminist aims

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Katharine Jenkins
University of Glasgow

Citations of this work

Gender and Gender Terms.Elizabeth Barnes - 2019 - Noûs 54 (3):704-730.
Real Talk on the Metaphysics of Gender.Robin Dembroff - 2018 - Philosophical Topics 46 (2):21-50.
He/She/They/Ze.Robin Dembroff & Daniel Wodak - 2018 - Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 5.
Are women adult human females?Alex Byrne - 2020 - Philosophical Studies 177 (12):3783-3803.

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References found in this work

You mixed? Racial identity without racial biology.S. Haslanger - 2005 - In Sally Anne Haslanger & Charlotte Witt (eds.), Adoption Matters: Philosophical and Feminist Essays. Cornell University Press.

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