A World Without Gender

By: Rawan Abdulla, Olivia Callanan, Ramsa Tariq, Sania Tariq, and Amanda Warner

Research Questions:

❏ Would a world without the concept of gender be more beneficial than one with? ❏ What are the positive and negative consequences of each?

Is it even possible to have a world without gender?

What is gender and how are roles created?

Gender is a socially constructed concept relating to traits and behaviors that a society or culture associates with an individual’s sex, thus the social differences between female and male. Unlike sex, which is biologically determined, gender is a product of society.

Gender roles are created based on society’s expectations of how people should dress, behave, and present themselves in accordance with socially imposed norms for masculinity and femininity. For instance, masculine roles are typically associated with strength, assertiveness, and dominance, whereas feminine roles are usually associated with passivity, nurturing, and subordination.

Judith Butler defines gender as a performance. That it is an identity created through a series of learned behaviors or activities that we perform every day. Butler believes gender roles are socially constructed and that any behavior related with sex that is frequently and repeatedly performed is referred to as "gender."

Consequences of a World Without Gender vs a World With Gender

A World Without Gender

Positive: A world without gender would mean that one’s genitals, whether male, female, or intersex, would have no social meaning. It would not mean that there would be no difference, but we simply would not care. This would allow humans to fully express themselves and their talents. We would not be treated based on who we biologically are, and definitely not be pressured to be one way based solely on our gender.

Negative: This was hard for me to personally wrap my head around, but what I concluded was that their are other cultures that see gender more fluidly. Therefore, even though some institutions do not see gender in such a pinpointed perspective to fully have a world without gender they also would need to change the way they express their cultures. There would need to be a agreement on what gender is, which is nearly impossible. Additionally, it is hard to say the world will ever be genderless based soley on biology and the fact that some people are not willing to change.

A World With Gender

Positive: The most common answer I found when looking into this was some people tend to find comfort in their personal gender. For some their gender plays a role in the decisions they make, how they express themselves, and even when they feel the most confident.

Negative: Gender puts people into a box. It is a stereotyped, generalized preconception of how people should act, what is expected of them, and the opportunities they are given. Our society has become so dependent upon these gender roles to the point where young children who might not even have the full mental capacity to make decisions for themselves, are being told how they should be perceived before they can even make these choices on their own. The problem also continues into young adulthood and adulthood. Women are expected to be sensitive, take care of their children, cook, and clean; whereas, men are more often than not expected to be tough and worldly.

Hypothesis

If the notion of gender did not exist, then roles in society, the workplace, and home would become more equal between individuals because gender typically creates differing responsibilities and roles for each sex causing gender inequality and discrimination.

Ex.) Women are often not taken seriously in the workplace and are associated with the role of staying at home to clean and cook - if the construct of gender is eliminated, then people would not feel tied down to certain roles/responsibilities

What does a society without gender look like?

A person’s sex would not be related to any social constructs and does not determine value or position in society - one is not judged differently in terms of social roles based on their sex.

An example of a society without gender is the Yoruban culture that Oyewumi discusses, “body type was not the basis of social hierarchy: males and females were not ranked according to anatomic distinction.” The ranking of individuals relied mostly on seniority, or relative age, whereas in the Western culture social positions are often based on gender.

How Could Gender be Abolished?

Since gender has sociological, cultural, medical, legal, historical, and religious influences, its abolition requires a complete rewrite of the most basal aspects of society, and would have to happen over a long period of time.

Policies like universal health care, abolishing the prison industrial complex, establishing universal basics and a care economy, guaranteeing housing as a right, and modifying our bureaucracies can drastically reduce the material reproduction of gender and effectively lay the foundation for a social movement to eliminate its influence entirely.

Equal Opportunities and a new Understanding of Work

- With a genderless society, everyone would have equal opportunities for employment and compensation and can perform work that they are good at without that work being related to either “male” or “female”.

-For example, a woman today may not be supported by society to go into engineering because it is “male dominated” - this issue would not occur with a genderless society.

- On top of reforming work conditions with a genderless society, it is also important to tranform our understanding of work.

While people in a genderless society may have equal opportunities to employment, some jobs and companies today support contemporary forms of slavery and deny people the ability to fully express themselves. In a genderless society, work should allow individuals to freely express themselves without judgement from others - whether this be with clothing (uniforms), artwork (in presentations/marketing), etc.

Freedom to Express One’s True Identity

In a society where gender is not a concept, people won’t feel tied down to performing certain roles. Individuals would have more freedom to express themselves, for instance through their choice of clothing and makeup. This applies to the home as well, since household chores and childcare duties, or other roles within the family, would no longer be assigned based on gender. Children also wouldn’t be directed towards or away from engaging in certain behaviors simply because of their gender.

In such a society, people wouldn’t feel pressured to fit a stereotype. For example, in a a place where gender exists, a man who is perceived as “feminine” is not regarded as a “real man.” However, if gender were eliminated, possessing "feminine" or "masculine" characteristics wouldn’t be made such an issue.

Why it is not possible to eliminate gender ?

Gender roles are social constructs and can differ widely in different cultures and as our society constantly reinforces gendered material divisions through its institutions and economic incentives, so to abolish gender requires the elimination of these structures.

These roles have also become necessary in society for it to function well. This is why it would be entirely impossible to phase out, because you can’t change biology. so, every other solution would likely fail due to biology and a law of averages.

The main objective is not to abolish the gender roles but a fundamental goal is to create a society where everyone can live in freedom, gets equal rights and opportunities, and can take personal responsibility and be accountable for their own choices and way of life to a higher power without being discriminated against of their gender.

Gender roles have expanded and evolved over time, and this is a positive trend. All of us should be free to live the full expression of who we are without being bound by the expectations of a particular gender role, whether in society or within the family

As Butler also argues in “Gender toruble” that we, as a society, need to create gender trouble by disrupting the gender binary to dismantle the oppressive system of patriarchy and compulsory heterosexuality.

Conclusion

The concept of gender was introduced by Western colonizers and became a tool for domination that designates two binary oppositions and hierarchical social categories; women became defined by their subordinate relation to men in all categories. colonization thereby created the concepts of race and gender.

Whether we like it or not, gender is important in today’s society. From the way we dress, to the mannerisms we have, to the career paths we take, almost every choice we make is constantly judged differently based on our gender identity and presentation.

To think of a post-gender world, it is important to pay some attention to the patterns of gender discrimination that operate in society. Gender is a social construction, meaning that masculinity and femininity are constructed and maintained through social interactions and socialization the social constructionist framework of gender has created a binary between masculinity and femininity for instance, women are trained to be passive and men to be aggressive. However, there are avenues by which this inequality can be abolish, both at the micro and the macro social level.