Gender studies, transgender studies, queer studies
pp. 209-213
in: Martin Middeke, Timo Müller, Christina Wald, Hubert Zapf (eds), English and American studies, Stuttgart, Metzler, 2012Abstract
What is known today as Gender Studies emerged in the late 1960s and 1970s in the wake of the second wave of the Women's Movement. At its core were an analysis of hierarchical gender structures that oppressed women and a critique of androcentrism, of a male-dominated world-view masquerading as a universal standpoint. At first, the focus was on the study of the most obviously excluded group, i.e. on women, which was reflected in the term Women's Studies. Women's Studies was gradually renamed Gender Studies, a shift that indicated a greater emphasis on gender relations, gender regimes, and the structural function of gender in society.