Gender Theories or Theories and Gender? If and how Feminist Gender Studies became a New Science Field

Abstract

This article seeks to define what would be the order of gender studies within the Brazilian academic setting today. Given three sets of distinct reflections, the article tries to explore gender initially understood as a “theme” and a “concept” to subvert it and postulate gender today as a new scientific field. These three sets of reflections refer to: 1) the place of the current art of gender and feminist studies in Brazilian academic reflections; 2) the consequent attempt to explain and delimit the theoretical conceptions in these studies, which includes the objective of going beyond a mere concept, tool or analytic construction, establishing a new field of study in social and human sciences and even a new epistemology in the sciences; and 3) the discussions of the implications and consequences that such an initiative would have on the sciences, in addition to bringing contributions to a feminist epistemology as well as postulating a science with a multicultural and emancipating character.