What is Gender Neutrality? The Career of a Concept

• In Event: 464 - Regular Session. Gender

Abstract

Despite prominent use of the term gender neutrality in legal and activist discourse, there has not yet a systematic effort to track or analyze its usage. Drawing on a news media sample of over 500 articles published in The New York Times between January 1 1970 and December 31 2015 that include the terms “gender neutral/neutrality” or “sex neutral/neutrality” anywhere in the text, this paper traces shifts over time in: 1) which political goals are associated with the term gender neutrality; and 2) how gender neutrality is framed. It shows that gender neutrality has been discussed in reference to women’s rights since the 1970s and additionally in reference to gay and lesbian rights, beginning in the late 1980s, and transgender rights beginning in the late 1990s. It further shows, while most discussions of gender neutrality focus on strategies of unmarking gender, either by degendering or promoting androgyny, the majority of articles that discuss transgender rights frame gender neutrality as gender diversity. We discussed the political promises and pitfalls of these different approaches to lay the foundation for future research into gender neutrality as a key term in the politics of sex, sexuality, and gender identity.

Authors

• Abigail C. Saguy, UCLA

• Juliet A. Williams, UCLA