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Table 4 Background descriptions of the most often used gender theories

From: How gender theories are used in contemporary public health research

A crucial concept in the development of gender research has been ‘doing gender’ or ‘constructions of gender’, which in a basic sense means creating social and behavioral differences (that do not exist) between men and women [24]. Poststructuralist theory [25] has developed as a critique of such an essentialist approach, that is, the tendency to regard differences between men and women as constant and unchangeable. Foucault [13] was an important inspiration for this development.

As an influential critic against both categorical thinking and the lack of materialism of post structuralism, Raewyn Connell has developed the relational theory of gender [9]. According to her, the “relational theory usually understands gender as multidimensional: embracing at the same time economic relations, power relations, affective relations and symbolic relations; and operating simultaneously at intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional and society-wide levels” [26]. Connell defines gender order as the structure of gender relations in a given society at a given time [26].

Theories about gender constructions were developed by Raewyn Connell [27, 28] and others from feminist theories of patriarchy and debates over the role of men in transforming patriarchy. Connell defines hegemonic masculinity as the “pattern of practice (i.e., things done, not just a set of role expectations or an identity) that allowed men’s dominance over women to continue” [27] (page 832).

Intersectionality is based on the underlying assumption of heterogeneity within the groups of ‘men’ and ‘women’ and recognises that individuals are defined by multiple, intersecting dimensions, such as gender, class, ethnicity, (dis)ability, sexuality, age, etc. [6]. This approach was first developed by Crenshaw [29] and later by Olena Hankivsky [30, 31]and others as a critique against the dichotomous way of dividing gender into ‘men’ and ‘women’, without analysing differences within the group of men and within the group of women.