On the Reconceptualizing of Gender: Implications for Research Design

Abstract

This article takes up the concept of gender as a specific case in point of spontaneous sociology. The contributory aim is to set forth a multidimensional framework for addressing gender in research. I summarize key developments in gender theory, tease out their implications for research design, and outline four interlocking strategies for how the conventional “gender=male/female” variable might be reconfigured. The first strategy involves shifting from a biological foundationalist paradigm of gender to a social constructionist one, and is the precondition upon which the other strategies are based. Second, research designs must address gender as multilayered and multivariable, not as a single, simple attribute. Third, more attention needs to be given to gender as active and as an outcome of social forces. Fourth is the suggestion to reconfigure the standard gender variable to one reflecting a continuum of positions. A possible terminological reconfiguration of the standard variable is suggested.

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