Abstract Book of the 4th World Conference on Gender Equality
Year: 2026
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Ontological Dualism and Conceptual Engineering: Rethinking the Grammar of Gender Studies
Eleonora Gesualdi
ABSTRACT:
Within the contemporary philosophy of language, conceptual engineering is gaining traction as a methodology that critically evaluates and revises our concepts, aiming to improve their cognitive, communicative, ethical, or political function. Applied to the category of gender, it exposes underlying metaphysical assumptions and challenges the normative structures they sustain. A guiding question emerges: Who established the legitimacy of the man-woman gender dualism, and how has this dualism been enforced as a normative standard?
This analysis draws primarily on materialist feminism, which situated gender within systems of economic, political, and social subordination. It also intersects with feminist and queer theory that questions the stability and universality of gender identities. These approaches reveal how gender categories are shaped by historical power structures, symbolic systems, and social practices, that extend far beyond biological differences.
Although the gender binary once served epistemological purposes, it now constrains our understanding of subjectivity. Gender should no longer be seen as a fixed biological datum, but rather as a discursively constructed phenomenon. The categories of “man” and “woman” must thus be reexamined not as ontological constants, but as politically charged constructs.
Within this context, Sally Haslanger’s work assumes particular significance. While aligned with materialist feminism, she critically reformulates some of its fundamental premises through an analytic approach. Starting from ordinary concepts of “gender” and “race”, she reconstructs them to function as more precise and politically effective tools. Haslanger defines gender as a structural position within systems of power, marked by social location and perceived bodily features. Crucially, she proposes a shift: “gender” should be understood as a higher-order category that includes not only binary, hierarchical identities but also non-hierarchical gender positions.
Ultimately, conceptual engineering emerges not only as a theoretical methodology but as a political strategy for dismantling entrenched binaries and enabling non-hierarchical, new, emancipatory forms of subjectivities.
Keywords: Conceptual Engineering, Feminist philosophy, Ontological Dualism, Analytic Feminism, Gender Studies